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The Pennsylvania Dutch live primarily in the Delaware Valley and in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country, a large area that includes South Central Pennsylvania, in the area stretching in an arc from Bethlehem and Allentown in the Lehigh Valley westward through Reading, Lebanon, and Lancaster to York and Chambersburg.
These European Germans immigrated to Pennsylvania Dutch cities, where many came to prominence in matters of the church, newspapers and urban business. [13] [12] After the 1871 unification of the first German Empire, the term "Dutchlander" came to refer to the nationality of people from the Pennsylvania Dutch Country. [1] [2] [3]
In 1681, Pennsylvania became an English colony when William Penn received a royal deed from King Charles II of England. However, European activity in the region precedes that date (the area was first colonized by the Dutch in 1643).
The first European settlers were Swedes, who established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina in present-day Wilmington, Delaware, in 1638. The Dutch captured the colony in 1655 and annexed it to New Netherland to the north. England subsequently took control of it from the Dutch in 1664.
Dutch diaspora – the Dutch originally came from the Low Countries and northern France. Millions of Dutch descendants have traditionally lived in the United States ( Dutch American ), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia , Sri Lanka , Africa ( Afrikaners ), the Caribbean ( Aruba and Netherlands Antilles ), and Suriname , and some Dutch ...
Pennsylvania (/ ˌ p ɛ n s ɪ l ˈ v eɪ n i ə / ⓘ PEN-sil-VAY-nee-ə, lit. ' Penn's forest country '), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania [b] (Pennsylvania Dutch: Pennsilfaani), [7] is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States.
Many Pennsylvania Dutchmen are descendants of Palatines who settled the Pennsylvania Dutch Country. [6] The Pennsylvania Dutch language, spoken by the Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch in the United States, is derived primarily from the Palatine German language which many Mennonite refugees brought to Pennsylvania in the years 1717 to 1732. [65]
[28] [29] [30] Prior to 1960, the overwhelming majority came from Europe or of European descent from Canada. Immigration from Europe as a proportion of new arrivals has declined since the mid-20th century, with 75.0% of the total foreign-born population born in Europe compared to 12.1% recorded in the 2010 census. [31]