European Exploration and Settlement

Henry Hudson explored Delaware Bay for the Netherlands in 1609. Cornelius Jacobsen May conducted more extensive exploration in the same area, also for the Netherlands, in 1623. Although Dutch and Swedish settlements were established early in the 17th century along the Delaware River in what are now the states of Delaware and New Jersey, Pennsylvania was not colonized until 1643. In that year, Johan Printz, governor of a Swedish colony at what is now Wilmington, Delaware, set up his capital on Tinicum Island, an island in the Delaware four miles (6 km) west of the Schuykill River. A second Swedish settlement, at what is now Chester, was founded later that year. The Dutch annexed the Swedish colony in 1655, but in 1664 lost all their American holdings when the English conquered New Amsterdam.

In 1681 William Penn, an English Quaker, received a grant from Charles II to the area west of New Jersey. The boundaries of the area covered by the grant were poorly defined; during the next 100 years all of the boundaries except the eastern one, the Delaware River, were in dispute. William Markham, Penn's cousin, was made deputy governor and came to Chester in 1681. The next year the area that is now Delaware was added to Pennsylvania. That autumn Governor Penn arrived and the colony, which he called his “Holy Experiment," was organized under the Frame of Government, a constitution he drafted that provided for freedom of religion, universal male suffrage, and an elected assembly. Philadelphia was founded as the capital.

Land in the colony, after being purchased from the Delaware Indians, was offered in Britain and Europe at a low price. Thousands of immigrants came. Chief among them were English Quakers, who settled in the Philadelphia area; German Mennonites and Lutherans, who established farms on the rich land east of the Allegheny Mountains; and, later, the Scotch-Irish, who settled in the valleys of the Alleghenies, then the western frontier.

Colonial Development. The colony thrived, and on Penn's second visit, 1699–1701, the constitution was revised to allow the assembly greater authority and to give the region called the Lower Counties (later to become Delaware) a separate assembly. The Charter of Privileges, as the new constitution was called, remained in effect until 1776. Following Penn's death in 1718, proprietorship of the colony passed in turn to his widow, his sons, and his grandsons.

Pennsylvania's fertile farmlands brought the colony early prosperity. The presence of iron ore encouraged industrial development also. Especially noted among early products were the Kentucky rifle (so called because it was designed for use on the Kentucky frontier) and the Conestoga wagon. Philadelphia, a flourishing commercial center, became the intellectual capital of the colonies.

French and Indian War. The heirs of William Penn did not deal with the Indians as fairly as he had. Colonial officials defrauded Indian tribes in Pennsylvania of vast tracts of land. Also, as in other colonies, constant British encroachment on their lands alienated the Indians. When French and British rivalry in the Ohio Valley flared into the French and Indian War (1754–63), the Indians sided with the French.

The first important action in the war took place in Pennsylvania, near the present site of Pittsburgh, where the French had erected Fort Duquesne. In July, 1755, a force of British and colonial troops under General Edward Braddock and Lieutenant Colonel George Washington marched against the fort and were defeated by the French and Indians. The western settlements were under constant Indian attack until a line of outposts was constructed. Fort Duquesne fell in 1758, and the British erected Fort Pitt at the site.

Fort Pitt was one of the few outposts that withstood attack after the war during the Indian uprising of 1763 known as Pontiac's Rebellion. Grievances with the Indians were resolved in the Fort Stanwix Treaty (1768). In 1769 a survey of Pennsylvania's southern boundary led to the adoption of Mason and Dixon's Line as the border, ending a longstanding dispute with Maryland.