But they did establish colonies in North America. One one side of my family, I am descended from Swedish immigrants who founded New Sweden in the Philadelphia & Delaware area in the 1640s. The colony lasted only a few years, eventually conquered by the Dutch and then taken over by the British when the British ran the Dutch out of New Amsterdam.
The Swedes and the Finns sailed together and intermarried a lot too.
The period I was referring to was the Dark Ages--WAAAY before Sweden was organized as a country. Think 600 AD rather than 1600 AD...
I was raised on a road named, Swedetown Road. Some of the family names on the road were, Anderson, Peterson, Ott, Vanek, Kasky and Haskew. Are those Swedish names?