<span>The 17th century saw Sweden as an European "Great Power" and one of the major military and political combatants on the continent during the Thirty Years' War. By mid-century, the kingdom included part of Norway, all of Finland and stretched into Russia. Sweden's control of portions of modern Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Germany made the Baltic Sea essentially a Swedish lake.</span>
In 1625, French speaking settlers from Belgium helped the Dutch begin the city of New Amsterdam. The Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam was Peter Stuyvesant. The colony of New Netherland expanded to land that is now the state of New Jersey. Then in 1655, New Netherland took control of New Sweden.
