Scheepvaart Museum

Water played a big role in the colonization of countries abroad the Netherlands. It was very important for the conquerors to find the ship routes on which they travelled to new countries. They founded the VOC, the “Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie”, a trade community which had a high value for the Netherlands. The VOC travelled to a lot of countries and traded with the Indonesians, the Chinese and the Japanese. They got from the foreign inhabitants a lot of spices, such as pepper, cinnamon, ginger and salt. On these trips it was very important for the passengers to have fresh drinking water to stay alive. After a few weeks the water wasn’t good anymore and that’s why many people died from diseases.

The canals of Amsterdam

The canals (grachten) exist as long as Amsterdam has been founded. They were all going to the south. It was a means of transporting people and goods. Along the canals there were warehouses and storages, where the products were put in. It was also a sewer for wastewater.

Today it isn’t a sewer anymore. There are sightseeing tours on it for the tourists to see the canals and the houseboats.

Scheepvaart Museum

Comenius 2004

“water and earth”

Olivia Schneller

Ramona Obert

Annelies Looye

Annika Hoogervorst