The Duchy of Courland was the smallest nation to colonize the Americas with a short-lived colony in Tobago during the 1654–1659, and again 1660–1689. Courland was established as a Duchy in 1561, a fief of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in modern Latvia. It had a population of only 200,000. The Baltic German minority formed the educated, ruling and mercantile classes. The Latvian majority formed the peasant class. Under Duke Jacob Kettler, the duchy reached the peak of its prosperity. During his travels to Western Europe, Jacob became the eager proponent of mercantile ideas. Metalworking and shipbuilding became much more developed. Trading relations were established not only with nearby countries, but also with Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and others. Kettler established the one of the largest merchant fleets in Europe, with its main harbours in Windau (today's Ventspils), and Libau (today's Liepāja). This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... British colonization of the Americas began under the Kingdom of England in the late 16th century, before reaching its peak after the Acts of Union 1707, which established the Kingdom of Great Britain. ... Denmark had a colonial empire from the 18th century until the 20th. ... During the 17th century, Dutch traders established trade posts and plantations throughout the Americas; actual colonization, with Dutch settling in the new lands was not as common as with settlements of other European nations. ... North America The French established colonies across the New World in the 17th century. ... The German colonization of the Americas consisted of a failed attempt to settle Venezuela in the 16th century. ... Portugal was the leading country in the European exploration of the world in the 15th century. ... After the discovery of northern Alaska by Ivan Fedorov in 1732, and the Aleutian Islands, southern Alaska, and north-western shores of North America in 1741 during the Russian exploration conducted by Vitus Bering and Aleksei Chirikov, it took fifty years until the founding of the first Russian colony in... Scottish colonization of the Americas consisted of a number of failed or abandoned settlements in North America, a colony at Darien, Panama and a number of wholly or largely Scottish settlements made as part of Great Britain. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Swedish colonization of the Americas consisted of a 17th century settlement on the Delaware River in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, and possessions in the Caribbean during the 18th and 19th century. ... The Vikings, or Norsemen, explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeast fringes of North America, beginning in the 10th century. ... Welsh colonization of the Americas began in the 19th century. ... Decolonization of the Americas refers to the process by which the countries in North America and South America gained their independence. ... coat of arms of Courland Courland (Latvian: Kurzeme, German: Kurland, Polish: Kurlandia, Latin: Curonia / Couronia) is a historical Baltic province now part of Latvia. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Castara village beach looking south, Tobago Tobago is the smaller of the two main islands that make up the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. ... Events April 5 - Signing of the Treaty of Westminster, ending the First Anglo-Dutch War. ... // Events May 25 - Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth. ... // Events January 1 - Colonel George Monck with his regiment crosses from Scotland to England at the village of Coldstream and begins advance towards London in support of English Restoration. ... Events Louis XIV of France passed the Code Noir, allowing the full use of slaves in the French colonies. ... // Events The Edict of Orleans suspends the persecution of the Huguenots. ... Under the system of feudalism, a fiefdom, fief, feud or fee, consisted of heritable lands or revenue-producing property granted by a liege lord in return for a vassal knights service (usually fealty, military service, and security). ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The Baltic Germans (German: Deutsch-Balten, Deutschbalten, sometimes incorrectly Baltendeutsche), were ethnically German inhabitants of the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea which forms today the countries of Estonia and Latvia. ... Jacob Kettler (28 October 1610 - 1 January 1682, German: Jakob von Kettler), Courland. ... Ventspils (Russian: , formerly Виндава; German: Windau, Polish: Windawa, Livonian: VÇŸnta) is a city in northwestern Latvia on the coast of the Baltic Sea. ... Liepāja Liepāja (German: Libau, Lithuanian: Liepoja, Polish: Lipawa, Russian: Либава / Libava or Лиепая / Liyepaya, Yiddish: ליבאַװע / Libave) is a city in western Latvia on the Baltic sea. ...

The Duchy's ships were undertaking trade voyages to the West Indies at least as early as 1637, when a Courland ship attempted to found a colony on Tobago with 212 settlers. An earlier European settlement on the island, a Dutch colony, formed in 1628, had been wiped out by the Spanish a few months earlier. The first Courland colony was a failure as was a second attempted in 1639. In 1642, two ships under Captain Caroon with about 300 settlers attempted to settle on the north coast near Courland Bay but were soon driven off by the Carib natives. Then Courland's attention shifted and in 1651 the Duchy gained its first successful colony but in Africa, on St. Andrews Island in the Gambia River and they established Fort Jacob there. The Caribbean or the West Indies is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. ... Castara village beach looking south, Tobago Tobago is the smaller of the two main islands that make up the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. ... During the 17th century, Dutch traders established trade posts and plantations throughout the Americas; actual colonization, with Dutch settling in the new lands was not as common as with settlements of other European nations. ... Drawing of Caribe woman Carib or Island Carib is the name of a people of the Lesser Antilles islands, after whom the Caribbean Sea was named; their name for themselves was Kalinago for men and Kallipuna for women. ... It has been suggested that Colonisation be merged into this article or section. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa. ... James Island is an island in the Gambia River, 30 km from the river mouth and near Juffure, The Gambia. ... Gambia River from space The Gambia River is a major river in Africa, running 1,130 km (700 miles) from the Fouta Djallon plateau in north Guinea to the Atlantic Ocean at the city of Banjul. ...

Soon afterwards, on 20 May 1654, another colony was established in Tobago when the ship Das Wappen der Herzogin von Kurland arrived. The ship carried forty-five cannons, twenty-five officers, 124 Courlander soldiers and eighty families of colonists to occupy Tobago. Captain Willem Mollens declared the island "New Courland". A fort was erected on the south-west of the island, also called Jekabforts (Fort James) with the surrounding town called Jekaba pilseta (Jamestown). Other features were given Courland names such as Great Courland Bay, James Bay, Courland Estate, New Jelgave, Liepaja Bay and Little Courland Bay. An Evangelical Lutheran church was built by the Courlanders in their first year on the island. A second Dutch colony was started a few months later and soon vastly outnumbered the Courland settlement. 120 Courland colonists came in 1657, but the Dutch colony reached a population of 1,200 by the next year when 500 French settlers joined them. May 20 is the 140th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (141st in leap years). ... Events April 5 - Signing of the Treaty of Westminster, ending the First Anglo-Dutch War. ... The Lutheran movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity by the original definition. ...

Goods exported to Europe included sugar, tobacco, coffee, cotton, ginger, indigo, rum, cocoa, tortoise shells, tropical birds and their feathers. Magnified crystals of refined sugar Magnification of typical sugar In general use, non-scientists take sugar to mean sucrose, also called table sugar or saccharose, a white crystalline solid disaccharide. ... on tobacco usage see Tobacco smoking Species Nicotiana acuminata Nicotiana alata Nicotiana attenuata Nicotiana benthamiana Nicotiana clevelandii Nicotiana excelsior Nicotiana forgetiana Nicotiana glauca Nicotiana glutinosa Nicotiana langsdorffii Nicotiana longiflora Nicotiana obtusifolia Nicotiana paniculata Nicotiana plumbagifolia Nicotiana quadrivalvis Nicotiana repanda Nicotiana rustica Nicotianasuaveolens Nicotiana sylvestris Nicotiana tabacum Nicotiana tomentosa Ref: ITIS... A cup of coffee Coffee is a popular beverage prepared from the roasted seeds (not beans, though they are almost always called coffee beans) of the coffee plant. ... Cotton ready for harvest. ... Binomial name Zingiber officinale Roscoe Ginger root is used extensively as a spice in many if not all cuisines of the world. ... Indigo dye indigo molecule Indigo dye is an important dyestuff with a distinctive blue color (see indigo). ... Caribbean rum, circa 1941 For other uses, see Rum (disambiguation). ... Cocoa beans in a cacao pod Cocoa is the dried and partially fermented fatty seed of the cacao tree from which chocolate is made. ... Genera Chersina Dipsochelys Furculachelys Geochelone Gopherus Homopus Indotestudo Kinixys Malacochersus Manouria Psammobates Pyxis Testudo A tortoise is a land-dwelling reptile of the order Testudines. ...

The Duchy of Courland was a focus of interest for both Sweden and Poland. In 1655, the Swedish army entered the territory of the Duchy and the Northern Wars (1655–1660) began. Duke Jacob was held captive by Swedish army in 1658–1660. During this period, both colonies were taken by more numerous Dutch colonists, and the merchant fleet and factories were destroyed. The Dutch settlers on the island surrounded Fort James and forced Hubert de Beveren, Governor of the Courlanders, to surrender. Courland officially yielded New Courland on 11 December 1659. This war ended with the Treaty of Oliwa (signed near Gdańsk) of 1660, on the basis of which Tobago was returned to Courland. The Courlanders left Tobago in 1666, possibly after a pirate attack which occurred that year. In 1668 a Courland ship attempted to reoccupy Fort Jacob but was driven off by the Dutch. Tobago was regained again just for a short period at the end of Jacob's rule with an attempt in July 1680 at a new colony which also later failed. He began to restore the fleet and factories, but the Duchy never again reached its previous level of prosperity. The island was abandoned from March 1683 to June 1686, and, in May 1690, shortly after the island was sold by Courland the previous year, the Courlanders permanently left Tobago, although absentee governors would continue to be appointed until 1795. King Charles X of Sweden The Northern Wars (1655-1661) is a name sometimes used for the series of conflicts between Sweden and its adversaries Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (The Deluge, 1655-1660), Russia (1656-1661), Brandenburg-Prussia (1657-1660), the Holy Roman Empire (1657-60) and Denmark (1657-1658, 1658... December 11 is the 345th day (346th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... // Events May 25 - Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth. ... Treaty of Oliwa. ... GdaÅ„sk (?· i; German: , Kashubian: , Latin: ; older English Dantzig also other languages) is the sixth-largest city in Poland, and also its principal seaport and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodship. ...

The Courland Monument near Courland Bay commemorates the Duchy's settlements.

Governors of New Courland (Tobago)

Reference

• Tobago: The history of the Dutch and Courlanders' settlements