Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
This city of the Golden Age was perhaps the wealthiest on
earth, thriving as the “warehouse of the world.” Goods came
from everywhere. The VOC's specialties were spices (pepper
and cinnamon), coffee and tea, Chinese porcelain (Delftware's
Eastern inspiration), and silk. Meanwhile, the Dutch West India
Company concentrated on the New World, trading African slaves
for South American sugar. With its wealth, Amsterdam built in
grand style, erecting the gabled townhouses we see today. The
city expanded west and south, adding new neighborhoods.
B ut by 1 650, Amsterdam's overseas trade was being eclipsed
by new superpowers England and France. Inconclusive wars
with Louis XIV and England drained the economy, destroyed
the trading fleet, and demoralized the people. Throughout the
1700s, Amsterdam was a city of backwater bankers rather than
international traders, although it remained the cultural center of
Holland. In early 1795, Napoleon's French troops occupied the
country, and the economy was dismal.
A revival in the 1800s was spurred by technological achieve-
ments. The Dutch built a canal reconnecting Amsterdam directly
with the North Sea (1824-1876), railroads laced the small coun-
try, and the city expanded southward by draining new land. The
Rijksmuseum, Central Station, and Magna Plaza were built as
proud monuments to the economic upswing.
The 1930s Depression hit hard, followed by four years of
occupation under the Nazis, aided by pro-Nazi Dutch. The city's
large Jewish population was decimated by Nazi deportations
and extermination (falling from about 80,000 Jews in 1940 to
just 16,000 in 1945).
With postwar prosperity, 1960s Amsterdam again became
a world cultural capital as the center for Europe's hippies, who
came here to smoke marijuana. Grassroots campaigns by young,
artistic, politically active people promoted free sex and free
bikes.
Today, Amsterdam is a city of 750,000 people jammed into
small apartments (often with the same floor plan as their neigh-
bors'). Since the 1970s, many immigrants have become locals.
One in 10 Amsterdammers is Surinamese, and one in 10 bows
toward Mecca.
buzzers to meet the residents and tour their homes.
• Head upstairs to the second floor.
Rooms 22-24: World War II to the Hippie Age
Don't miss the color footage of Liberation Day in 1945 (Room
23). In the 1960s, hippies from around the world were drawn to
freewheeling Amsterdam. A socialist group called the Provos pro-
voked the Establishment by publishing an outrageous magazine
