kolonisten

Kolonisten, meaning "the colonists" in Swedish, is a term used to describe people who establish a colony in a distant land. The term is used in historical and literary contexts to refer to settlers who migrate and found settlements.

One notable instance in Swedish history is the 17th-century colony of New Sweden along the lower Delaware River in North America. The Swedish South Company established Fort Christina on the Christina River in 1638, near present-day Wilmington, Delaware. Additional settlements and farms were established in the region. The colony engaged in fur trade and agriculture and maintained relations with Indigenous peoples, including the Lenape. In 1655, Dutch forces captured the colony, ending Swedish rule. The territory subsequently became part of Dutch and later English colonial domains.

Beyond this specific historical instance, kolonisten is used in Swedish to describe settlers in any colonial or migratory context, and appears in historical chronicles, archaeology, and discussions of colonization and its legacies.

Today, the term is typically neutral and descriptive, though it is often discussed within contexts of colonization, migration, and indigenous encounters.