Editing Delaware (section)

===Colonial Delaware===
{{Main|New Netherland|New Sweden|Delaware Colony}}
The [[Dutch people|Dutch]] were the first Europeans to settle in present-day Delaware in the middle region by establishing a trading post at [[Zwaanendael, Delaware|Zwaanendael]], near the site of [[Lewes, Delaware|Lewes]] in 1631.<ref>{{cite book|author=Myers, Albert Cook|title=Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware, 1630–1707, Volume 13|publisher=C. Scribner's Sons|year=1912|page=8}}</ref> Within a year, all the settlers were killed in a dispute with [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American tribes]] living in the area. In 1638, [[New Sweden]], a [[Swedish people|Swedish]] trading post and colony, was established at [[Fort Christina]] (now in [[Wilmington, Delaware|Wilmington]]) by [[Peter Minuit]] at the head of a group of Swedes, [[Finnish people|Finns]] and Dutch. The colony of New Sweden lasted 17 years. In 1651, the Dutch, reinvigorated by the leadership of [[Peter Stuyvesant]], established a fort at present-day [[New Castle, Delaware|New Castle]] and, in 1655, they conquered the New Sweden colony, annexing it into the Dutch [[New Netherland]].<ref name=hod>{{cite book|title=History of Delaware|first =John A |last = Munroe|edition = 5th, illustrated|publisher= University of Delaware Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-87413-947-1|page=45|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vs7NcOKnlNUC&q=%22Lower+counties%22+%22on+the+delaware%22&pg=PA46 | chapter = 3. The Lower Counties on The Delaware}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |editor1-last = Scheltema |editor1-first = Gajus |editor2-last = Westerhuijs |editor2-first = Heleen |title = Exploring Historic Dutch New York |publisher = Museum of the City of New York/Dover |place = New York |year = 2011 |isbn = 978-0-486-48637-6}}</ref> Only nine years later, in 1664, the Dutch were conquered by a fleet of English ships by Sir Robert Carr under the direction of [[James II of England|James, the Duke of York]]. Fighting off a prior claim by [[Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore]], [[Province of Maryland|Proprietor of Maryland]], the Duke passed his somewhat dubious ownership on to [[William Penn]] in 1682. Penn strongly desired access to the sea for his [[Province of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania province]] and leased what then came to be known as the "Lower Counties on the Delaware"<ref name = hod /> from the Duke.

Penn established representative government and briefly combined his two possessions under one General Assembly in 1682. However, by 1704 the province of Pennsylvania had grown so large their representatives wanted to make decisions without the assent of the Lower Counties, and the two groups of representatives began meeting on their own, one at [[Philadelphia]], and the other at New Castle. Penn and his heirs remained proprietors of both and always appointed the same person Governor for their province of Pennsylvania and their territory of the Lower Counties. The fact that Delaware and Pennsylvania shared the same governor was not unique; from 1703 to 1738, New York and New Jersey shared a governor.<ref>{{Citation |last = Lurie |first = Mappen M |title = Encyclopedia of New Jersey |publisher = Rutgers University Press |year = 2004 |isbn = 978-0-8135-3325-4 |page = 327}}</ref> Massachusetts and New Hampshire also shared a governor for some time.<ref>{{Citation |last = Mayo |first = LS |title = John Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire: 1767–1775 |publisher = Harvard University Press |year = 1921 |page = 5}}</ref>

Dependent in early years on indentured labor, Delaware imported more slaves as the number of English immigrants decreased with better economic conditions in England. The colony became a slave society and cultivated tobacco as a cash crop, although English immigrants continued to arrive.