Key Figures
- Population of Greater Amsterdam: 1.3 million.
- Population of Amsterdam centre: 731,000.
- Run by city council, divided into 16 districts.
- 30% of the population is between 20 and 35.
- 60% say they have no religion.
- 19% are Roman Catholic.
- Many one child families – trend is for childless unmarried couples.
- 45% of the population come from ethnic minorities.
Facts About Holland
- Population: 16 million.
- Seat of government: The Hague.
- Religion: Predominantly Christian.
- Capital city: Amsterdam.
- 20% of the total land area is water.
- It is one of the world’s most densely populated nations.
Geography
Amsterdam is really a kind of marshland where the river Amstel meets the sea. It is made up of 90 islands, 160 canals and 1,281 bridges.
Bikes
There are around 550,000 bikes. Look out for the huge multi storey bike park next to Centraal Station – it is absolutely vast.
Overview
Much of the land around Amsterdam is polder – land that once lay at the bottom of the sea or of a lake. It was reclaimed first by using windmills to move water out, then later with steam and diesel pumps. The city sits on spongey peat on top of about 12m of sand. Most buildings are supported on wooden piles driven into this sand. Under Dam Square alone there are some 13,659 piles. As long as air does not reach them they will not rot, although some older buildings do suffer subsidence as water levels vary. Since the Second World War, concrete piles have been used which do not rot and may be driven as much as 60m deep.
Canals
Until the 1980s the canals were used as sewers and had to be flushed out daily. The equivalent of 300 swimming pools of water was pumped out every night. Today all homes except houseboats are connected to sewage pipes, although the canals are still flushed twice a week in winter and four times a week in summer. Seven special barges remove items such as fridges, bikes and old shoes, and three dredgers take about ten years to complete a full circuit, dredging up polluted sludge.
Your group may go on an evening boat ride, which is a great way to see the houseboats and gabled houses and to get a feel for the layout of the city. Many houses lean because furniture was traditionally hoisted in through the windows. If the lean is not obvious, the beams and ropes projecting from the roofs will be.
House Boats
There are around 2,400 families living on houseboats, a number fixed by the city council. The boats are on average 25 metres long and most have running water, electricity, telephone and cable TV. The majority are not connected to the sewers, so waste still flows directly into the canals. By 2005 all houseboats will have to be connected to the sewer system. Until then, advise people not to fall in.
History
Founding the City
A few Roman coins suggest that the area was settled in this period, but no structural remains survive, probably due to the marshy soil. Around 1200 a small fishing community was established on what is now Dam Square and called “Amstelredamme”, meaning dam across the Amstel. October 27th 1275 is taken as the official date of the city’s foundation, when the Count of Holland granted toll freedom to those living around the dam and a long maritime tradition began.
Birth of the Republic
In 1578, seven predominantly Protestant provinces in the north, including Amsterdam, declared independence from Philip II of Spain and established a republic. This union was led by William the Silent, so called because he refused to enter religious debate. These provinces became the Netherlands, while the Catholic south became the Spanish Netherlands and eventually Belgium.
Master of the Seas
From 1580 to 1740 Amsterdam basked in its Golden Age. Many persecuted Jews from Spain and Portugal took refuge in Holland, bringing valuable knowledge of trade routes to the East and West Indies and establishing the diamond industry that thrives to this day. The city also welcomed Huguenots and Jews from central and eastern Europe. Its population grew from around 50,000 in 1600 to 220,000 in 1700.
- Taiwan
- The Cape of Good Hope
- Surinam
- The Antilles
- Sri Lanka
- New Zealand (from “Zeeland”)
By 1650 it is said that half of all ships sailing from Europe to Asia were Dutch and that Holland owned more ships than the French and English combined. Dutch sailors explored “New Holland”, which was to become Australia, and in 1624 they founded New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later New York.
The First Multinationals
At the height of its sea faring career, Holland created the world’s first two multinationals: the East India Company (VOC) and the West India Company (WIC). They established almost autonomous trading posts across the world, built forts, raised militias and negotiated with local rulers on behalf of the Dutch government. Back home, people of many backgrounds invested in these ventures and received dividends when voyages were successful.
In 1688 Dutch power reached its zenith when William III of Orange became King of England, reigning jointly with Mary.
Decline
In the 18th century the tide turned. Populations in England and France grew, giving them greater manpower, and the harbours of London and Hamburg began to rival that of Amsterdam. The republic was also plagued by internal rivalries between different classes and political groups.
Napoleon
In 1794 French troops invaded. Napoleon made his brother King of the Netherlands, then later annexed Holland to France. When the French left in 1813, William V returned and his descendants have continued to reign to the present day.
Birth of Industry
The 19th century was effectively a period of rebranding. The city turned away from the sea, concentrating on developing the steel industry and building a rail network from 1839 onward. The diamond trade boomed with new finds in South Africa. Many canals were filled in to reduce epidemics such as cholera and to allow greater road traffic. Control of the seas passed to Rotterdam.
Pre World War II
In the 1920s the city was relatively prosperous. KLM launched the world’s first regular flight service between London and Amsterdam and in 1928 the city hosted the Olympic Games. By the mid 1920s the population was around 700,000, similar to the number living in central Amsterdam today.
World War II
Although Holland tried to remain neutral, it was invaded by Germany in May 1940. At first the effects were minimal, but gradually almost everyone was affected. Adult males were taken to fight for the Germans or sent to labour camps. Jews were rounded up; only one in sixteen of Amsterdam’s Jews survived the war, the highest proportion of Jews killed anywhere in Europe. The city was one of the last places to be liberated in May 1945.
Post World War II
After the war, Amsterdam gradually took on the image it has today as a fun, unconventional and radical city. In the 1960s there were student demonstrations and street happenings, and by the 1970s the squatter movement was making headlines, preventing the demolition of cheap inner city housing. By the 1990s the centre had settled, filling with trendy cafes, bars and restaurants. Amsterdam is now an important university town with some 37,000 students and two universities, and a lively cultural life with around 65 theatres and about a fifth of all art institutions in the country. Museumplein, redesigned in 1998 by architect Sven-Ingvar Andersson, is home to the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum and the Concertgebouw.
Orientation
The city is laid out like a half bicycle wheel. Centraal Station is at the hub, with canals fanning out in half moon shapes around it. The Amstel River and main roads can be thought of as spokes. The centre is really Dam Square, although Rembrandtplein is also busy. The three best known art museums are further south on Museumplein. Anne Frank’s House lies to the west near the Westerkerk and Jordaan district, while to the east you find Chinatown and the Red Light District between Dam Square and Nieuwmarkt.
Signposts
Visiting the city is best done on foot. It is not too large and most sites are grouped together. Signposts throughout the city indicate all the main hot spots, including Dam Square, Rembrandtplein, Museumplein and the Anne Frank House.
Arts
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)
Van Gogh was born in 1853 near Brabant. His father was a church minister and Vincent initially trained to become a minister himself. He later moved to Paris where he met artists such as Gauguin, Pissarro and Toulouse-Lautrec. In 1888 he moved to Arles in Provence, where he painted his famous “Sunflowers”. His friendship with Gauguin ended in a violent argument in which Vincent mutilated his ear. He voluntarily entered an asylum in St Rémy in 1889 and continued to paint in an increasingly agitated style. In 1890 he moved back north to Auvers-sur-Oise, where he eventually shot himself.
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam opened in 1973 and houses around 200 paintings and 500 drawings collected by his brother Theo, as well as works by many of Van Gogh’s contemporaries.
Rembrandt (1606–1669)
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born in Leiden and moved to Amsterdam in 1631 as a flourishing artist. He became the leading portrait painter of the Dutch school, famous for his use of light and shadow and for his ability to penetrate character. He painted many portraits of local dignitaries and religious scenes. In 1634 he married Saskia van Uylenburgh, who modelled for many works. If you visit the Rembrandt House or the Rijksmuseum you will see how often he painted himself, creating between 50 and 60 self portraits. His most famous work is probably “The Night Watch” (1642), in the Rijksmuseum.
Anne Frank
Anne Frank, perhaps the best known figure in Dutch history, was a teenage diarist and Jew hidden behind a false wall in Amsterdam during the Second World War. She died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Her house near the Westerkerk can still be visited and is the most visited monument in the city. It contains a moving collection of photographs, objects and video interviews with Anne’s friends and family.
Lifestyle
The Dutch are generally a very tolerant people. Their history shows centuries of welcoming communities from across Europe regardless of religion or ethnicity. Today, 45% of Amsterdam’s population is made up of ethnic minorities and over 150 nationalities appear on the population register. However, the rising popularity of the far right in Holland may indicate that traditional Dutch tolerance is under pressure. In spring 2002, Pim Fortuyn, leader of a newly founded far right party, was assassinated as he came close to winning the general election. His policies included closing borders to immigrants and obliging foreigners in Holland to integrate more thoroughly.
Walking around the city, there is an overwhelming sense of ease and goodwill. The centre is largely pedestrian, allowing people to wander without constant traffic noise or pollution, though they should watch out for silent bikes and trams. Ecology is a high priority, with 30 environmental police officers, a graffiti brigade and 15 rubbish barges that remove roughly 10,000 bikes, 8,000 cubic metres of rubbish and 100 sunken boats each year.
Drug Culture
Cannabis is legal in Holland but most people do not use it. Many Dutch residents are annoyed by foreigners who come to Amsterdam with only drugs and the Red Light District in mind and abuse the city’s liberties. The belief is that if soft drugs were forbidden they would go underground and be harder to control, pushing up prices and forcing people into crime. Out of a population of nearly 800,000 in Amsterdam, there are about 5,000 hard drug users, of whom around 2,000 are thought to be of Dutch origin. Statistics show that the use of hard drugs among under 22s has decreased from 14.4% in 1981 to 1.6% in 1999.
Politics
Queen Beatrix is head of state. The prime minister and cabinet resigned following a report condemning the Dutch government’s role in failing to prevent the Srebrenica massacre of Muslims by Bosnian Serb forces in 1995. Two weeks before a subsequent election, Pim Fortuyn, a homosexual far right candidate who had founded his party only three months earlier, was assassinated. His party came second in the elections and formed a centre-right coalition with the winning Christian Democrats. This was a major change for a country long used to left wing governments, but the coalition proved short lived and new elections were called for January 2003.
Windmills
Once, around 10,000 windmills dotted the Dutch countryside. They were used for distributing water, reclaiming land through drainage, and grinding corn. They provided a natural, non polluting energy source and during the war were used to pass messages among members of the resistance.
Orange
Orange is the colour of the Dutch football team and for national games everyone wears orange: shirts, socks, even clogs. The royal family belong to the House of Orange. William the Silent, who founded the Dutch republic, was also ruler of the Principality of Orange on the Rhone near Avignon. The House of Orange has always been multinational. William’s maternal grandfather, Philibert de Châlons, was given lands in Brabant by Emperor Charles V in return for helping sack Rome. His paternal grandfather ruled the Duchy of Nassau on the right bank of the Rhine. Many years later, his grandson William III became King William of England and it was in his honour that the Orange Order in Northern Ireland was established in 1795 to preserve Protestant rule in Ireland.
Clogs
Whatever the fashion, clogs are a must when visiting Holland. Dutch farmers and bulb growers have worn them for centuries and they have even been approved for industrial use under European regulations. They are extremely safe and long lasting. At Zaanse Schans, clog makers can demonstrate how they gouge the shoes out of a single block of wood and decorate them in all sorts of shapes and colours.
Tulips
Tulips originally came from Turkey – the word “tulip” means turban in Turkish. They were brought to Holland in the 17th century by Austrian botanist Carolus Clusius, director of Europe’s oldest botanical garden in Leiden. In the 17th century, tulipmania set in. Since the most beautiful tulips were often the weakest due to cross breeding, the rarer flowers began to sell for extremely high prices. In November 1636 a single bulb of the famous “Semper Augustus” sold for the equivalent of ten years’ wages for an average worker, and two “Viceroy” bulbs sold for the price of a canal house.
Cheese
Edam is the best known Dutch cheese and is easily recognised by its red wax coating. Historians believe that cattle have been reared in this region since prehistoric times. Cheese making pots dating from 200 BC to 900 AD suggest that cheeses were once made in pots that allowed the whey to drip away so that the curds could be preserved. At Zaanse Schans traditional cheese making techniques can be seen and there are tastings of different cheeses, including Gouda with cumin, goats cheese and many varieties of Edam.