Why was the Delaware colony started,or founded, by the English?

Answer 1

Wasn't Delaware originally started by Swedes and subsequently conquered by English settlers from New Jersey?

Answer 2

Early explorations of our coastline were made by the Spaniards and Portuguese in the sixteenth century, by Henry Hudson in 1609 under the auspices of the Dutch, by Samuel Argall in 1610, by Cornelius May in 1613, and by Cornelius Hendricksen in 1614.

During a storm, Argall was blown off course and sailed into a strange bay which he named in honor of his governor. It is doubtful that Lord De La Warr ever saw, or explored, the bay, river, and state which today bears his name. In 1631, 11 years after the landing of the English pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, the first white settlement was made on Delaware soil.

A group of Dutchmen formed a trading company headed by Captain David Pietersen de Vries for the purpose of enriching themselves from the New World. The expedition of about 30 individuals sailed from the town of Hoorn under the leadership of Captain Peter Heyes in the ship De Walvis (The Whale). Their settlement, called Zwaanendael, meaning valley of swans, was located near the present town of Lewes on the west bank of the Lewes Creek, today the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal.

Arriving in the New World in 1632 to visit the colony, Captain de Vries found the settlers had been killed and their buildings burned by the Indians.

Answer 3

It is believed that the Dutch were the first Europeans to inhabit this state and settle in what is now Delaware, but their colony at Lewes was too small to get a good foothold and did not survive the winter or public relations with the then-Native American inhabitants. The Swedes had better success with the settlement at Wilmington, albeit under the leadership of a Dutchman, and the Dutch colonized New Castle. Later on the Dutch conquered the Swedes, and the English conquered the Dutch. The Duke of York, later to become King James II, first ceded the lands to William Penn, and Delaware enjoyed an elected assembly in 1704. The colony was still subject to him however, and ties to Pennsylvania were not severed until 1776.

During the Revolutionary years and the War for Independence, British soldiers marched through the northern part of the state, skirmishing with some of Washington’s troops at. Wilmington was occupied for a time, but in later campaigns the men of Delaware fought so well that they earned the nickname ‘Blue Hen’s Chicken’, after a breed of gamecocks known for their tenacity and sheer pluck in the ring. Delaware became the first state in the union to ratify the new Constitution in December of 1787.

When the railroad that ran between Philadelphia and Baltimore came through Wilmington in 1838, the resulting commerce encouraged industry in the northern part of the state. This proved to be the key event in the state’s economic history, and without the railroad progress and commerce would not have come to Delaware as they did.

During the years of unrest leading up to the Civil War, Delaware sided with the Union. Although it had not yet abolished slavery, it remained loyal to the Union during this time. By the time the war was over, it was the state with the greatest majority of free slaves. Delaware suffered Reconstruction to the extent that white Delawareans manipulated registration laws so as to disenfranchise the black population. This remained in effect until around 1890.

During the late 1800s and into the early twentieth century, Wilmington grew very rapidly... so much so that it soon held forty-one percent of the state’s population. By mid-century, half the state’s people called this city home. Much of this growth was due to the influx of immigrants that came to the state from Ireland, Germany, Italy, Poland and Russia.

During the early 19th century, much of Wilmington’s commerce and economy was built on the mills, shipyards, carriage factories leather plants and iron foundries in the city. In the early twentieth century, the chemical industry came to prominence. E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. was founded in 1802 as a gunpowder manufacturer, but grew to become the state’s largest employer. It remained so until the 1990s. The agricultural output also rose during the same period of time. Peaches and other crops were booming in the 19th century, as were other staple crops such as wheat, corn, sorghum, soybeans and poultry.

Sussex County was the center for much of the state’s farming, and by the mid 1990s had become the fastest growing county in the state. The beaches of Sussex County in particular were very attractive to the retiring population and other resort-goers.

In the mid-twentieth century, Delaware’s population grew by forty percent, mostly on the outskirts of Wilmington and around the capital city of Dover, which is the site of the largest air base on the East Coast. Wilmington itself lost population after 1945 because of the suburban housing developments, offices, factories and two automobile assembly plants, and an oil refinery.

In the 1980s there was a period in which the economy improved dramatically. Unlike the vast majority of the country, Delaware improved its financial stability and strength during the recession that shadowed the early part of that decade. In the later part of the eighties, Delaware’s employment rate was under four percent, and the state’s revenues grew nearly ten percent. During this time nearly thirty banks were established in Delaware, including Chase Manhattan and Manufacturers Hanover.

The state also attracted many of the Fortune 500 companies and a plethora of smaller corporations both domestic and international due to its simplified incorporation procedures. The revenue from incorporation fees from Asian companies alone brought upwards of a million dollars to the state, even though the presence of many of these companies was strictly on paper.

The latter part of the twentieth century saw continued low unemployment rates, remaining under four percent until the end of the millennium.

Although business was good in Delaware, the state still lagged in social welfare indicators until the mid-1990s. Welfare benefits were lower than those of any other mid-Atlantic state. Other problems faced during the late 1990s were urban sprawl, pollution and housing shortages.

In 2001 a receptionist in the governor’s office won the governorship of Delaware for herself, and Ruth Ann Minner became the state’s first woman governor. She focused a great deal of attention on vital issues such as pollution, industrial cleanup, stricter campaign finance laws and others. In 2003 a prisoner reentry program was in the works, and was designed to help former inmates reenter society successfully rather than continuing in a pattern of delinquency and crime.

Currently Delaware’s regions are like a slice of the American demographic. It has a sampling in each of its counties of nearly every American way of life. From farming to big-city living, to beautiful scenery, one may find it all in Delaware.