[3] The first person known to have sighted the island was the Spanish explorer Juan Sebastián Elcano, on 18 March 1522, during his circumnavigation of the world.

Elcano called it Desesperanza (Despair), because he couldn't find a safe place to land and his crew was desperate for water after 40 days of sailing from Timor.

On 17 June 1633, Dutch colonial governor and mariner Anthonie van Diemen sighted the island, and named it after his ship, Nieuw Amsterdam.

[4] The first recorded landing on the island occurred in December 1696, led by the Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh.

[9] An investigation of those islands was subsequently undertaken in December 1792 and January 1793 by George Lord Macartney, Britain's first ambassador to China, during his voyage to that country, who established that they were not suitable for settlement.

A decree of 8 June 1843 mandated the Polish captain Adam Mieroslawski to take into possession and administer in the name of France both islands.

[17] In January 1871 an attempt to settle the island was made by a party led by Heurtin, a French resident of Réunion.

There was a flagpole on Hoskin Point and 45–65 m (50–70 yards) north were two huts, one of which had an intact roof and contained three bunks, empty casks, an iron pot and the eggshells and feathers of sea-birds.

By 10 February, 45% of the island's area had been affected, while water supply and telecommunications infrastructure at the Martin-de-Viviès research station was damaged.

[21] In January 2014 Clublog listed Amsterdam and St Paul Islands as the seventh most-wanted DXCC entity.

[22] On 25 January 2014 a DX-pedition landed on Amsterdam Island using MV Braveheart and began amateur radio operations from two separate locations using callsign FT5ZM.

[23] No historical eruptions are known, although the fresh morphology of the latest volcanism at Dumas Craters on the NE flank suggests it may have occurred as recently as the late 19th century.

[28] There has been evidence at Boomerang Seamount to the north east of the island that Kerguelen-type source mantle exists beneath the Amsterdam and St. Paul Plateau.

[33] Under the Trewartha climate classification the island is well inside the maritime subtropical zone due to its very low diurnal temperature variation keeping means high.

Sailors from HMS Raleigh, who visited the island on 27 May 1880, described the vegetation as: "Rough ground, grass several feet high, myrtle 10–15 feet [3–5 m] high in sheltered ravines, sedge, ferns (principally polypodium) and cabbages, grown into bushes with stumps several inches thick in the garden..."[19]The island is home to the endemic Amsterdam albatross, which breeds only on the Plateau des Tourbières.

[39] Both the Plateau des Tourbières and Falaises d'Entrecasteaux have been identified as Important Bird Areas by BirdLife International, the latter for its large breeding colony of Indian yellow-nosed albatrosses.