Delaware historical timeline

Origins

The Lenape and Nanticoke held this land. The Dutch attempted a settlement at Zwaanendael in 1631 and it was destroyed within a year; the Swedes founded New Sweden in 1638, the first permanent European settlement, before the Dutch and then the English took control.

Turning points

Delaware ratified the federal Constitution on 7 December 1787, the first state to do so, which is the whole basis of its name and identity. It stayed with the Federal side during the Civil War as a slave state that did not secede.

Influential people

The du Pont family arrived from France in 1800 and built a gunpowder works on the Brandywine that became one of the world's largest chemical companies. Their houses, gardens and collections are the state's major cultural attraction.

Cultural evolution

A 1899 corporation law and a specialist business court made Delaware the legal home of American companies — well over half of the largest US firms are incorporated here, almost none of them physically.

Present-day significance

Corporate law, chemicals, finance and agriculture carry the economy, with coastal tourism a substantial addition in summer.