Amsterdam

Constitutional capital and largest city of the Netherlands; population (2003 est) 737,900. The Netherlands' second most important port after Rotterdam, Amsterdam is connected to the North Sea by the North Sea Canal, completed in 1876. A new canal leading to the River Waal, south of Utrecht, was completed in 1952 to improve the connection between Amsterdam and the River Rhine. Industries include diamond cutting and polishing, sugar refining, clothing, printing, chemicals, shipbuilding, brewing, and tourism. Amsterdam, the seat of one of the world's chief stock exchanges, is also an international centre of banking and insurance. It is one of the great intellectual and artistic cities of Europe.

History
At the beginning of the 13th century, when Giesebrecht II of Amstel built a castle at Amsterdam (which means dam on the Amstel), it was no more than a fishing village. The city became part of Holland in 1317, and passed to the control of the Duke of Burgundy in 1428. It was freed from Spanish domination in 1579. After the ‘golden age’ of the 17th century, when Amsterdam reached its apex as an intellectual and artistic centre and became a centre of liberal thought and book printing, it declined in maritime importance. The Prussians occupied the city in 1787, and it was taken by the French in 1795. Louis Bonaparte chose the city as the capital of the Netherlands in 1808.

The constitution of 1814 made Amsterdam the royal capital of the Netherlands; however, The Hague is the administrative capital. Amsterdam was occupied by the Germans during World War II (1940–45), and suffered severe hardship. Most of the city's Jews (c. 75,000 in 1940) were deported and exterminated by the Germans.