City (pop., 2000: 72,664), northern Delaware, U.S. Located at the junction of the Delaware and Christina rivers, it is the state's largest city and its industrial, financial, and commercial centre and main port.
The oldest permanent settlement in the Delaware Valley, it was settled by Swedes in 1638. Called Fort Christina, it was captured by Peter Stuyvesant 's Dutch forces in 1655; they were ousted by the English in 1664. A prosperous port after the Quakers moved there in the 1730s, it was renamed Wilmington in 1739. During the American Revolution , the Battle of the Brandywine was fought nearby. In 1802 E.I. du Pont de Nemours established a gunpowder mill there (see Du Pont Co. ).