The adjacent bend in the IJ inlet called Waal was shallow, which, although unsuitable for merchant vessels, was ideal for docking ships in winter.

When the nearby towns of Weesp and Muiden came under Charles' occupation in the spring of 1508, the city of Amsterdam burnt the area down as a precautionary measure.

Local residents' proposals in 1543 and 1548 to incorporate Lastage into the city were not accepted, despite efforts made by a delegation sent to the Great Council of Mechelen, who brought along a painting of the area by Cornelis Anthonisz.

When the Dutch Revolt broke out in 1566, and the Duke of Alba instituted the Council of Troubles, several of the landowners in the area fled the city and moved abroad.

Immediately after the Alteration (the change of power from a Catholic to a Protestant city council), when Amsterdam finally joined the revolt led by William of Orange against Spain, the new mayors, among whom were some of the landowners on Lastage, made plans for the area and for the expansion and renovation of the port.

When a ban on building activities was declared in 1579, the city council wanted to expropriate the land in Lastage, a proposal deemed unacceptable by the local landowners.

[4] The city council was by now in a hurry to make the area more defensible against attacks, especially after Antwerp had fallen and there was a serious risk that the Duke of Parma would advance north towards Amsterdam.

Local landowners were required to demolish existing buildings, such as drying sheds, tar houses, fences and ropewalks, and to raise the land with sand.

In January 1595, blacksmiths were banned from Lastage due to the fire hazard and the smell and noise they produced,[5] and they relocated to the northern part of the island of Uilenburg.

The surveyor, a former locksmith, was alleged to have a poor head for figures and had also made serious errors when calculating the size of the body of water between Uilenburg and Marken.

The owners were particularly irritated by charges for the cost of the timberwork and paving, as residents living within the old city walls did not have to pay separate taxes for those items.

The mayors responded by trying to convince the landowners that paving was extremely important to prevent fires: Delft, Haarlem and Leiden were given as examples.

Concerns about fire were much in people's minds that year, because 26 houses had burned down in Warmoesstraat and 33 in Sint Antoniesbreestraat, while several warehouses full of valuable Muscovy goods.

Two other major speculators or land owners were Syvert P. Sem, governor of the Compagnie van Verre and French Hendricksz.

The expansion of Lastage had taken longer than has been assumed by historians for a long time, on the authority of Tobias van Domselaer (1611–1685), a poet and chronicler.

After the Nazi occupation of World War II, many of the area's residents had relocated or been deported and large parts of the neighbourhood had fallen into disrepair.

Under the leadership of Geurt Brinkgreve, an activist for the protection of cultural heritage, campaigning took place between 1967 and 1975 for the conservation of the monumental De Pinto House, which was situated directly on the planned route.

Activists from the kraakbeweging (squatters' movement) managed to maintain the property well, in conjunction with the De Pinto Foundation, newly established in 1971 at the initiative of Brinkgreve.

[14][15] Today, Lastage is a popular neighbourhood due to its relative tranquillity in the midst of a lively, central location in the city.