It is difficult to think of a less promising spot for what has become one of the world’s major cities. Something must have been appealing about the marshy outlet of the River Amstel where it met the IJ (pronounced ‘Aye’), a tidal inlet of the Zuiderzee – even though the area flooded on a regular basis with water forced in by the prevailing winter winds.
The Batavians, a Germanic tribe, travelled down the Rhine to found the first settlements in the river delta around 50bc. The land was entered on maps of the Roman Empire but, following Rome’s decline, became the domain of various Germanic tribes in the Dark Ages. This probably had little effect on the settlements, whose main trade was fishing.
From Fishing to Trading
By around ad 1000, the land we now call the Netherlands was ruled by a number of feudal lords, who had total power over the land and the people who lived on it. The first wooden houses were built on the site of Amsterdam in around ad 1200, on artificial mounds called terps. The town was fortified against rival lords and against the seawater, the River Amstel being dammed at what is now the square called the Dam. This was not just to control the tides but also to manipulate trade, as it prevented seagoing ships from taking their goods up the river – they had to transfer the goods to locally owned boats for their journey. It gave the local populace a healthy income and began two important elements in the city’s history: the predominance of the merchant classes and the use of barges for inland trade.
In 1275 the settlement of Amstelredamme (one of the names by which it was known) received permission from Count Floris V of Holland to transport goods on the River Amstel without incurring tolls, giving the city a monopoly on trade along the river. In 1323 Amstelredamme became a toll-free port for beer and, once a method of preserving herring had been perfected in the late 14th century, the town also had a product with a high profit margin and began exporting fish around Europe.
Het Houten Huys, the oldest house in Amsterdam
Corbis
The early 15th century saw a healthy expansion of trade, and the population rose dramatically. Catastrophic fires destroyed a large part of the city in 1421 and again in 1452. Following the second fire, legislation made it illegal to build with wood, and brick became the material of choice. Only a few wooden buildings remain from before the 15th-century fires. Het Houten Huys in the Begijnhof is considered to be the oldest. The legislation brought about a feast of civil engineering projects, including the building of the city wall, incorporating the Waag gate and Schreierstoren tower, in c.1480.
The Arrival of the Spanish
Meanwhile the political climate was changing with a series of dynastic intermarriages. Philip of Burgundy began to bring some semblance of unification to the Low Countries (the region that roughly translates to the Netherlands and Belgium) in the 1420s. He was succeeded by Charles the Bold, whose daughter Maria married into the House of Habsburg. Her son Philip married Isabella of Spain and in 1500 she gave birth to Charles, the future Charles V, ruler of the Netherlands, Holy Roman Emperor, but more importantly, Charles I, king of Spain and all her dominions – an empire on which it was said the sun never set.
Spanish rule was ruthless but, for a while, Amsterdam was left alone. Its position as an important trading post kept it apart from the more barbarous behaviour in other areas. It also saw a threefold increase in its population as refugees flooded in from other parts of the empire. Diamond polishers from Antwerp and Jews from Portugal all brought their influences to the city.
Amsterdam was already developing a reputation for tolerance, as these new and disparate groups settled into the city. At the same time, Martin Luther’s new Christian doctrine, Protestantism, was spreading like wildfire across Europe. The teachings of the French Protestant theologian John Calvin took a firm hold in the northern provinces of the Low Countries. It was at this time that Huguenots (French Protestants) came to Amsterdam, fleeing from persecution in their own country.
The Catholic Spanish cracked down on the heretical followers of Calvin, and in 1535 there were anti-papacy demonstrations on the Dam. Strict Catholic leaders took control of the city, and in 1567 Charles V’s successor, Philip II, initiated an anti-heresy campaign: Calvinism was outlawed, and repression was ruthless.
Towards Independence
This atmosphere of intense fear and violence sowed the seeds of revolt. The House of Orange (with a power base around the small town of Orange in the south of France) had claim to lands in the Low Countries, and one member, William the Silent, began to organise opposition to Spanish rule. In 1578, the people of Amsterdam rose up against the papal forces and threw them from the city. Unfortunately, though, all thoughts of tolerance were forgotten and the zeal with which the Inquisition sought out Protestants was turned on Catholics. Their churches were violated, and they were forced to convert, or to worship in fearful secrecy. In 1579, seven provinces north of the Rhine concluded the Union of Utrecht, releasing the suffocating grip of Spanish rule. Although William was murdered in 1584, his sons continued his work, and in 1648 the treaties of The Hague and Westphalia organised the northern parts of the Low Countries into the United Provinces.
Sixteenth-century map of Amsterdam by Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg
Corbis
The Coming of the Golden Age
As Spanish influence faded, the Dutch star began to rise. First, they drew up agreements with the Portuguese, who had concluded trade treaties in the East that made them the sole source of goods such as spices and silks. Merchants from Amsterdam bought these goods and sold them in the north, making vast profits in the process. When the Spanish took Portugal in 1580, the Amsterdam merchants decided to go into the import business themselves, and in 1595 sent their first fleet to Asia. In 1602 the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (United East India Company, or voc) was founded in Amsterdam. It obtained a monopoly on all trade routes east of the Cape of Good Hope, founded a headquarters in Batavia (now Jakarta) in Java, and secured a monopoly trade agreement with Japan in 1641. voc ships under the command of Abel Tasman landed in Australia some 150 years before Captain Cook.
Dutch West Indies
The Dutch looked west as well as east, and in 1609 sent Englishman Henry Hudson from Amsterdam to search for a route to China. He traded with the native peoples of Manhattan Island (and named the Hudson River), travelled to the Caribbean, and took several islands as Dutch colonies.
Dutch ships brought back goods not seen before in the Western world: strange and wonderful creatures, new fruits and vegetables, and crafts of great beauty. They were all traded at immense profit with the other nations of Europe as the voc became more powerful than many countries. Amsterdam was at the heart of this vast trading empire, and the Netherlands entered the period known as the ‘Golden Age’.
Rich merchants needed banks and a financial infrastructure, and these developed quickly in the city. People flooded in to take advantage of the new commercial opportunities, the population rose rapidly, and the old medieval city simply could not cope. It was still contained within the boundaries set almost 150 years before. Plans were made for a series of three new canals – Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht – to form a girdle around the old medieval horseshoe. Canalside lots were sold to the wealthy, who built the finest houses they could afford, but because canal frontage was expensive, the houses were narrow and deep.
The confidence of the city brought opportunities for the burgeoning arts and sciences. The artists Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Vermeer and Paulus Potter were all working in this era, their work much in demand by the merchant classes. At the same time, the Guild of Surgeons was learning about the physiology of the body at their meeting place in the Waag, helped by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek who had invented the microscope.
Tulip Mania
The first tulips were grown in the Netherlands in 1596 by the botanist Carolus Clusius at the botanical garden of the University of Leiden. These beautiful, colourful flowers were an instant hit – so much so that the first batch of bulbs was stolen. Early in the 17th century, as the economy experienced boom times during Amsterdam’s Golden Age, wealthy merchants began to speculate in tulip bulbs, and prices for them rose to ridiculous levels. In 1637 three bulbs changed hands for a price that would have paid for a luxury canalside house. Tulipomania it was called, and it was bound to wither. When suddenly it did, not long after this high point, it drove a number of fortunes into the ground.
Decline and Fall
During the 18th century Amsterdam grew into the world’s foremost financial centre, but the seeds of decline had already been planted. When the British colonies in New England rose up in revolt against the British, they found ready allies in the Dutch. From their colonies in the Caribbean they sent caches of arms and ammunition. The British were furious and went to war in 1780, destroying the Dutch Navy and precipitating a sudden decline in power and influence from which the Netherlands never recovered. Trade suffered to such an extent that in 1791 the voc went into liquidation.
William of Orange
iStockphoto
There were anti-Orange demonstrations by pro-French factions in the country, and in 1795 revolutionary France took the Netherlands. Under the yoke of another foreign power and with trade at an all-time low, the Golden Age was truly over.
The Return of the House of Orange
In 1806, Louis Bonaparte was installed by his brother as king of Holland and chose to make the fine Town Hall on the Dam his palace – now the Koninklijk Paleis. But Louis’ secret trade links with Britain and his easygoing attitude to his subjects displeased Napoleon, and in 1810 the emperor forced his brother to abdicate and annexed his kingdom to France. When Napoleon’s bubble burst and French power began to wane, William of Orange emerged from exile and was proclaimed king in 1813. Amsterdam had to work its way out of economic decline, but throughout the 19th century the city grew steadily.
Industrialisation changed the city. With the 1889 opening of Centraal Station, built over the old harbour wall, Amsterdam turned its back on its seafaring past and looked forward towards the mechanical age. Some of the oldest canals in the city centre were filled in to allow better access to motorised vehicles. The Dam was landlocked for the first time in its history. However, in the prevailing spirit of the Victorian Age, the philanthropic city fathers funded the building of several major museums and parks, along with instigating social reforms that created what would become one of the first welfare states in the world.
The aftermath of a German aerial attack, May 1940
Corbis
The 20th Century
The Netherlands stayed neutral in World War I, and efforts in the first half of the century were concentrated on land reclamation that increased agricultural production and living space. The Zuiderzee was finally tamed with the building of a 30km (19-mile) dyke, the Afsluitdijk, in the north, creating a freshwater lake called the IJsselmeer. During the depression of the early 1930s there were several schemes designed to reduce unemployment, including the creation of the Amsterdamse Bos, a park on the city outskirts.
The Dutch hoped to remain neutral at the outbreak of World War II, but the Germans had other ideas and occupied the Low Countries in 1940. Amsterdammers were horrified at the treatment of their Jewish neighbours, and the dockworkers staged a brave one-day strike to protest, but almost all the city’s Jews were transported to concentration camps, never to return.
People Power
During the 1960s Amsterdam became a magnet for counter-culture groups such as hippies, who were drawn by the well-known open-mindedness of the people. ‘People power’ began to exert its influence, which ensured that, in Amsterdam at least, progress did not mean sweeping away the past. Where developers saw the opportunity to demolish derelict canal houses and warehouses, the people fought (sometimes literally) to save what they considered their heritage (for more information, click here). Today much of the historic city is protected by statute, although any redevelopment provokes much debate.
The Netherlands joined the European Union (then the European Economic Community) in 1957. Their natural strengths in agricultural production and trade have ensured their success in the new alliance. The Amsterdam Area has become an important base for foreign companies that have trade ties in Europe. The Dutch have generally been at the forefront of the movement to open national borders, increase people’s freedom of movement and expand trade within the EU. Amsterdam has become one of the premier tourist cities in the world, trading on its historic centre and its wealth of artistic collections. Today it operates much as it did in the Golden Age, with banking, trade, and modern ‘pilgrims’ (in the form of tourists) ensuring it remains a wealthy city.
A contemporary apartment block in the Eastern Amsterdam Docklands
iStockphoto
Twenty-first Century Challenges
As the second decade of the 21st century got underway, some of Amsterdam’s cherished multicultural and alternative traditions faced new challenges. The murder of film-maker Theo van Gogh in 2004 for his anti-Muslim views sparked race-relation clashes. In 2010, the inclusion in the coalition government of Geert Wilders did nothing to ease social tensions; the founder of the right wing Party for Freedom (PVV), he is renowned for his criticism of Islam. Amsterdam’s renowned liberal attitude to marijuana cafés and prostitution saw a change when city planners, in an effort to reduce organised crime, announced a clampdown on around 200 window brothels and a third of the hash-smoking coffee shops in the Red Light Quarter.
The Dutch economy – the fifth largest in the eurozone – did not escape the euro crisis. Towards the end of 2013, the Netherlands emerged from its third recession since 2008. A housing bubble has now left the Dutch with the highest household-debt levels in the euro zone and house prices have fallen by 20 percent from their peak in 2008.
To the casual tourist, however, multiracial Amsterdam seems remarkably well integrated and there is little sign of the financial downturn. The city has seen the opening of swish new hotels, Michelin-starred restaurants and luxury designer stores. A billion euros has been spent on the arts in recent years, with new contemporary venues and revamps of galleries including the stunning transformation of the Rijksmuseum. Along the waterfront ambitious new buildings have sprouted in what were formerly derelict docklands.