The Dutch stood at the cradle of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty and have been the architects of the Treaty of Amsterdam concluded in 1998.

Being a small country with a history of neutrality it was the host country for the important Maastricht Treaty and Amsterdam Treaty and is the seat of the International Court of Justice.

Nevertheless, the Treaty of Amsterdam does confer authority on the Community's institutions to legislate by Council Regulation in this area with supranational effect.

The early foreign policy experience of the EU led to foreign policy being emphasised in the Treaty of Amsterdam ( which created the High Representative ).

Under the new powers of the Amsterdam Treaty, Prodi was described by some as the ' First Prime Minister of Europe '.

On July 31, 1667, under the Treaty of Breda the Dutch offered New Netherland ( including New Amsterdam, modern-day New York City ) in exchange for their sugar factories on the coast of Suriname.

On 31 July 1667, the English and Dutch signed the Treaty of Breda, in which for the time being the status quo was respected: the Dutch could keep occupying Suriname and the British the formerly Dutch colony New Amsterdam ( modern day New York ).

The Treaty of Nice reformed the institutional structure of the European Union to withstand eastward expansion, a task which was originally intended to have been done by the Amsterdam Treaty, but failed to be addressed at the time.

The Treaty provided for an increase after enlargement of the number of seats in the European Parliament to 732, which exceeded the cap established by the Treaty of Amsterdam.

The Treaty of Nice provides for new rules on closer co-operation, the rules introduced in the Treaty of Amsterdam being viewed as unworkable, and hence these rules have not yet been used.

In 1650 William II became involved in a bitter quarrel with the province of Holland and the powerful regents of Amsterdam, like Andries Bicker and his cousin Cornelis de Graeff over troop reduction following the Treaty of Münster.

The Amsterdam Treaty created the office of the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy ( held by Javier Solana until 1 December 2009 ) to co-ordinate and represent the EU's foreign policy.

These tasks were later transferred from the WEU to the EU by the Amsterdam Treaty ; they formed part of the new CFSP and the Common Security and Defence Policy.

The Treaty of Amsterdam transferred the areas of illegal immigration, visas, asylum, and judicial co-operation in civil matters to the integrated European Community.

The legally-binding protocol annexed to the Treaty of Amsterdam recognizes that animals are " sentient beings ", and requires the EU and its member states to " pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals ".

Although the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, have not signed the Schengen Agreement Application Convention, they take part in Schengen co-operation under the terms of the Treaty of Amsterdam, which introduced the provisions of Schengen Acquis into the European Union.

The Schengen Agreements and the rules adopted under them were, for the EU members of the Agreement, entirely separate from the EU structures until the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty, which incorporated them into the mainstream of European Union law.

This commission ( the 10th ) saw in increase in power and influence following Amsterdam Treaty.

As well as the enlargement and Amsterdam Treaty, the Prodi Commission also saw the signing and enforcement of the Treaty of Nice as well as the conclusion and signing of the European Constitution: in which he introduced the " Convention method " of negotiation.

Apus was one of twelve constellations created by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman and it first appeared on a 35 cm diameter celestial globe published in 1597 ( or 1598 ) in Amsterdam by Plancius with Jodocus Hondius.

In March 1969, during a Congress of International Federation of Airline Pilots ’ Associations in Amsterdam with the presence of representatives of civil pilots from 41 countries, a resolution was unanimously passed, which guaranteed the pilots the right to 12 or 24-hours

Ajax was founded in Amsterdam on March 18, 1900.

A legal case was filed against two of the Church's leaders, Hans Bogers ( one of the original founders of the Dutch Santo Daime community ) and Geraldine Fijneman ( the head of the Amsterdam Santo Daime community ).

One major bank building ( ING's Amsterdam headquarters ) in the Netherlands was constructed to be autonomous and artistic as well.

Amsterdam was built in a similar way, with buildings on wooden piles.

Dorado was one of twelve constellations named by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman, and it first appeared on a 35-cm diameter celestial globe published in 1597 ( or 1598 ) in Amsterdam by Plancius with Jodocus Hondius.

When the Dutch East India Company ( VOC ) was founded in 1602, some traders in Amsterdam did not agree with its monopolistic politics.

Amsterdam was not willing to help out, because it had too much interest in peace and healthy trade relations with Portugal.

This indifferent attitude of Amsterdam was the main cause of the slow, half-hearted policy, which would eventually lead to losing the colony.

The new WIC had a capital that was slightly more than 6 million guilders around 1679, which was largely supplied by the Amsterdam Chamber.

In an interview with Eurostar's Chief Executive Nicolas Petrovic in the Financial Times in May 2012, an intention for Eurostar to serve ten new destinations was expressed, including Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Cologne, Lyon, Marseille and Geneva, along with a likely second hub to be created in Brussels.

Alfred Henry ( Freddy ) Heineken ( November 4, 1923, Amsterdam, Netherlands – January 3, 2002, Noordwijk, Netherlands ) was a Dutch major stock holder and president of Heineken International, the brewing company bought in 1864 by his grandfather Gerard Adriaan Heineken in Amsterdam.

In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene.

Amsterdam was ravaged in 1663 – 1664, with a mortality given as 50, 000.

Another way was used to keep this clandestine correspondence flowing: letters were sent in merchant ships between London and Amsterdam or Rotterdam, with outward bound letters often put on board below Gravesend, as this would be after the final customs clearance.

The first women's Olympic competition was primitive, for it involved only synchronized calisthenics, was held at the 1928 Games, in Amsterdam.

Rietveld designed the Zig-Zag Chair in 1934 and started the design of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which was finished after his death.

In 1951 Rietveld designed a retrospective exhibition about De Stijl which was held in Amsterdam, Venice and New York.

In subsequent years he was given many prestigious commissions, including the Dutch pavilion for the Venice Biennale ( 1953 ), the art academies in Amsterdam and Arnhem, and the press room for the UNESCO building in Paris.

When the art academy in Amsterdam became part of the higher professional education system in 1968 and was given the status of an Academy for Fine Arts and Design, the name was changed to the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in honour of Rietveld.

The organization also received criticism after the evacuation of 200 residents of an Amsterdam housing estate over fears of its structural integrity when the construction had been technically approved by TNO only five months earlier.

1997 Statistics added for the first time to the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Statistical Law approved by the Council.