Stelling van Amsterdam

Fort Edam

Fort Edam

I couldn’t quite understand why something with the name of Defense Line of Amsterdam would make it to the UNESCO World Heritage sites. One needs to understand the development of the country to better appreciate this place. All the places we have visited so far have been background information leading to this place. We already learned that much of the Netherlands had to be reclaimed from the sea, which meant that water needed to be dammed and pumped out these polders to become suitable for human activity. A lot of these polders were set up around Amsterdam and I don’t know if it is a product of planning or just conincidence. These polders turned out to be excellent structures in defending the city of Amsterdam from any land invaders.

Canal Along Fort Edam

Canal Along Fort Edam

At first I didn’t understand how that would work. The Dutch built forts alone the canals which ring Amsterdam. While forts would probably help a bit in defending the city, the polders are far more important. Imagine an invading army would come by land to attack. If the Dutch choose to release water into the polders, the invaders would be soaked and severely affected by the flood. I doubt machinery would have been able to prepare for that unless they had amphibious vehicles. I think it was sheer genius to make use of the polders as a natural defense line for Amsterdam. There is a defense line which rings the city and it seems to be quite large. The forts are scattered all over the place but Fort Edam was the easy one to access for us since we were already near the area. The polders were never actually used for defense but they served as an ingenious use of polders and forts as a defense mechanism.

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