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Amsterdam
Table of Contents
Amsterdam
Table of Contents
 * Introduction & Top Questions
   
 * Physical and human geography
    * The landscape
      * The city layout
      * City development
   
    * The people
   
    * The economy
      * Finance and trade
      * Industry
      * Tourism
      * Transportation
   
    * Administration
   
    * Cultural life

 * History
    * Early settlement and growth
   
    * The modern city

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 * When was Amsterdam liberated in World War II?

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Geography & Travel


AMSTERDAM

national capital, Netherlands
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Written by
Paul F. Vincent
Freelance translator. Former Senior Lecturer in Dutch, University College,
University of London. Coeditor of European Context: Studies in the History and
Literature of the Netherlands.

Paul F. Vincent,
Evert Werkman
Columnist, Het Parool, Amsterdam. Author of Amsterdam, 'n stad op palen and
others.

Evert Werkman,
Michael J. Wintle
Professor of European Studies, University of Amsterdam. Author of An Economic
and Social History of the Netherlands after 1800: Demographic, Economic, and
Social Transition; Ideas of Europe since 1914;...

Michael J. WintleSee All
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Last Updated: Feb 28, 2024 • Article History
Table of Contents


RECENT NEWS

Feb. 28, 2024, 9:20 AM ET (AP)
Amsterdam police say a suspect in the fatal shooting of a Dutch rapper has been
arrested in Paris
Top Questions
WHAT IS AMSTERDAM?

Amsterdam is a city and port in the Netherlands. It is the country’s capital and
its principal commercial and financial centre.

WHERE IS AMSTERDAM LOCATED?

Amsterdam is located in western Netherlands on the IJsselmeer and is connected
to the North Sea. Parts of the city lie below sea level, some parts on land that
has been reclaimed from the sea or from marshes or lakes.

WHAT IS AMSTERDAM KNOWN FOR?

To the scores of tourists who visit each year, Amsterdam is known for its
historical attractions, for its collections of great art, and for the
distinctive colour and flavour of its well-preserved old sections. Since the
mid-1960s Amsterdam has been known also for a permissive and accepting
atmosphere.

WHEN WAS AMSTERDAM LIBERATED IN WORLD WAR II?

In an Allied operation led by Canadian forces, Amsterdam was liberated from the
Nazis on May 5, 1945. This freed the entire Netherlands from Nazi control. The
summer of 1945 is fondly known as the “Canadian summer” in the Netherlands
because of the Canadian military presence in the country following the war.

WHY DOES AMSTERDAM HAVE CANALS?

Today Amsterdam’s canals are used mostly for transportation and pleasure
cruises. During the Middle Ages the canals were built for defense and water
management. In Amsterdam’s Golden Age the canals were used for the
transportation of merchandise and the growth of trade, leading to the city’s
expansion.


Exploring Amsterdam: Canals, design, and museums
Overview of Amsterdam.(more)
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Amsterdam, city and port, western Netherlands, located on the IJsselmeer and
connected to the North Sea. It is the capital and the principal commercial and
financial centre of the Netherlands.

To the scores of tourists who visit each year, Amsterdam is known for its
historical attractions, for its collections of great art, and for the
distinctive colour and flavour of its old sections, which have been so well
preserved. However, visitors to the city also see a crowded metropolis beset by
environmental pollution, traffic congestion, and housing shortages. It is easy
to describe Amsterdam, which is more than 700 years old, as a living museum of a
bygone age and to praise the eternal beauty of the centuries-old canals, the
ancient patrician houses, and the atmosphere of freedom and tolerance, but the
modern city is still working out solutions to the pressing urban problems that
confront it.


Amsterdam, Netherlands

Amsterdam is the nominal capital of the Netherlands but not the seat of
government, which is The Hague. The royal family, for example, is only
occasionally in residence at the Royal Palace, on the square known as the Dam,
in Amsterdam. The city lacks the monumental architecture found in other
capitals. There are no wide squares suitable for big parades, nor are there
triumphal arches or imposing statues. Amsterdam’s intimate character is best
reflected in the narrow, bustling streets of the old town, where much of the
population still goes about its business. While there are reminders of the
glorious past—gabled houses, noble brick facades clad with sandstone, richly
decorated cornices, towers and churches, and the music of carillons and barrel
organs—the realities of life in the modern city often belie this romantic image.



The inner city is divided by its network of canals into some 90 “islands,” and
the municipality contains approximately 1,300 bridges and viaducts. Amsterdam is
the economic centre of the Netherlands, and there tradition persists alongside
innovation. Although the city has a modern metro system, about one-fifth of the
workforce still relies on the time-honoured bicycle for transportation. The city
continues to be famous for its countless Chinese and Indonesian restaurants and
the hundreds of houseboats that line its canals. Since the mid-1960s Amsterdam
also has been known for a permissive atmosphere, and it attracts many people
seeking an alternative lifestyle. Area city, 64 square miles (165 square km);
metro. area, 245 square miles (635 square km). Pop. (2008 est.) city, 1,028,603;
metro. area, 1,482,676.

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PHYSICAL AND HUMAN GEOGRAPHY




THE LANDSCAPE




THE CITY LAYOUT


Amsterdam
Map of Amsterdam (c. 1900), from the 10th edition of the Encyclopædia
Britannica.(more)

Amsterdam is situated in a flat and low-lying area mainly on the south bank of
the IJ, an inland arm of the former Zuiderzee, now the IJsselmeer, connected by
canal with the North Sea. The Amstel River flows from south to north through the
city toward the IJ. Parts of the city lie below sea level, some of them on land
that has been reclaimed from the sea or from marshes or lakes.




CITY DEVELOPMENT

The current Dutch capital first took shape as a small medieval settlement on
dikes containing the Amstel where it met the IJ. The Amstel was dammed to
control flooding, and the city’s name derives from the Amstel dam. By the 16th
century Amsterdam had grown into a walled city centred on the present Dam,
bounded approximately by what are now the Singel and the Kloveniersburgwal
canals. Three towers of the old fortifications still stand. Outside the Singel
are the three main canals dating from the early 17th century: the Herengracht
(Gentlemen’s Canal), Keizersgracht (Emperor’s Canal), and Prinsengracht
(Prince’s Canal). These concentric canals, together with the smaller radial
canals, form a characteristic spiderweb pattern, which was extended east along
the harbour and west into the district known as the Jordaan during the
prosperous Golden Age (the 17th and early 18th centuries).


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The old part of Amsterdam has many ancient buildings, most notably the Old
Church (Oude Kerk), built in the 13th century, and the New Church (Nieuwe Kerk),
begun in the 15th century. Next to the New Church is the 17th-century city hall,
now the Royal Palace, built in classical Palladian style. Other significant
buildings include the Mint Tower (Munttoren), with a 17th-century spire resting
on a medieval gate; the South Church (Zuiderkerk, 1611); the West Church
(Westerkerk, 1631), where Rembrandt is buried; the Trippenhuis, housing the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences; and the Old Man’s House Gate
(Oudemanhuispoort), now the entrance to one of the University of Amsterdam’s
main buildings. The former Jewish quarter, in the eastern portion of the old
town, is the location of the Portuguese Synagogue (1671) and the Rembrandt House
(Rembrandthuis), which is now a museum. The old town’s three main squares are
the Dam, the Leidseplein (Leiden Square), and the Rembrandtplein (Rembrandt
Square). Fine 17th- and 18th-century patrician houses line the canals.

Major physical change came again to the cityscape in the late 19th and early
20th centuries, when the booming colonial trade fueled industrialization and the
expansion of the city’s population. For example, new inexpensive residential,
commercial, and industrial construction filled De Pijp, a neighbourhood in the
southern part of the city, and workers crowded into the older buildings of the
Jordaan in the west. The North Sea Canal, a major new channel running west to
the sea, was completed in 1876; new docks and warehouses developed along the
waterfront; and in 1889 the city’s new rail hub, Central Station, was built on
an artificial island in the IJ north of the city centre. In the early 20th
century new suburbs were built, several in the Amsterdam school of architectural
style; their imaginative, asymmetrical motifs broke up the monotony associated
with suburban public housing units. Sint Nicolaas Church (1886), the Beurs
(Stock Exchange; 1903), and the Shipping House (1916) date from this period, as
do the Rijksmuseum (1876–85), the Concertgebouw (Concert Hall; 1888), the
Stedelijk Museum (1895), the Olympic Stadium (1928), and the Amstel Station
(1939).



Amsterdam suffered less damage than many other European cities during World War
II, but the old Jewish quarter was razed. After the war, urban renewal programs
and large-scale new housing estates attempted to accommodate increasing
population, rising incomes, and the inexorable growth in automobile traffic. New
garden suburbs included Slotermeer on the western edge of the city, Nieuwendam
in the north, Buitenveldert in the south, and, in the 1970s, Bijlmermeer in the
southeast. Bijlmermeer was the ultimate in modernist utopian urban planning,
with bicycle paths, playgrounds, and high-rises built along the city’s new metro
line. However, it was not a success and was later partly demolished and
redeveloped in a mix of building styles for a variety of uses. Since the 1970s,
low-rise mixed housing projects have been the vogue, including both public
housing and private-sector dwellings. Recent developments of this kind have been
built in Sloten and the Middelveldsche Akerpolder in the west, while in the
east, in the old harbour district, intense housing construction began in the
1990s. During the last decades of the 20th century, inner-city areas were
increasingly renovated rather than replaced.




THE PEOPLE OF AMSTERDAM

Amsterdam is a small city compared with most national capitals. After World War
II the population stood at more than 800,000; it declined until the mid-1980s
but has generally risen since then. Recent increases are due to a steady surplus
of births over deaths and to an influx of immigrants. About half of the city’s
inhabitants are indigenous Dutch; about one-tenth are of Surinamese origin; and
there are significant Moroccan and Turkish minorities. Amsterdam has been a home
to immigrants since the 16th century. More recently, many have come from the
former Dutch empire (Indonesia, Suriname, and the islands of the former
Netherlands Antilles). Others have come as “guest workers,” especially from
Morocco and Turkey, or as employees of multinational corporations and students
from developed countries. Moreover, during the 1990s many new immigrants came as
asylum seekers. Non-European minorities now comprise well over one-third of
Amsterdam’s population (and about two-thirds of those less than 19 years old),
and the city has an active policy of integration, based on language learning and
social orientation.

The birth and marriage rates have been rising since the mid-1990s. Meanwhile, as
in other Western societies, increasing numbers live alone, in single-parent
families, or as unmarried couples. Unlike the population of the Netherlands as a
whole, that of Amsterdam has not become older demographically.
Pre-retirement-age residents are not a shrinking share of the population, mainly
because there is a continual influx of younger people.




THE ECONOMY

Like most modern cities, Amsterdam is a service centre, with only about
one-tenth of its workforce employed in manufacturing. The most vibrant and
expanding part of the dominant service sector is its business services
component, including consulting, information and medical technology, and
telecommunications. The consistent lifeblood of the city for the past seven
centuries has been international trade and transport, which together account for
about one-fifth of employment. Banking and insurance also have been a mainstay
of the Amsterdam economy, together accounting for about one-eighth of all jobs,
while about one-sixth of jobholders are employed in health, cultural, and social
services. Another important part of the city’s economy, tourism, accounts for
about one-tenth of all jobs. However, despite this thriving service sector, at
the turn of the 21st century the city had many job seekers who lacked marketable
skills, and about one-eighth of the workforce was unemployed.




FINANCE AND TRADE

Amsterdam is a very popular location for international business, mainly because
of its combination of accessibility, cultural richness, cosmopolitan character,
and a human scale that results from the absence of high-rise buildings and
multilane highways. The Netherlands has attracted no less than one-fifth of all
U.S. and Japanese investment in Europe, and much of this is focused on
Amsterdam. The city also is a major financial centre, though a less important
one than London or Frankfurt. All major Dutch banks have their headquarters in
the city, as do the European Options Exchange and the Dutch branch of the
Euronext Securities Exchange, and some 60 foreign banks have offices there. The
city’s busy port and excellent land and air transportation links have allowed it
to maintain its importance as a centre for regional and international trade.




INDUSTRY

Industry no longer accounts for a large share of Amsterdam’s economy; however,
the industrial activities that continue are varied, ranging from shipbuilding
and heavy engineering to petrochemicals, food processing (including brewing),
and diamond polishing. Aimed at reducing unemployment, the city’s active
economic policy seeks to attract industrial investment by improving
infrastructural links with the surrounding region and by providing training,
temporary workers, and grants to employers. In the process, the city government
created thousands of subsidized jobs toward the end of the 20th century.




TOURISM

Tourism of all kinds is a major and growing economic activity. Many visitors to
the city come for business purposes or to attend conferences, particularly at
the large RAI Exhibition and Congress Centre. Because it is possible to see many
of the sites on foot in a single day, day trips to Amsterdam are also extremely
popular.




TRANSPORTATION

Amsterdam commands excellent transport connections via rail, water, road, and
air. Schiphol Airport is among the busiest in Europe and indisputably one of the
world’s major hub airports. Amsterdam’s seaport also ranks among the most
important in Europe, but, overshadowed by the huge Rotterdam-Europoort nearby,
the Amsterdam docks underwent a gradual decline in traffic during the late 20th
century. An extensive network of superhighways connects Amsterdam with all parts
of the Netherlands and with Germany and Belgium. Within the city, since the
1960s, planners have favoured public transportation to reduce automobile use. A
high-speed metro line opened in 1976, and a new fast rail link to Schiphol
entered service in 1988, but trams remain the principal means of transportation
in inner Amsterdam, while buses are important in outer districts.



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