AHC: Surviving New Sweden

In OTL New Sweden was a Swedish colony alongside the Delaware River. It had only lasted for about seventeen years from 1638 to 1655 before being invaded by the Dutch and becoming part of New Netherlands.

Now, the challenge is to create a New Sweden that survives until at least the early 1800s. Bonus points if it grew considerably beyond its original borders.
 
The biggest problem the Swedes had was population. Maybe they could get a boost by importing German refugees from the Thirty Years' War? I'm sure there are plenty of people floating around with nowhere to go who would jump at the chance to live across the ocean from any more religious fighting.
 
The biggest problem the Swedes had was population. Maybe they could get a boost by importing German refugees from the Thirty Years' War? I'm sure there are plenty of people floating around with nowhere to go who would jump at the chance to live across the ocean from any more religious fighting.

That would require Gustavus Adolphus surviving past Lutzen for the Swedes to actually help the German Protestants with their migration into the New World. Of course, this will require a Catholic victory in the 30YW.
 
That would require Gustavus Adolphus surviving past Lutzen for the Swedes to actually help the German Protestants with their migration into the New World. Of course, this will require a Catholic victory in the 30YW.

What's really needed is a shorter Thirty Years' War, leaving Sweden with some resources after the war is over to sink into the colony. A Catholic victory might work. Maybe if you avoid the Swedish intervention altogether? That would end in a Catholic victory, with Gustav still sitting around restlessly looking for something to do. A colonial project might catch his eye, and there will probably be German and Bohemian Protestants looking for land and peace.
 
What's really needed is a shorter Thirty Years' War, leaving Sweden with some resources after the war is over to sink into the colony. A Catholic victory might work. Maybe if you avoid the Swedish intervention altogether? That would end in a Catholic victory, with Gustav still sitting around restlessly looking for something to do. A colonial project might catch his eye, and there will probably be German and Bohemian Protestants looking for land and peace.

Then would it be a thirty year war?
 
In OTL New Sweden was a Swedish colony alongside the Delaware River. It had only lasted for about seventeen years from 1638 to 1655 before being invaded by the Dutch and becoming part of New Netherlands.

Now, the challenge is to create a New Sweden that survives until at least the early 1800s. Bonus points if it grew considerably beyond its original borders.

Then the goverment needs to actually give people incentive to move to Delaware. But since they couldnt even make people move to Ingermanland(area were St Petersburg is located) then i guess it was a doomed adventure from the start.

Especially since there never were more than a few hundred Swedes in that colony
 

katchen

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Katchen

The Swedes might not have been able to settle Ingermania during the 1630s. But they were able to make a good start at colonizing Norrland. I believe Lulea and Umea were founded about that time.
Which brings us to the New World. I suspect that the biggest problem New Sweden had was that it was in the wrong place, sandwiched between Dutch and British colonies. It had very little future, even if it got going. The British would simply take it over in 1675 when the Swedes lose a war to England and the Netherlands.
But if the Swedes were to found a New Finland (because the terrain is all swamp--fens,) in Hudson's Bay, with trading posts at the mouths of the Albany, Nelson and Churchill Rivers and at Chesterfield Inlet, as well as on Hudson's Bay's east coast, such an enterprise would yield enough pelts in trade to be immediately profitable and compete head to head with Russia's fur monopoly. And yes, Finns and Lapps would be quick to travel to "New Finland, especially if some way could be found to ship domesticated reindeer to enable Lapps to build herds (wild caribou won't work). And Gustavus Adolphus could appropriate a prize for the first Swede or Finn to find a route across North America from Hudson's Bay to the Pacific Ocean. The prize would be claimed within 50 years. And much sooner than that, Swedish explorers would beat the French to the Gulf of Mexico down the Mississippi River from Lake Winnipeg and either the Winnipeg or the Red River of the North to the Minnesota Rivers and perhaps even Lake Superior via the Albany River (which would obviously be called something else). and Lake Nipigon. The Swedes have one thing going for them in the colonial sweepstakes. They may not have a large population at first and they keep getting into wars they don't win but they know how to live and prosper in climates that are too cold for other Europeans. And from Hudson's Bay, they can access the North American Great Plains where they can grow a lot of graain, building locks on the Nelson, Albany and Churchill Rivers and perhaps canals, before railroads are developed to create a river route along the Churchill, Reindeer, River to Cochrane Lake to Lake Athabasca to the Pe3ac River portaging to the Upper Fraser and Nechako and thence to the Skeena and the Pacific by the early 18th Century. The Orcadians (Orkney Islanders) who worked for Hudson's Bay Company didi it. Surely Swedes and Finns can do it.
And yes, down the line, once the Swedes have reached the Pacific but must communicate with it by sea, they can settle Patagonia the same way.Only the Russians are equally cold adapted.
 
The Penobscot area is definitely a great place for the Swedes to set up shop. In this case, they only have to worry about the French instead of the Dutch and English. A big bonus for the Swedes (and something they should take advantage of) would be if they can forge an alliance with the Iroquois Confederation. I don't see New Sweden becoming a settler colony in the early stage, but the Swedes could also give birth to their variant of the coureur de bois.
 
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