As you know, New York predates the USA as such, so we, as part of the British Empire then, had the territory next to British Guyana that is now called Suriname (instead of Dutch Guyana as it was, I think, at one time). New Amsterdam became New York, but not without it becoming New Amsterdam again, briefly. Part of the deal to make the Dutch a little happier to accept this was to give them what’s now Suriname in exchange for not just New Amsterdam, but the whole of New Netherlands, which extended up the Hudson River, and included the former New Sweden.
There was a lot going on in the region that I never learned at school, just picked up along the way from reading. Sweden’s colors are still in the Delaware flag because of their former colony. The Dutch had tried to colonize what’s now Brazil, in competition with the Portuguese and French. Brazil itself is named after an Irish legend that Catholic exiles from there taught the Portuguese. And there used to be a Scottish colony on the east coast of Nicaragua, short-lived, and predating the union of crowns.
Interesting; I know Swedes had settled part of southwestern Jersey (we have a Swedesboro there today), and the Dutch were the first European settlers in northeastern NJ. The Dutch lost their colony when the Brits took it (Wall Street is named so because that was one of the walls of the original Dutch fort). I know Florida and Alabama have Spain’s old flag in the background, and Hawaii has the Union Jack in one corner.
Thanks for the history; interesting stuff. I see some neat things on coins in my collection.