Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM, the chief city of Holland, in the province of North Holland, on the south side of the Y or Ij, an arm of the Zuider Zee, in 22' N. and 4° 53' East. Pop. 757,386. It has communications by railway and canal in every direction; steam-tramways connect it with Edam, Purmerend, Alkmaar and Hilversum, and electric railways with Haarlem and the seaside resort of Zandvoort. Amsterdam, the "dam or dyke of the Am stel," is so called from the Amstel, the canalized river which passes through the city to the Y. Its beginnings centre around a small sea-fishing settlement. In the 13th century it was held in fee by the lords of Amstel of the bishops of Utrecht and in 1204 Giesebrecht II. built a castle here. A little later Giesebrecht III. constructed a dam to keep out the sea, and around the castle and dam the city grew. The first mention of the town is in 1275, in a charter of Floris IV., count of Holland, exempting it from certain taxes.

In 1296 the place passed out of the hands of the .lords of Amstel, owing to the part taken by Giesebrecht IV. in the murder of Count Floris V. Count John (d. 1304), with the approval of the bishop of Utrecht, bestowed the fief on his brother, Guy of Hainaut. Guy gave the town its first charter in 1300, with a bailiff (sellout) and judicial assessors (scabini or schoppenen), the overlord's supremacy being guarded, and an appeal lying from the scabini, in cases of disagreement, to Utrecht. In 1342 more extensive privileges were granted by Count William IV., includ ing freedom from tolls by land and water in return for certain annual dues. In 1482 the town was surrounded with walls. Dur ing the religious troubles of the 16th century its prosperity in creased owing to influx of refugees from Antwerp and Bra bant. Amsterdam, influenced by its trading interests, did not join the other towns in revolt against Spain until 1578. In 1587 the earl of Leicester made an unsuccessful attempt to seize it. The great development of Amsterdam was due, however, to the treaty of Westphalia in 1648, by which its rival, Antwerp, was ruined, owing to the closing of the Scheldt. The city held out obstinately against the stadtholders, and in 1650 opened the dykes to prevent `'William II. seizing it. The same device was successful against Louis XIV. in 167 2 ; and Amsterdam, now reconciled with the stadtholder, was one of the staunchest supporters of William III. against France. In 1787 Amsterdam was occupied by the Prus sians, and in 1795 by the French under Pichegru. It was then made capital of the Batavian Republic and afterwards of the kingdom of Holland. In 181 o this was united with the French empire and Amsterdam was recognized officially as its third town, following Paris and Rome. The modern city has been built to a great extent over boggy ground and the foundations of build ings were made secure by driving long piles into the firm clayey soil below. On the landward side the city is surrounded by a fosse or canal, and was at one time fortified ; but the ramparts have been demolished and replaced by gardens and houses ; one gateway, the Muiderpoort, still stands. Within the city are four canals (grachten) with their ends resting on the Y, extending in polygonal crescents nearly parallel to each other and to the outer canal. Each of these canals marks the line of the city walls and moat in some phase of growth. Lesser canals intersect the others radially, thus virtually dividing the city into a number of islands. The nucleus of the town lies within the innermost crescent canal, and, with the large square, the Dam, in the centre, represents the area of Amsterdam about the middle of the 14th century. At one end of the enclosing canal is the Schreijerstoren (1482) or "Weep ers' Tower," on the ancient harbour, the scene of former sorrow ful leave-takings. Between this and the next crescent (Heeren Gracht) there sprang up, on the east, the foreign quarter where the large Jewish population is located, and where Rembrandt lived (1640-1656) and Spinoza was born (1632). Beyond the Heeren Gracht lie the Keizer Gracht and the Prinsen Gracht respectively, and these three celebrated canals, with their tree-bordered quays and old-fashioned houses, form the principal thoroughfares of the city. West of the Prinsen Gracht lies the district called De Jor daan, a corruption of Le Jardin, for its streets are named after various flowers. It was formed by the settlement of French refu gees after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The outermost crescent canal is called the Singel Gracht (girdle canal), and marks the boundary of the city at the end of the 17th century. The streets in old Amsterdam are narrow and irregular. The city's long connection with the sea produced its seamen, merchants and explorers. With the accumulation of mercantile wealth, coupled with a tradition of keenness of mind and action (enhanced by the arrival of refugees), the city became the home of artists, philo sophers and religious leaders. Around the Dam are the Nieuwe Kerk and the palace. The palace, in classical style, was originally built as a town-hall in 1648-1655 by van Campen. Since 1768 it has been used as a royal residence. The exterior is beautifully decorated. The great hall is lined with white Italian marble, and in spite of its enormous dimensions the roof is unsupported by pillars. The Nieuwe Kerk (St. Catherine's) is a fine Gothic building dat ing from 1408. Internally it is remarkable for its remains of an cient stained glass, fine carvings and interesting monuments, in cluding one to the famous Admiral de Ruyter (d. 1676). The new exchange (1901) lies between the Dam and the central station (1889). The Oude Kerk (St. Nicolaas), so called (c. 1300), contains some beautiful stained glass of the 16th and 17th cen turies, by Pieter Aertsen of Amsterdam (1508-1575) and others. One window contains the arms of the burgomasters of dam from 1578 to 1767. The North church was the last work of the architect Hendrik de Keyser (1565-1621) of Utrecht. The Roman Catholic church of St. Nicholas (1886) replaced a com mon dwelling-house, now the Museum Amstelkring of ecclesiasti cal antiquities. Among the Jewish synagogues, the largest is that of the Portuguese Jews (1670). The St. Antonieswaag, built as a town gate (1488-1585), contains the city archives; and the Trip penhuis, the Royal Society of Science, Letters and Fine Arts. The Ryks, or State museum, is a finely situated building in the Dutch Renaissance style, erected in 1876-1885. It has a depart ment of general antiquities and a large gallery of pictures of the Dutch and Flemish schools. Famous pictures in the Ryks mu seum are those from the Trippenhuis, the so-called "Night-watch" and the "Syndics of the Cloth Hall" by Rembrandt, and the "Ban quet of the Civic Guard," by van der Helst. The Trippenhuis gal lery consisted of the pictures brought from The Hague by Louis Bonaparte, king of Holland, and belonging to the collection of the Orange family dispersed during the Napoleonic period. The mu nicipal museum contains a collection of furniture, paintings, etc. The Joseph Fodor museum (1860) contains modern French and Dutch pictures. The pictures collected by Burgomaster Jan. Six (d. 1702) are (with the exception of the family Rembrandts) in the Ryks museum. The Willet Holthuysen museum .0895) has exhibits of furniture and porcelain.

Modern Amsterdam extends southward beyond the Singel Gracht. In the middle of this new region lies the Vondel park, named after the great national poet Joost van den Vondel (d. 1679), whose statue stands therein. The Willems park adjoining was added later. In the older part of the town the chief open space is the Zoological gardens in the north-east corner, set out by the Nature Artis Magistra Society in 1838, which are well known. There is attached a library and an ethnological and nat ural history museum. Nearby are the Botanical gardens. The public squares include the Sophiaplein, with the picturesque mint tower; the Rembrandtplein, with a monument to the painter; the Thorbeckeplein, with monument, and the Letidscheplein, with the large theatre, rebuilt in 1890-94 after a fire. There are two uni versities, the Free university (1880), and the more ancient State university of Amsterdam, founded in 1632, but reconstructed in 1887. In addition to the numerous science laboratories the State university possesses a very fine library of about ioo,000 volumes, including the Rosenthal collection of over 8,00o books on Jewish literature. The Society for Public Welfare (1785) promotes the education and improvement of all classes, and has branches all over Holland. Among other societies are the Felix Meritis (1776) and the Arti et Aricitiae (1839), whose art exhibitions are of a high order.

Harbour and Commerce.

The first attempt to overcome the evils wrought to trade by the slow formation of the Pampus sandbank, at the entrance to the Y from the Zuider Zee, was the construction of the North Holland canal to the Helder in 1825. The route was long and difficult, and in 1876 a larger and more direct canal was built across the isthmus to the North Sea at Ymuiden. The serious rivalry of Rotterdam, especially with regard to the transit trade, and the inadequacy of the Keulsche Vaart, which connected the city with the Rhine, led to the construction in 1892 of the Merwede canal to Gorinchem. Meanwhile a com plete transformation took place on the Y to suit the new require ments of the city's trade. The three islands built out into the river serve to carry the railway across the front of the city, and form a long series of quays. On either side are the large East and West docks (18 2 5-1834) , and beyond these stretch the quays at which the ocean liners are berthed. On the west of the West dock is the timber dock, and east of the East dock is another series of islands joined together so as to form basins and quays, one of which is the State Marine dock , with the arsenal and admiralty offices. Opening out of one of the crescent canals which penetrate the city from the Y is the State Entrepot dock (1900), the free harbour of Amsterdam, where the produce from the Dutch East Indies is stored. The trade with the East Indies increased enormously within the period 1910-25. On the north side of the Y are the dry docks and the petroleum dock. The principal imports are timber, coal, grain, ore, petroleum, tobacco, tea, coffee, cocoa, sugar, Peruvian bark and other drugs. Dia mond-cutting has long been practised by the Jews and forms one of the most characteristic industries of the city. Other industries include sugar-refineries, soap, oil, glass, iron, dye and chemical works; distilleries, breweries, tanneries; tobacco and snuff fac tories ; shipbuilding and the manufacture of machinery and stear ine candles. The Amsterdam exchange is still of considerable importance. The celebrated Bank of Amsterdam (1609) was dissolved in 1796 and the present Bank of the Netherlands was established in 1814. The city suffered considerably during the World War from the loss of a great part of the former extensive financial business. The position continued bad until shipping on the Rhine increased after the German mark had been stabilized and conditions in the Ruhr had improved.

The total goods traffic of the port increased 50% between 1913 and 1924. The Coen harbour, on the south side of the Y, with 3, I I 2 f t. of quays for seagoing ships and 2,000f t. for river craft, was opened in 1924, and plans were prepared for a new lock 1,292 ft. long at the entrance to the North Sea canal at Ymuiden. The canal- itself was dredged to a depth of 33ft. There is aeroplane service to London, Hamburg, Brussels and Paris.

See P. Scheltema, Inventaris van het Amsterdamsche archief, 3 vols. (1866-74) . H. Brugmans and A. Loosjes, Amsterdam in beeld (1925) .