Johan Printz
Johan Printz (1592–1663) served as the governor of New Sweden, the short-lived Swedish colonial venture along the Delaware River, and stands as a formative figure in the early European settlement of the region that would eventually become the state of Delaware. Appointed to lead the colony in 1643, Printz oversaw a period of territorial ambition, fort construction, and diplomatic tension that shaped the colonial landscape of the mid-Atlantic before Swedish influence was ultimately ended by Dutch competition. His legacy endures in the history of Delaware, Pennsylvania, and the broader story of Scandinavian colonization in North America.
Early Life and Background
Johan Printz was born in Bottnaryd, Sweden, in 1592.[1] His father was a clergyman, and Printz was raised within Swedish society during a period when the Swedish empire was expanding its power and influence across northern Europe. To understand the life and work of Printz, it is necessary to understand something of the broader Swedish historical context in which he came of age. Sweden during the seventeenth century was a formidable military and political power, extending its reach across the Baltic and into wider European affairs.[2]
Printz pursued a military career before his appointment to the governorship of New Sweden, gaining experience and rank that would inform his administrative style in the colony. His background as a soldier gave him a practical, strategic outlook on colonial governance, particularly with regard to the construction of defensive fortifications and the management of territorial boundaries in a region where Swedish, Dutch, and English interests frequently collided.
Appointment as Governor of New Sweden
New Sweden was established in 1638 along the western shore of the Delaware River, with Fort Christina—located in what is now Wilmington, Delaware—serving as its initial capital and administrative center. The colony was a commercial and territorial enterprise organized under the New Sweden Company, and it represented Sweden's most ambitious effort to establish a lasting presence in North America.
Johan Printz was appointed governor in 1643, succeeding Johan Rising in that leadership role, though some sources indicate he directly followed earlier leadership in the colony.[3] He is recognized as the first governor of New Sweden to exercise substantial authority over the colony's expansion and military planning.[4] His appointment marked a more assertive phase in the colony's development, one characterized by the construction of new fortifications and an attempt to consolidate Swedish control over the river trade routes that were central to the colony's economic survival.
Administration and Fort Construction
among the most consequential decisions Printz made as governor was the relocation of the colonial capital from Fort Christina to Tinicum Island in 1643. This move shifted the administrative heart of New Sweden northward, establishing Tinicum Island—located in what is now present-day Pennsylvania—as the new seat of government.[5] The relocation reflected Printz's interest in strengthening the colony's strategic position along the Delaware River and may also have been motivated by concerns about the defensibility and commercial viability of the original site at Fort Christina.
Printz also directed the construction of Fort Elfsborg, a fortification built in what is now Elsinboro, New Jersey, on the eastern shore of the Delaware River.[6] Fort Elfsborg was positioned to control river traffic and served as a customs point where Swedish authorities could levy tolls on vessels passing through the river. Its construction demonstrated Printz's intention to expand Swedish territorial holdings and to assert Swedish sovereignty over the commercial waterway that gave the colony its economic lifeline. The fort represented a direct challenge to Dutch interests in the region, as the Dutch West India Company had long viewed the Delaware River valley as falling within its own sphere of influence.
During his tenure, Printz oversaw a colony that was geographically dispersed and chronically under-resourced. New Sweden never attracted the volume of settlers that English and Dutch colonies managed to draw, and Printz frequently had to govern with limited manpower, supplies, and military support from the Swedish crown. Despite these constraints, he maintained the colony's operations for a decade and resisted Dutch encroachments through a combination of fortification, diplomacy, and determined administration.
Relations with Native Americans and Neighboring Colonies
The Delaware River valley was home to the Lenape people, the Indigenous inhabitants of the region, at the time of Swedish colonization. Relations between the Swedish colonists and the Lenape were generally more cooperative than those between the Lenape and some other European colonial powers, in part because New Sweden's small size and limited military capacity made outright confrontation impractical. Trade and negotiated land arrangements formed the basis of Swedish-Lenape interaction, though the dynamics of these relationships were shaped by the unequal power that European colonial systems ultimately imposed on Indigenous communities.
Swedish relations with the neighboring Dutch were considerably more fraught. The Dutch West India Company maintained its own settlements in the Delaware River region and contested Swedish claims to the river and its trade. Printz's construction of Fort Elfsborg and his management of the colony were undertaken in constant awareness of Dutch pressure. Swedish-Dutch tensions during this period were part of a wider competition among European powers for control of the North American interior, and New Sweden found itself squeezed between larger and better-funded rivals.
Relations with English colonial settlements to the north and south also required careful navigation, as the expansion of English plantation societies placed additional pressure on New Sweden's limited territorial base.
Later Governorship and Departure
Printz governed New Sweden from 1643 until 1653, a period of ten years during which the colony struggled to sustain itself against both internal difficulties and external pressures. After a decade of administration marked by persistent resource shortages and growing Dutch assertiveness, Printz departed the colony in 1653, returning to Sweden. His departure left the colony in a weakened state at a critical moment in its history.
The years following his return to Sweden saw the rapid deterioration of New Sweden's position in North America. Dutch forces under Peter Stuyvesant, the director-general of New Netherland, moved against the Swedish colony and compelled its surrender in 1655, ending the Swedish colonial enterprise on the Delaware. The story of that conflict and the colony's end has been recounted by historians as a case study in the challenges that smaller colonial ventures faced when competing against larger, better-capitalized imperial powers.
Death
Johan Printz died on May 3, 1663, in Sweden.[7] He had returned to his homeland a decade before the final collapse of the colony he had governed, and he spent his last years in Sweden rather than in the New World he had helped to shape.
Legacy and Historical Significance
Johan Printz holds a recognized place in the early colonial history of both Delaware and Pennsylvania. His decade-long governorship of New Sweden represents the most sustained period of Swedish administrative presence in North America, and his construction of forts and his relocation of the colonial capital to Tinicum Island left a physical and institutional mark on the region. Historians studying the origins of Pennsylvania have identified the Swedish colonial period under Printz as a foundational chapter, with at least one noted author describing New Sweden under his leadership as the place "where Pennsylvania history begins."[8]
Printz's name has been attached to various commemorative references over the years. A vessel bearing his name, the Johan Printz, has appeared in the historical record as part of the commercial maritime fleet operating in the mid-twentieth century, reflecting the persistence of his name in American cultural memory.[9]
The Swedish colonial period that Printz governed is an important chapter in the story of Delaware's origins. Fort Christina, established before his governorship but maintained during it, stood on the ground that would become Wilmington, the state's largest city. The relationships, fortifications, and territorial arrangements that characterized New Sweden under Printz's governance established patterns of land use, trade, and settlement that persisted long after Swedish colonial authority ended.
For residents of Delaware interested in the colonial period, Printz represents a connection to the Scandinavian strand of European settlement that distinguishes the Delaware Valley from other regions of the eastern seaboard. While English colonization ultimately came to dominate the region, the decade-long Swedish enterprise under Printz left traces in the place names, historical sites, and cultural memory of the state.