Fort Christina

Fort Christina was the first permanent Swedish settlement in the Americas, established on March 29, 1638, at the site of present-day Wilmington, Delaware. Named in honor of Queen Christina of Sweden, who was then a minor under a regency government, the fort served as the capital of New Sweden and the primary center of Swedish colonial activity in the Delaware Valley until the establishment of a new capital at Tinicum Island in 1643. Though located outside the boundaries of modern Philadelphia, Fort Christina was the origin point of European settlement in the Delaware Valley and directly preceded the Swedish and Finnish communities that William Penn would encounter when he arrived to found Pennsylvania in 1682.

Founding Expedition

The expedition that founded Fort Christina was organized by the New Sweden Company, a joint venture of Swedish and Dutch investors chartered in 1637 to establish a colony in North America. The company recruited Peter Minuit, a former director of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, to lead the enterprise. Minuit had extensive experience in colonial administration and North American conditions, having famously purchased Manhattan Island from the Lenape for the Dutch in 1626. His falling out with the Dutch West India Company made him available for Swedish service, and he brought valuable knowledge of the Delaware Valley region to the new venture.

Minuit departed from Gothenburg, Sweden, in late 1637 with two ships: the Kalmar Nyckel (Key of Kalmar) and the Fogel Grip (Bird Griffin). The expedition carried approximately fifty colonists and soldiers, primarily Swedish and Finnish, along with supplies for establishing a settlement. After a difficult winter crossing of the Atlantic, the ships entered the Delaware Bay in March 1638 and sailed up the river to a site Minuit had selected at the mouth of a tributary stream, which the Swedes named the Christina River after their young queen. The location offered fresh water, defensible terrain, and access to the fur trade with the Lenape people of the interior.

Construction and Early Operations

The colonists immediately began constructing a fortification on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Christina River. Fort Christina was a simple wooden structure, typical of frontier outposts of the era, consisting of a palisade enclosing barracks, storehouses, and other necessary buildings. The Swedes armed the fort with cannons from their ships and established it as a trading post where they could exchange European goods for furs with the Lenape. Minuit negotiated a land purchase with local Lenape leaders, acquiring territory along the western shore of the Delaware River that would form the nucleus of Swedish colonial claims in the region.

Peter Minuit did not live to see his colony develop. In the summer of 1638, while the colonists were still establishing their settlement, Minuit died during a visit to the Caribbean island of St. Christopher (now St. Kitts), apparently caught in a hurricane while aboard a Dutch ship. His death left the new colony without experienced leadership at a critical moment. The Swedish government, preoccupied with military campaigns in Europe during the Thirty Years' War, was slow to send replacement governors and reinforcements. For the next several years, Fort Christina survived but struggled, its small population barely able to maintain the settlement against the challenges of frontier life and competition from Dutch and English neighbors.

Role in New Sweden

Fort Christina served as the administrative and commercial center of New Sweden during the colony's early years. Ships arriving from Sweden anchored here, unloading supplies and colonists and taking on cargoes of furs for the return voyage. The fort's location near the fall line of the Delaware River—the point beyond which ocean-going ships could not easily navigate—made it a natural transshipment point for goods moving between the interior and the coast. Swedish traders based at Fort Christina established relationships with Lenape bands throughout the region, acquiring beaver pelts and other valuable furs that justified the expense of maintaining the distant colony.

The settlement around Fort Christina grew slowly during the late 1630s and early 1640s. Swedish and Finnish colonists established farms on the surrounding lands, clearing forest and planting European crops alongside indigenous varieties they learned about from the Lenape. The colony's population remained small, probably never exceeding a few hundred people, and suffered from chronic shortages of supplies and skilled workers. Sweden's wars in Europe diverted attention and resources from the colonial enterprise, leaving New Sweden perpetually underfunded and understaffed compared to Dutch and English competitors.

Decline and Transfer of Capital

The arrival of Johan Printz as governor in 1643 marked a new phase in New Sweden's development—and the beginning of Fort Christina's decline as the colonial capital. Printz recognized that the fort's location left it vulnerable to Dutch competition. The Dutch had established trading posts on the Delaware River before the Swedish arrival and continued to assert claims to the region. From Fort Christina, the Swedes could not effectively monitor or challenge Dutch movements along the river. Printz therefore decided to establish a new capital at Tinicum Island, further up the Delaware within the present boundaries of Pennsylvania, from which he could better control river traffic.

After 1643, Fort Christina remained an important settlement but no longer served as the seat of government. The fort continued to function as a trading post and point of entry for ships arriving from Sweden. Swedish colonists continued to farm the surrounding lands, and the population of the Fort Christina area remained the largest concentration of Swedish settlement in the colony. When the Dutch conquered New Sweden in 1655, Fort Christina was the primary target of their expedition. The garrison's surrender marked the effective end of Swedish colonial government in North America, though Swedish settlers remained on their lands under Dutch and later English rule.

Dutch Conquest and Aftermath

In September 1655, Peter Stuyvesant arrived at Fort Christina with a Dutch fleet of seven ships and approximately 300 soldiers. The Swedish garrison, numbering perhaps thirty men, was hopelessly outmatched. Governor Johan Rising, who had succeeded Printz in 1654, attempted to negotiate but had no leverage. After a brief siege, the Swedes surrendered on September 15, 1655. Stuyvesant offered generous terms: Swedish colonists who wished to remain could keep their property and continue their lives under Dutch rule, while those who wished to leave were free to return to Sweden. Most chose to stay, beginning a period of Dutch administration that would last until 1664, when the English seized all Dutch territories in North America.

The Dutch renamed the settlement Altena but maintained it as a minor post in their colonial network. When the English took control in 1664, the area around Fort Christina became part of the territories administered by the Duke of York and eventually developed into the city of Wilmington, Delaware. The original fort deteriorated and eventually disappeared, its wooden structures succumbing to decay and its site absorbed into later development. By the time William Penn arrived in 1682, the physical fort was gone, though Swedish descendants remained in the area and maintained their distinctive community for generations.

Legacy and Commemoration

Today, Fort Christina State Park in Wilmington, Delaware, commemorates the site of the first Swedish settlement in the Americas. The park features a monument erected in 1938 to mark the 300th anniversary of the colony's founding, with a statue of the Kalmar Nyckel that brought the first colonists. A replica of the Kalmar Nyckel sails from Wilmington as an educational vessel, offering modern visitors a tangible connection to the Swedish colonial period. The site is a National Historic Landmark and receives visitors interested in the early European history of the Delaware Valley.

Though Fort Christina lies outside Philadelphia's boundaries, its history is integral to understanding the European settlement of the region. The Swedish colonists who landed here in 1638 were the first Europeans to establish permanent homes along the Delaware River, predating Philadelphia by nearly half a century. Their descendants, who remained in the area through Dutch and English rule, formed the existing European population that William Penn incorporated into his new colony. The Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church in Philadelphia's Queen Village neighborhood stands as a direct link between Fort Christina's founders and the modern city, built by the grandchildren of those first Swedish colonists.

See Also

• New Sweden
• Tinicum Island
• Dutch Conquest of New Sweden
• Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church