Swedish overseas colonies

Uncommon card · No. 155669

Sweden controlled a number of colonies outside Europe between 1638 and 1878. In the Americas, Sweden founded the colony of New Sweden (1638–1655) along the Delaware River, and briefly controlled Esequibo (1732–1739) in South America and the Caribbean island of Tobago (1733). Sweden also governed the island of Saint Barthélemy for nearly a century (1784–1878). Sweden made Saint Barthélemy a free port and it served as a hub in the Atlantic slave trade. The island of Guadeloupe was a personal possession of King Charles XIV John from 1813 to 1814. In West Africa, Sweden held several forts on the Swedish Gold Coast from 1650 to 1663. In South Asia, the Swedish East India Company founded a trading post at Porto Novo in 1733, but it was destroyed a month later by French and British forces.

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