History of Amsterdam

[9][10] Inhabitants of the village were, by this document, exempted from paying a bridge toll in the County of Holland by Count Floris V.[11] The old charters that are preserved in the IJzeren Kapel mention 18 different spellings of the name Amsterdam.

[9] In chronological order from 1275 till 1596: Amestelledamme,[10] Aemstelredamme, Amestelredamme, Amstelredam, Aemsterdam (1389), Aemstelredam, Amstelredamme, Aemsterdamme, Amstredamme, Amsterdam (1440), Ampsterdam, Amstredam, Amsterdamme, Aemstredam, Haemsterdam, Amsterledam, Ambsterdam, Ambstelredam.

[1] According to historical geographer Chris de Bont, they probably moved into the peatland in search of a new existence and went to the mouth of the IJ because they had to fight for usable land in the coastal dunes and the Gooi area of Holland.

The mouth of the river Amstel (present Damrak), formed a natural harbor, which became important for trading-exchange from the koggeships into smaller ships that sailed the merchandise deeper into the hinterland.

[22][11][23] This meant the inhabitants from the vicinity of Amestelledamme acquired a right to travel freely through the County of Holland without having to pay tolls at bridges, locks, and dams.

This was the very start of the later richness of the young evolving city: by not having to pay tolls, traders could sell merchandise, shipped to Amestelledamme harbour from everywhere (Scandinavia, Denmark, Germany), at a more competitive price in Amsterdam and the hinterland.

From 1566, the uprising was mainly caused by the lack of political power for the local nobility and by the religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, the latter supported by The Crown.

Officially, only Calvinist worship was permitted, but in practice Catholic "clandestine churches" at private homes were tacitly tolerated, as were Lutheran and Mennonite ones.

In the city, a large Roman Catholic minority remained, but the majority of the people belonged to the Calvinist Reformed Church and other Protestant denominations.

The most influential of these merchant groups was the Dutch East India Company, founded 1602, which became the first multi-national corporation to issue stocks to finance its business.

Amsterdam was governed by a body of Regenten (regents), a large, but closed, oligarchy with control over all aspects of the city's life, and a dominant voice in the foreign affairs of Holland.

In the 1670s, one such union, that of the Trip family (the Amsterdam branch of the Swedish arms makers) with the son of Burgomaster Valckenier, extended the influence and patronage available to the latter and strengthened his dominance of the council.

[31] Significant Amsterdam regent-patrician dynasties of the Golden Century included the Boelens Loen, De Graeff, Bicker, Pauw and Hooft.

[32] In The Hague, it was with the brothers Johan and Cornelis de Witt, the leader of the state-minded (republican) faction of Holland, which was reinforced by their close cooperation and mutual kinship.

The regents favoring of private investment also helped to raise standards of living, as construction of commercially viable and advanced windmills brought more efficient factories for refining goods and irrigation pumps to the region, allowing for one of the earliest industrial driven economies.

Similarly, provision for the housing of Huguenot immigrants was made in 1681 when Louis XIV's religious policy was beginning to drive these Protestants out of France; no encouragement was given to the dispossessed Dutch from the countryside or other towns of Holland.

[35] Others argue that this migration movement brought the necessary expertise (particularly in financial markets and insurance) and international trade contacts that would give Amsterdam its prosperity.

[citation needed] Immigration completely changed Amsterdam's social fabric: a city of artisans and small merchants, without too stark differences between rich and poor, became a metropolis with internationally oriented trade princes and a large proletariat.

[citation needed] The Armenians had a trading network that stretched from the far east (Manila, India, Nepal, Iran) to Europe and, most notably, Amsterdam.

[citation needed] The Armenian traders imported and exported almost everything, selling spices, gold, pearls, diamonds, and silk to the Dutch and buying yellow amber from them, which they sold in Smyrna.

[citation needed] Due to religious and ethnic tolerance, the Armenians built their own churches, cultural centers, schools, universities, and printing presses in Amsterdam and the rest of the Netherlands.

[40] A Dutch writer said in the magazine De Amsterdammer (14 August 1887): "The story of the Armenian community is a golden page in the history of the city of Amsterdam.

The wife and youngest daughter of well known collector of paintings Jan J. Hinlopen, as well as Rembrandt's partner Hendrickje Stoffels, fell victim to it that autumn.

A notorious event was the Palingoproer (eel riots) in 1886, when 26 demonstrators were killed by the army after the police were unable to control a riotous crowd of men watching an outlawed game of eel-pulling.

After his release, he was welcomed as a hero during a parade with a laurel wreath on his head, while people were crying in the crowded streets filled with workers from Amsterdam.

The social tolerance was endangered by the murder of Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh on 2 November 2004 by a Mohamed Bouyeri, an Islamic fundamentalist.

The mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, and his alderman for integration Ahmed Aboutaleb formulated a policy of "keeping things together" which involves social dialogue, tolerance and harsh measures against those who break the law.

The war started with the appearance of the local anarchist movement, Provo, so called because it liked to provoke authorities and bourgeois society with (non-violent) happenings and Dada-inspired absurdism.

The latter raised the question of "who owns the city" and took direct action to show their stance on this issue, opposing speculators' claims to land in the face of housing deficits.

The Hague is the political center with the Dutch government, the parliament, the supreme court, the Council of State, the work palace of the monarch, and embassies.