AMSTERDAM ("dam" or "dike of the Amstel"), the capital of the Netherlands, is situated at the influx of the Amstel to the Ij or Y (pronounced eye), an arm (now mostly drained) of the Zuyder Zee, 44% miles N. N. E. of Rotterdam by rail. It is divided by the Amstel and numer ous canals into a hundred small islands, connected by more than 300 bridges. Al most the whole city, which extends in the shape of a crescent, is founded on piles driven 40 or 50 feet through soft peat and sand to a firm substratum of clay. At the beginning of the 13th century it was merely a fishing village, with a small castle, the residence of the Lords of Am stel. In 1296, on account of its share in the murder of Count Floris of Holland, the rising town was demolished; but in 1311, with Amstelland (the district on the banks of the Amstel), it was taken under the protection of the Counts of Holland. In 1482 it was walled and for tified. After the revolt of the seven provinces (1566), it speedily rose to be their first commercial city, a great asy lum for the Flemish Protestants; and in 1585 it was considerably enlarged by the building of the new town on the W. The establishment of the Dutch East India Company (1602) did much to forward the well-being of Amsterdam. In the middle of that century the war with Eng land nearly ruined the commerce of the port. Amsterdam had to surrender to the Prussians in 1787, to the French in 1795; and the union of Holland with France in 1810 entirely destroyed its foreign trade. In 1815 commerce again began to expand—an expansion greatly promoted by the opening in 1876 of the new and more direct waterway between the North Sea and the city.
The city has a fine appearance when seen from the harbor, or from the high bridge over the Amstel. Church towers and spires, and a perfect forest of masts, relieve the flatness of the prospect. The three chief canals—the Heerengracht, Keizersgracht, and Prinsengracht—run in semi-circles within each other, and are from two to three miles long. The defenses of Amsterdam now consist in a row of detached forts, and in the sluices, several miles distant from the city, which can flood, in a few hours, the surround ing land. Pop. (1917) 640,993.
The chief industrial establishments are sugar refineries, engineering works, mills for polishing diamonds and other pre cious stones, dockyards, manufactories of sails, ropes, tobacco, silks, gold and silver plate and jewelry, colors, and chemicals, breweries, distilleries, with export houses for corn and colonial prod uce; cotton-spinning, book-printing, and type-founding are also carried on.
The former Stadhuis ("townhouse"), converted in 1808 into a palace for King Louis Bonaparte, and still retained by the reigning family, is a noble structure. It was built by Van Kampen in 1648 1655. It has a hall, 120 feet long, 57 wide, and 90 high, lined with white Ital ian marble—an apartment of great splendor. The cruciform Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), a Gothic edifice of 1408 1414, is the finest ecclesiastical structure in the city, with a splendidly carved pul pit, and the tombs of Admiral de Ruyter, the great Dutch poet Vondel, and vari ous other worthies. The Old Church (Dude Kerk), built in the 14th century, is rich in painted glass, has a grand or gan, and contains several monuments of naval heroes. Literature and science are represented by a university, by acad emies of arts and sciences, by museums and picture galleries, a palace of na tional industry, a botanical garden, etc. The new Rijksmuseum contains a truly national collection of paintings, its choicest treasure being Rembrandt's "Night-guard." REMBRANDT (q. v.), made Amsterdam his home; and his statue (1852) now fronts the house he occupied. Spinoza was a native. The North Hol land canal, to which Amsterdam is so largely indebted for the rapid increase of its commerce, is noticed under ZUIDER ZEE.
In the European War, Amsterdam be came a most flourishing port, as all the trade that formerly went to Antwerp came here while the Belgian city was in German hands.