Re: AMazing AMsterdam - OT - Saturday, markets are closed
Jon, I was born and lived 32 years in Leiden, 25 miles South of Amsterdam. Leiden was founded in the year 900, about the same time as Amsterdam and has similar origins.
Amsterdam lies at the point where the river AMSTEL flows into the inner sea, now a lake. They build a DAM over the river. So there you have the origin of the name of the city: Amstel-dam it was called original.
Leiden is a city 5 miles from the coast. It started when people build a sort of bridge over the river Rhine. In the past the river Rhine had its main stream through this city, but now hundreds of years later, the main flow of water goes through new streams, passing through Rotterdam, the largest port in the world. Rotterdam has its origin in Rotte-dam, yes a dam in the river Rotte.
The Netherlands, or translated The Low Lands is a piece of land at the mouth of three mayor rivers coming out of the Alps and accumulating the rainfall on their way through Germany, France and Belgium. At the other side it is sea all around. In the past with high tide, up to 30% of current land came under water.
One of the most interesting parts of the history of the netherlands is that there is a strong relation between the political culture and the battle against the water. Imagine you was living in a small village. Growing crops and some farming. The normal tide kept the sea far away, but once every couple of years your land could flood by the sea or inundate because of the rivers (heavy rainfall in Germany and France, high temperatures in spring in the Alps, melting the snow too fast). Your crops washed away, your animals drowned. So what did people do, they build small hills of 10 meter high (their are no mountains or hills in the netherlands, the land has its origin in the sand brought by the rivers from the Alps). On this small hill you could build your house and put a shelter for your animals. Still your crops would wash away. And building hills for a somewhat larger village was complicated. So people create some form of self-government and started to build a dyke around their village. Your protection is even better if the next village build its dyke. Even better is it to build together an even larger one covering both villages or even a whole region. This process has taken hundreds of years. So government in the netherlands has its origin in the water counsels. Having the protection against the water, trade could flourish. Small cities where build on the places where you could cross the rivers.
So close to the sea, you could only cross the Rhine on a place where there was an island in the river, making two smaller streams. Around this river crossing a small city developed. The trade attracted thiefs so they build a small fort on the island. With the fort, the trade and the people, the city started to grow very fast and Leiden had 70.000 people in the year 1300. Then it was together with Amsterdam, one of the largest cities in the netherlands. The Netherlands as a country had its foundation around 1500 (that's another story, I will try to keep it short). It was a grouping of provinces. First seven, then parts of the current Belgium associated themselves.
The point is that government in the netherlands started from the base of the people. This opposed to countries like France where you had a central government from the start, with a focus on control and taxes.
So the netherlands became The Netherlands. Why do you all call it Holland? Well, that's another story I can tell if you are interested. Basicly, it's because Holland was the province bordering the sea. So ships who sailed all over the world around 1600, told they came from Holland. As the province identified them better then the country, which was just an association.
One of the trade cities the Hollanders founded was Manhattan, many streets have their name from holland. Wall Street means walstraat. Jon, in Amsterdam, their is a walstraat too. Brooklyn comes from Breukelen, a small village close to Amsterdam.
Leiden and Amsterdam have the largest historical downtown in the Netherlands, made up by circles of canals. The canals where the transport ways in those days. Many streets were original canals, before the car became commonplace.
So Jon, if you have a couple of hours free, visit Leiden, if so I can give you some tips. If you take the train to Leiden, go via Haarlem, then you will see the tulips. My grandfather and some of my uncles were tulip growers.
The idea that young people in 1600 stepped aboard a small wooden sailing ship and left their country for some years, without knowing where to go, without fax, airplanes or telephone, this idea was part of the reason for me to do the same. I left my country in 1994 and went to Mexico and later to Chile. Without knowing anybody. A clear cut start. The best thing I did in live.
(this post is another example that Gnet has to expand its message board technology to other areas: history and travel, there I could post some other stories. I lived in 1992 in the UK and Hungary, in 1993 in the Ukraine, only months after its independence from Russia, I can tell some mafia stories.)
Travel and history message boards!
Regards,
Pareto |
