Northern European Colonization of the Americas
European Colonization
History
Colonization of American territories by Northern European Nations truly started in 1004 with Leif Erikson's settlement in Newfoundland. This Norse settlement, known as Vineland, lasted only a short period of time. After the re-discovery of North America by Christopher Columbus in 1492, Other Northern European nations carved out small stakes of the American continents. However, the majority of these settlements did not last. In fact, in 1917 the last of these European territories, the Virgin Islands, was purchased by the United States.
Demographics
The Northern European colonizers were largely comprised by white, Anglo-Saxon soliders who were purchased by Scandinavian Kings to defend their stakes in the New World. Imperialist Russia established trade posts along the Aleutian Islands and employed native Aleutians and Inuits to work for them. Later, these trade posts became established settlements. In the English and Dutch Colonies many Protestant Germans sought to find Religious Tolerance having been prosecuted in their various German States. Many Germans from the Palatine, Baden and Wurttemburg settled in Pennsylvania and led to the forming of several settlements, including: Mannheim, Lidiz, Strasbourg, Germantown and New Berlin.
Enduring Legacy
Many of the areas settled by these peoples still hold evidence of their prior ownership. If not by demographic, then by name of places.
Swedish Settlements
New Sweden
With the discovery of the New World, Swedish Monarch King Gustav X authorized the voyage of several ships with the intent of establishing forts and colonies in the new world. The ships reached Delaware Bay in March 1638, and the settlers began to build a fort at the site of present-day Wilmington, Delaware. They named it Fort Christina, in honor of Sweden's twelve-year-old queen. It was the first permanent European settlement in the Delaware Valley.
New Sweden rose to its greatest heights during the governorship of Johan Printz (1643-1653). He extended settlement northward from Fort Christina along both sides of the Delaware River and improved the colony's military and commercial prospects by building Fort Elfsborg, near present-day Salem on the New Jersey side of the river, to seal the Delaware against English and Dutch ships. Later in the 17th century, Swedish incompetence and English aggression led to the turn over of the Colony into English hands.
Russian Colonization
Alaska
In 1733 under the rule of Tsar Peter the Great, the establishment of trading posts was started in the Aleutian Islands, thus beginning "Russian America" Over the years under expeditions by men like Admiral Bering (for whom the straight is named) these trading posts grew into full out settlements. Hinderence came to the Russian expansionism with the passage of the Monroe Doctrine which forbade European colonization in the New World. Eventually the U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for about 3 cents an acre, making it one of the cheapest land deals in history. Thought to be worthless at the time, it was nicknamed Steward's Folly after the Congressman who negotiated the trade.
