Swedish Overseas Colonies

Sweden controlled a number of colonies outside Europe between 1638 and 1878. In the Americas it founded New Sweden along the Delaware River from 1638 to 1655, briefly held Essequibo and Tobago, and governed the Caribbean island of Saint Barthelemy from 1784 to 1878, developing it into a free port and its longest-held overseas possession. In Africa, Sweden maintained forts on the Gold Coast from 1650 to 1663, and the Swedish East India Company's attempt to establish a trading post at Porto Novo in South Asia in 1733 was destroyed by French and British forces within a month. Saint Barthelemy's development, including its role in Atlantic trade tied to slavery, showed how a smaller European power could take part in global colonial commerce despite lacking empires on the scale of Britain, France or the Netherlands.