Delaware Essay, Research Paper

The Delaware Colony was first settled by the Dutch, but their settlement didn’t last a year. The Indians massacred the settlers and burned their forts. In 1638, the first permanent settlement was founded. Swedish leader Peter Minuit founded the colony of New Sweden. New Sweden was captured by Stuyvesant in 1655, and remained under Dutch rule for nine years. In 1664, the Delaware region was captured by New Netherland. The Delaware colony was formed to expand the trade routes in the Americas. In 1684 William Penn asked the Duke of York to give him the Delaware region as territory of his colony Pennsylvania, providing him with a connection to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Delaware Colony had a legislature that first met in 1704. They asked Penn for a separate legislature and he consented. A legislature government has an upper house and a lower house. The Upper House is mainly made up of the governors council. In the Lower House was an elected assembly. They approved laws and protected the rights of citizens that lived in the colony. The first governor of Delaware was Peter Minuit.

In the 1760’s Britain enforced taxes that were very unpopular on the colonies. Delaware sent delegates to Philadelphia to attend the very first meeting of the Continental Congress in 1774. Nearly a year after the Revolutionary war started. Delaware finally joined the other colonies in fighting for their independence. Later that year the Delaware region became the Delaware state and adopted the first constitution.