Swedish overseas colonies

Colonies controlled by Sweden

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Swedish overseas colonies

Svenska kolonier (Swedish)

1638–1663
1733
1784–1878

Flag

Coat of arms

Motto: I Gud mitt hopp
"In God my hope"
Anthem: Kungssången
"Song of the king"

Map of the Swedish Empire with all of the territories that it possessed (purple)

Capital| Stockholm
Common languages| Official language:
Swedish
Regional languages:
Norwegian, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, German, Russian
Religion

| Church of Sweden
Government| Absolute monarchy, constitutional monarchy
History|

• Established

| 1638

• Disestablished

| 1878
Population

• 1650

| 2,200,000
Currency| Riksdaler
ISO 3166 code| SE

Swedish overseas colonies (Swedish: Svenska utomeuropeiska kolonier) consisted of the overseas colonies controlled by Sweden. Sweden possessed overseas colonies from 1638 to 1663, in 1733 and from 1784 to 1878. Sweden possessed five colonies, four of which were short lived. The colonies spanned three continents: Africa, Asia and North America.

## List

[edit]

The former Swedish colonies in Africa were:

* Swedish Gold Coast (1650–1663; lost to Denmark and the Dutch) Including the Cape Coast (1649–1663) consisting of the following settlements:

Fort Apollonia, presently Beyin: 1655–1657.
Fort Christiansborg/Fort Frederiksborg, which became the capital, presently Osu: 1652–1658
Fort Batenstein, presently Butri: 1649–1656.
Fort Witsen, presently Takoradi: 1653–1658.
Carolusborg: April 1650 – January/February 1658, 10 December 1660 – 22 April 1663

The former Swedish colonies in the Americas:

* New Sweden (1638–1655; lost to the Dutch)
* Sankt Barthélemy (1784–1878; sold to France, modern Saint Barthélemy)
* Guadeloupe (1813–1814; returned to France)
* Esequibo (1732–1739)
* Tobago (1733)

The former Swedish colonies in Asia were:

* Porto Novo (1733; lost to the French and British East India Companies)

## Americas

[edit]

Main article: Swedish colonies in the Americas

### New Sweden

[edit]

Main article: New Sweden

Map of New Sweden c. 1650 Seal of the Swedish governor of Saint Barthélemy, 1784–1878.

By the middle of the 17th century, the Swedish Empire had reached its greatest territorial extent. The Swedes sought to extend their influence by creating an agricultural (tobacco) and fur trading colony to bypass French, English and Dutch merchants. The charter included Swedish, Dutch and German stockholders. Once they landed they established Fort Christina (now Wilmington, Delaware), named after Queen Christina of Sweden. Many of the settlers were Finnish, since until 1809 the area of modern Finland was the eastern third of the kingdom of Sweden.

The settlement was actually an invasion of New Netherland since it was Dutch territory. The founder and first governor, Peter Minuit, had been Director-General of New Netherland from 1626 to 1633. Disgruntled after being dismissed from his post, he led a Swedish expedition to a location which he knew to be strategic as well as a thorn in the side of his former employers. Minuit died on a return trip from Stockholm in a hurricane near the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts. The colony would establish Fort Nya Elfsborg north of present-day Salem, New Jersey, in 1643.

In May 1654, the Dutch Fort Casimir, located in present-day New Castle, Delaware, was captured by New Sweden. As a reprisal, the Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant sent an army to the Delaware River, which obtained the surrender of the Swedish forts.

### Antillian possessions

[edit]

Saint Barthélemy is the only Caribbean island to have been historically a Swedish colony for any significant length of time, Guadeloupe only having been one briefly, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

As a result of Sweden's support of France's enemies during the Napoleonic Wars, the island of Guadeloupe was ceded to king Charles XIV John personally, not to his Swedish state. However a year later the island was given to France by the Treaty of Paris. Sweden then forced a settlement with the British government because it had been guaranteed the island which was strategically close to its other Caribbean colony. This led to the Guadeloupe Fund which guaranteed Sweden 24 million francs. Because of how the money was used, Sweden was then given an additional 300,000 Riksdaler under the Riksdag of 1815 every year. The last installment was paid in 1983.

In addition to these the Swedes briefly attempted to settle Tobago in 1733, but were driven away by native tribes, and Tobago was eventually claimed by the British.[citation needed]

#### Saint Barthélemy

[edit]

Main article: Swedish colony of Saint Barthélemy

During the time of Sweden's colonisation of Africa's Gold Coast, the small Swedish slave trade began. However, after the fall of New Sweden to the Dutch, the slave trade ended. It would later be rejuvenated in 1784, when Sweden's monarch, Gustav III, began negotiations with France with a view to creating a new alliance between the two countries. Gustav offered Gothenburg as an entrepôt to the French, in exchange for the Caribbean colony of Saint Barthélemy, in addition to subsidies. Although Sweden was successful in acquiring the island in 1784, the population of the colony was less than 1000 people, and neither were particularly propitious trading ports—sugar and cotton only provided four shiploads a year, and many of the other resources were only produced in large enough quantities to provide subsistence for the inhabitants.[1]

However, the islands were close to the British and French trading posts of the Leeward and Windward islands. A new town was also constructed, Gustavia (named after the king), and this facilitated trade. Within a year, the population had doubled and the king saw fit to form the Swedish West India Company. The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) benefitted trade, as did the opening of free trade with Sweden in 1806; the population had continued to increase, reaching approximately 5000 by 1800. With the exception of a brief period of British occupation from 1801 to 1802, the colonies continued to grow. In 1811, 1800 ships visited Saint Barthélemy; and from October 1813 to September 1814, 20% of the U.S.'s exports passed through the island.[1]

The island was notable for its liberalism, particularly in regards to religious toleration. In Sweden, Lutheranism was strictly adhered to; people were obligated to attend a number of church services a year, and adherence to other religions or denominations was against the law (conversion to Catholicism, for example, often led to people being exiled). However, these two islands were inhabited by such a diverse group of people from European backgrounds, that French and English were also accepted official languages. On Saint Barthélemy, in 1787, only 21 Lutherans resided there, compared to over 500 Catholics, as well as several hundred people from different Protestant denominations. The government did not seek to suppress this: indeed, they ordered Saint Barthélemy's governor, Rosenstein, to salary a Catholic priest to come from Saint Martin twice a month.[1]

### Esequibo

[edit]

During the 18th century, the Swedes attempted to colonize the Essequibo region between the lower Orinoco and Barima rivers in Guyana's present-day Barima-Waini region.[2][3][4] The Swedes, settled in the area in July 1732,[5] were expelled in 1737 by Spanish forces led by Major Sergeant Carlos Francisco Francois Sucre y Pardo (grandfather of Venezuelan independence leader Antonio José de Sucre).[6]

## Africa

[edit]

Main article: Swedish Gold Coast

The Swedish are invited by the Akan King of Futu to erect a "stony house" for the purpose of trade.

Sweden temporarily controlled several settlements on the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) beginning on 22 April 1650. The last of these settlements were lost on 20 April 1663 when Fort Carlsborg and the capital Fort Christiansborg were seized by Denmark.

### Cape Coast

[edit]

In 1652, the Swedes took Cape Coast (in modern Ghana) which had previously been under the control of the Dutch and before that the Portuguese. Cape Coast was centered on the Carolusburg Castle which was built in 1653 and named after King Charles X Gustav of Sweden but is now known as the Cape Coast Castle.

### Proposed Madagascar colony

[edit]

Swedish Madagascar was a proposed colony that Sweden attempted to establish from 1714 to 1728. The initiative began when approximately 1,400 pirates on Madagascar sought protection from Sweden. In return, they proposed that Sweden could acquire Madagascar as a colony and provided a naval fleet to facilitate this arrangement. Sweden denied this request, so the pirates asked Denmark, which also denied their request. This led the pirates to approach Sweden again. Sweden showed interest at this point, and around New Year's Eve in 1717, they began negotiating. In the summer of 1718, an agreement was close to being signed, but it never materialized. One reason for this could have been the death of the Swedish king Charles XII.

The plans remained during the reign of Ulrika Eleonora and the early stages of her husband Fredrik I's reign. One of the pirate negotiators in 1718, William Morgan, was appointed as the Swedish governor of the region, even though the Swedes still did not possess any land there. In 1721, Sweden made an attempt to send an expedition to Madagascar. It included two ships from the Swedish Navy, and the leader of the expedition became Carl Gustav Ulrich. The expedition was joined by three additional ships, two of which came from William Morgan's nephew. When the fleet arrived in Cadiz, it became clear that Morgan and his nephew lacked money, and several problems appeared which led to the project being canceled and never fulfilled.[7][8][9]

## India

[edit]

Main article: Affair of Porto Novo

The Swedish East India Company did not establish any permanent colonies in India, but they briefly possessed a factory in Porto Novo (today Parangipettai, Tamil Nadu). The fort was destroyed a month after its construction by French and British forces.[10]

## Svalbard

[edit]

Main article: Swedish settlement of Svalbard

During the 19th and 20th centuries, Swedish mining companies endorsed by the Swedish government established mining towns on the Svalbard archipelago such as Pyramiden and Sveagruva. The towns were abandoned and later sold to Norway and the Soviet Union.[11]

## See also

[edit]

* Swedish colonization of the Americas
* Swedish Empire
* Swedish East India Company

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c Kent, Neil (12 June 2008). A Concise History of Sweden. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. pp. 134–138\. ISBN 978-0-521-01227-0.
2. ^ "Arbitramiento sobre los límites entre Venezuela y la Guayana Británica: Alegato y contra-alegato". 1981.
3. ^ "Biblioteca de la Academia Nacional de la Historia: Fuentes para la historia colonial de Venezuela". 1966.
4. ^ "The Swedish-American Historical Quarterly". 1960.
5. ^ "The Swedish-American Historical Quarterly". 1960.
6. ^ "CRONOLOGÍA DE VENEZUELA / Américo Fernández: Carlos de Sucre, gobernador de Nueva Andalucía y Guayana". 6 June 2013.
7. ^ Kunde Madagaskar ha blivit svensk koloni?
8. ^ Karl XII, Madagaskar, Göteborg och kapare
9. ^ Herman Lindqvist, Våra kolonier, de vi hade och de som aldrig blev av, 2015
10. ^ Lindqvist, Herman. Våra kolonier : de vi hade och de som aldrig blev av. Sweden: Albert Bonniers förlag. pp. 170–172\. ISBN 9789174333077.
11. ^ Anton Sörlin (1934) Svenskarna som kolonisatörer, Ord & Bild, pp:475–478

## Sources

[edit]

* WorldStatesmen – Swedish Possessions & Colonies
* History of Tobago

## External links

[edit]

Media related to Swedish colonial empire at Wikimedia Commons

* Wetaskiwin local heritage – Swedish settlers
* Mémoire St Barth | History of St Barthélemy (archives & history of slavery, slave trade and their abolition)[permanent dead link] – Comité de Liaison et d'Application des Sources Historiques

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Former Swedish possessions and colonies

Europe|

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Africa|

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Chartered companies|

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