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NEW SWEDEN See Also: New Sweden 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, British 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 . The settlement was actually an invasion of New Netherland since it was Dutch territory. The first governor was Peter Minuit however he died after returning from Stockholm by a Hurricane while on the island of St. Christopher in the Caribbean . The colony would establish Fort Nya Elfsborg north of present-day Salem, New Jersey in 1643 . In May 1654 the Dutch fort, Casimir was conquered by New Sweden. As a reprisal the Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant , moved an army to the Delaware River which was followed by the surrender of the Swedish forts. CAPE COAST AND THE SWEDISH SLAVE TRADE 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 Cost was centered around the Carolusburg Castle which was built in 1653 and named after Charles X Gustav Of Sweden but is now known as the Cape Coast Castle . During this time the small Swedish Slave Trade began by however after the fall of New Sweden to the Dutch the slave trade ended. It would later be rejuvenated under Gustav III who would found a Swedish colony on Saint-Barthélemy in 1785 and make the island a center for slave trading. The Swedish West India Company was established on the island in 1786 . GUADELOUPE As a result of Sweden's support of France's enemies during the Napoleonic Wars , Guadeloupe was ceded to Sweden however a year later the island was given to France by the Treaty Of Paris . Sweden then forced a settlement with Great Britain because it had been guaranteed the island which was strategically close to their other Caribbean colony. This led to the Guadeloupe Fund which guaranteed Sweden 24 million Franc s. 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 . FORMER SWEDISH COLONIES
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