The history of the dockland area dates back to the seventeenth century, and it has been turbulent from time to time. Many important national and international historical events took place in this dockland area; traces of them can still be found.
In the Middle Ages
and up to the seventeenth century the Eastern
Docklands were part of the sea. There were some swamps and some small
islands in this area.
The island Paardenhoek (horse corner)
was a cavalery station. The island Pampus, further out
in the sea, was a tricky place for sailors, where ships trying to reach
the docks often got stuck when the tide was low.
The seventeenth
century is
often referred to as the Dutch Golden Age. This was a time of expansion
and increasing wealth, of international trade and overseas travelling.
It was also a time of war. Some of the
great Dutch seafaring heroes (or pirates) sailed the seven seas and
fought the Spaniards in the Eighty Year liberation war.
Piet Hein was one of the best known among them. The main street and tunnel in the Eastern Docklands are named after him. A group of silvery apartment and office buildings in the central part of the area is called Zilvervloot, recalling a well-known battle, when a Spanish silver fleet coming back from colonial areas was conquered.
At that time, this
area connecting Amsterdam to the sea was often
crossed by smugglers, who avoid paying duty on goods brought into the
city. To prevent this, the city council decided to change the area into
a military training ground, but this turned out to be impossible.
Then
it was decided to use this
area near the city walls for business purposes. Several city windmills
were built on newly made islands.
The first three windmills, called Hope, Love and Fortune, were used for
sawing wood. They are gone now, but they are still commemorated in a
spectaculair new apartment building in the central area of the Eastern
Docklands. The only remaining city windmill of this time, de Gooyer,
now houses a brewery and a cafe selling the traditional Y-lake
beer. 
One of the two city
hospitals, the Plague house, had also been
established in the area.
As its name suggests, this hospital was used
to treat victims of the plague; it was also used for general medical
treatment of the poor. The hospital owned a fish pond near by,
popularly known as the sick water.
It was believed that eating fish would be helpful for restoring the
health of the sick poor. But possibly it was also believed that the
water itself caused sickness.
This was quite possible in an age when malaria and cholera were still
common diseases in this area.
In this time, the
painter Rembrandt liked to stroll through this
area and he made several sketches of it, so we have a
good idea of what it looked like, even today.
Rembrandt's work
shows a quiet, picturesque area with the developing city
in the background.
The local people were traditionally known for having a mind of their own. In the eighteenth century the dockland areas now known as the Eastern Islands had seen many struggles between royalists and republicans (so-called patriots). The royalists, knows as ‘the axes’ were violently subdued on a day still remembered as the ‘day of the axes’. Somewhat later the Dutch republic changed to a monarchy.
During the time of
French government at the end of the eighteenth
century, part of the dockland area was used by the Napoleonic army for
housing and exercise purposes. Some former barracks are situated south
of the dockland area, now housing apartments and offices.
In
the nineteenth century, the seventeenth century docks built on
the neighboring Eastern Islands had become too small for the demands of
the time and they were gradually expanded to the Eastern Docklands.
The main part of the
Eastern Docklands was built in the early
twentieth
century. During several decades around the turn of the century new
islands were made in the wetlands.
The traditional
sailing ships were gradually replaced by twentieth
century steam ships and the dockyards and warehouses changed according
to the new demands.
Trade mainly took place with the former East-Indies (mainly Indonesia) and West-Indies (mainly Central America) and the Levant (Near East).
Some of the new
islands
were named after islands in the East-Indies,
for example Java or Borneo.
The warehouses in the western part of the Eastern Docklands were named
after the continents.
They were each used for storage of different
kinds of goods.
The dockworkers were
specialized in handling certain products. They
were organized in a kind of guild system, often named after the colour
of their hats. Only the blue hat guild (Blauwhoed) still exists.
This
organization is not a guild corporation any more; it has become a
regular business. It built the shopping center Brazilie in a renovated
warehouse.
Overseas passenger traffic also took place from this area. People travelled between Amsterdam and the former colonies; and emigrants arriving by train from Central and Eastern Europe left for North and South America. Sometimes they had to wait for days for their connecting ship, staying in the Lloyd hotel.
Some
officers or middle
management of the shipping companies were housed in the docklands.
Their houses are still there.
The housing quarters of the dockworkers, railroad workers and sailors
were next to the docks.
At the end of the nineteenth century, living conditions were very poor.
They were gradually
improved during the twentieth century. The Eastern Docklands had been a
centre of social struggle for improvement of working and living
conditions.
Many strikes took
place during the nineteenth and twentieth
century. Probably the best-known strike in Dutch history was the
railroad strike of 1903, taking place in this dockland area.
The strike
was ended by military force, but it
became a symbol for the socialist movement, becoming an influential
political movement during the twentieth century.
In
the hunger winter of 1917, during the First World War, the potato
riots took place in this area. Many hungry people stopped the potato
trains and distributed the food amongst themselves.
The riots were
stopped by military force and contributed to the communist movement
becoming quite
strong in the traditional dockworkers quarters.
Some of the
first new housing projects and sanitation projects to improve the lives
of the poor took shape in this area.
New houses with big windows and
running water were built; fairly paternalistic socialization projects
for the unsocial poor were started.
In World War II, the Lloyd hotel for overseas emigrants was taken
over by the Nazis and it became a torture prison for resistance
fighters.
Partly because of this and partly for more traditional
reasons, the February strike against the
Nazi occupation got a lot of support in the dockland area.
After the Second
World War the Lloyd hotel was changed into a prison
for Nazis and shortly
afterwards it became a youth prison.
It remained so
until the 1970s, when social sensibilities could not tolerate this
practice any longer.
The Lloyd hotel was taken over by squatters,
mainly artists, who have lived and worked there until
the year 2000, when renovation of this historical building began.
In the
1970s, the docklands were abandoned by the shipping companies. The area
had become too small for their needs and they left for new docks on the
west side of the town. The area was now taken over by squatters, city
nomads and houseboat dwellers. Thousands of them created a large
alternative community in
the docklands.
Most of the
squatters left in the 1980s, when redevelopment of the area
started, but many artists and houseboat dwellers have remained.
The
time of the squatters community is recalled in some books, films and
local restaurants. It has definitely influenced the present atmosphere
in the Eastern Docklands.
After many years of planning and discussion, the municipality started redeveloping the Eastern Docklands. This great project is now nearly finished and a new living area is acquiring its own shape, style and atmosphere.
Many things have
changed and some things have stayed the same. A minor,
but symbolically important local struggle took place at the start of
the twentyfirst century, when one of the hundred-year-old trees in the
area was cut down. This tree, a poplar tree, was one of a group
commonly known as the Seven Sisters. Lots of potted plants were put out
everywhere by the people living in the neighborhood.
The millennium green uproar faded out after one of the local
politicians was replaced and hundreds of young poplar trees were
planted in the area.
The event
is remembered as a fitting conclusion of the twentieth-century history
of the Eastern Docklands.
Now, over ten years later, there is a lot of green in the area.
