Henry Hudson, sailing under the Dutch
flag, is credited with Delaware's discovery in 1609.
The following year, Capt. Samuel Argall of Virginia
named Delaware for his colony's governor, Thomas
West, Baron De La Warr. An attempted Dutch
settlement failed in 1631. Swedish colonization
began at Fort Christina (now Wilmington) in 1638,
but New Sweden fell to Dutch forces led by New
Netherlands' governor Peter Stuyvesant in 1655.
England took over the area in 1664, and it was
transferred to William Penn as the lower Three
Counties in 1682. Semiautonomous after 1704,
Delaware fought as a separate state in the American
Revolution and became the first state to ratify the
Constitution in 1787.
During the Civil War, although a slave state,
Delaware did not secede from the Union.
In 1802, Ëleuthère Irénée du Pont established a
gunpowder mill near Wilmington that laid the
foundation for Delaware's huge chemical industry.
Delaware's manufactured products now also include
vulcanized fiber, textiles, paper, medical supplies,
metal products, machinery, machine tools, and
automobiles.
Delaware also grows a great variety of fruits and
vegetables and is a U.S. pioneer in the food-canning
industry. Corn, soybeans, potatoes, and hay are
important crops. Delaware's broiler-chicken farms
supply the big Eastern markets, and fishing and
dairy products are other important industries.
Points of interest include the Fort Christina
Monument, Hagley Museum, Holy Trinity Church
(erected in 1698, the oldest Protestant church in
the United States still in use), and Winterthur
Museum, in and near Wilmington; central New Castle,
an almost unchanged late 18th-century capital; and
the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
Popular recreation areas include Cape Henlopen,
Delaware Seashore, Trap Pond State Park, and
Rehoboth Beach. |
