When was Fort Christina founded?

Answer 1

Fort Christina was the name given to the first Swedish settlement in North America. In 1638 the Swedish ships Kalmar Nyckel and Fogel Grip sailed up the South River (now known as the Delaware River) to a spot on the Minquas Kill tributary and anchored on a rocky outcropping that formed a natural dock. There Captain Peter Minuit claimed the river and the area around it for Sweden. There is something a bit odd about this however- the Dutch had claimed this area since 1609 when Henry Hudson sailed up the river. This meant that New Sweden would be a province within a province.

Fort Christina was named after the queen of Sweden. It's location on a smaller river, which the Swedes called the Christina River was chosen because it would naturally be the spot where Indians who were trading furs from the inland would arrive in their canoes.

The arrival of the Swedes set off a 17-year period of friction between the Dutch and Swedes, which would end with Peter Stuyvesant finally gaining control of the fort and it's surrounding territory. In that short time, however, the Swedish colony managed to make an imprint, both on the local area and on American history.

A monument stands today at the spot where Minuit landed, and the waterfront in Wilmington is also the home port of the reconstruction of the Kalmar Nyckel, Minuit's flag ship, which regularly plies East Coast waterways.

Answer 2

Fort Christiana was founded in 1638. It is in Present day DE. TO: T2 FROM: Killamanjaro