Russell Shorto "Amsterdam"

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Cited as one of the most liberal places on earth, Amsterdam has been instrumental in cultivating the ideas and conditions from which the ideal of liberalism grew. Shorto, a longtime resident of the city and author of a study of the Dutch founding of Manhattan, chronicles Amsterdam's history as a place literally built on cooperation and tolerance, and one that hosted religious dissidents as well as serving as the headquarters for early multinationals, such as the East India Company.
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[@MMijdus]

A correct overview and insight about the history of Amsterdam.

[@freddykhd]

My (humble) opinion is that the windmill made The Netherlands. They created land (Polders), the wood (planks)for buildings and bread to feed the people. The millers were middleclass and made a good living for themselfs. That shows how important these machines were.

[@tinovanderzwanphonocave544]

I'm from the city of Leiden in the Netherlands I have been on a quest for years to discover the English roots of the city first there were the English bishops ruling the area in the 7th 8th centuries in my city then called Leitown and in some early maps Leiton an influx of people coming from the British isles at that time must have been commonplace well the bishops were overthrown and for a number of centuries a British link was lost in the late 1560s the 80-year war began and since England had been protestant for quite a while at this time a war against catholic Spain was of interest to England so again people flocked to Leiden from the British isles my name is van der Zwan if I go deep into my genealogy I can trackback to the 1570s no mention of this name before that. the cities dialect has English sounds and even words the word bladder is used if someone has a fat face it is spelled bledder now. I know my name comes from across the channel and the history of the name is deep there and goes way back traveling back in time it goes from England to the northern regions to Scotland now we are in the 13th century but it goes even further back in time the pronunciation has changed from swan to Sweaney and swain at the top of Scotland we wind back time and go to Sweden were the name turns to Sven at the end of time roll back we are at the 4th century AD on the notations on a runestone in upper Sweden of a local tribal leader his name was ''the beautiful one'' aka Sven since a swan is beautiful it had the same name I only wonder about one thing did the naming of the bird come first or, is my oldest ancestor responsible for both?

[@Paul_C]

I would suggest you visit Amsterdam next time. Most of the puritan community arrived in Amsterdam when they fled. That community settled in Amsterdam first and then moved to Leiden. That was the decision of the elders because their flock was decimated by half, courtesy of that libertarian idea that took hold. The archives should be helpful for you and as far as I know you can visit them. Addendum Most of both Leiden's and Amsterdam's archives are digitally available, since travel has some restrictions for Americans, I would suggest to email both Amsterdam and Leiden archives and ask them what the best way forward is for you.

[@qedqubit]

didn't America's Founding Fathers flee Britain to Leiden for about 4yrs before sailing the Mayflower & move to America as well?

[@mesofius]

@@qedqubit no, the only American founding father who has been to the Netherlands was John Adams and he did so in the capacity of an ambassador, asking for a loan (and failing)

[@qedqubit]

@@mesofius aw right "pilgrims" =not equal to "founding fathers"

[@ludovic2431]

The Dutch did not only "transform" North America but also the English themselves. All in about the same period.

[@guerillaguru8650]

It is strange how enlightened the Dutch where in freedoms but at the same time slave trades where common, is that because the whole world traded in slaves so it was just another form of trade? Or didn't they see them as human beings?

[@rutgerb]

Slavery has always been forbidden in the Dutch republic. There werent slaves in the Netherlands.

[@visionpersistance]

The Dutch following on the Portuguese and later superseded by England and France had established trading points on the Southern and West and Central African Coasts and entered the African Slave Trade between various points on the African Continent and Dutch, Spanish colonies and Brazil in the New World in North and South America and the Caribbean

[@sandersteman8800]

Polder model

[@saskiademoor8400]

Amsterdam was interesting reading , though very disappointed with the focus on the (very) rich and neglected the often (extreme) harsh lives of the poor, as if they never existed. Same with part about the VOC: lots about the richness it brought, but not much more then one sentence about devastating consequences for many .

[@MMijdus]

The charitable care for the poor in Amsterdam was unprecedented and the best in Europe. This is confirmed by many documents in the archives. But poor people are not so interesting to write about. I don't blame him.

[@DenUitvreter]

The VOC didn't bring much richness, the VOC is a British/American obsession. When the British were still chopping eachother up on their isles, there was a very lively trade along the Baltic Sea, which got entirely dominated by the Dutch in the 16th and 17th century. At the height of it's economic power, the VOC had 140 merchant ships, a tiny part of the 20.000-25.000 Dutch merchant ships at that time. Even the herring fishery was considerably bigger than the VOC. This also explains the huge and extremely wealthy middle class and the relative wealth of the poor. The people in the charity homes for the poor ate much better than the commons in the rest of Europe. The VOC did some really ugly stuff on Java and the Banda islands, but preferred to use existing power structures so it's debatable whether it made such a big difference for many. Yes, history is written by the winners but that appears to be the British and their American heirs, not the Dutch.

[@Richardtv1968]

Sorry Saskia, but you could not be further from the truth ..... it is astonishing to see how many dutch people are trying to rewrite history to suit their own modern views ..... charity care actually was a typical fact of this new dutch society of New Amsterdam, things changed drastically when the english came in

[@sonjademoor9398]

@@MMijdus well then we have very different opinion about who and what is interesting

[@Paul_C]

​@@sonjademoor9398write your view down and turn it into a book. That might be a possibility to see the other side... That said, I think it would fall on deaf ears.

[@redfive5123]

It's unfair praising liberalism in Amsterdam no mentioning the link between "free trade" and Dutch imperialism. The same old story that prevent us looking behind our own noses, to build a narration not considering others point of view different from ours. A challenge that only very few authors accept.

[@ericg.guitar]

I think I understand what you're saying but can you say a little more about Dutch imperialism and what part of the narrative you believe is sometimes left out

[@redfive5123]

@@ericg.guitar Dutch imperialism is intricately associated to the Dutch East India Company (VOC) established in The Hague (1602). The company (who conceded monopoly to develop trade in Asia) is defined by the author as an organization that pioneered globalization and invented “what might be the first modern bureaucracy”. The VOC and Amsterdam are intensely woven together, elaborate the author. Even he recognized the company’s liability in fostering slavery and exploitation “on a scale never before imagined”, in my opinion he doesn’t highlights the paradox between a city praised as the cradle of modern liberalism and, at the same time, the source of a colonial power. It’s not a coincidence that this brotherhood between this sort of liberalism (based first of all on economics) and modern forms of imperialism (backyards/influences zones) is continued nowadays in countries like Argentina (the Netherlands’ Queen place of birth) where rivalry between USA and China for the control of natural resources (lithium) technology (5G) and investment (infrastructure) recalls the one between Portuguese Kingdom and liberal Amsterdam at the dawn of the 17th Century.