Hello and welcome to a history of the United States.

Episode 39.

Swedes on the Delaware.

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Last time out, we introduced Sweden into the narrative, as we covered the bizarre New Sweden.

The strange story of a Scandinavian state centered on the Baltic, trying to build an empire on the Delaware River.

King Gustavus II Adolphus and the Flemish merchant, Wilhelm, or Selnink, had been pushing

for this policy for some time. Although, when the new Swedish company was founded in 1635, Gustavus had died,

being replaced as monarch by his daughter Christina, who was born in 1626. Since she was only a child,

real power passed to Axel Oxensternner, the powerful chancellor.

Ocelainc had been ruined by his unsuccessful attempts to form a colony, and so the role of

lead merchant passed to Samuel Blomart, one of the chief investors and directors of the company who had formerly been a

director of the Dutch West India Company. There was also Peter Minowitz, who we have mentioned before

as the German-born former director of New Netherland, who purchased Manhattan, and a few others who we haven't

previously mentioned. Admiral Class Fleming, who would become director of the New Sweden Company,

and the Dutch-born politician Peter Spearing, they would both represent government interests within the company. After gathering together

their resources, an expedition made up of both Dutch and Swedes set out for America in 1637. It was made up

of sailors and soldiers rather than settlers, and was primarily focused on exploration. The Swedes had not

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