How the Dutch Beat the Ocean | Why Amsterdam Has Canals Reaction 

The narrator got a lot of things wrong. The ones that annoyed me the most is his claim that most of the Dutch coast is a human built wall of some kind and cycling because the land is flat. Much of the Dutch coast has a natural barrier in the form of sanddunes. Flatness is not the reason for us using bycicles so much. New York City is flat. So are New Orleans and other cities, regions and countries, yet none of them compare to the Netherlands when looking at bike usage. We created infrastructure to facilitate safe biking and the others didn‘t and THAT‘s the true reason.

Very strange that the "Delta werken" aren't even mentioned in this video. It's the largest flood protection project in the world. Other than that, great reaction.

He left out one of the most important details. Namely the Waterschappen or Regional Water Authorities, Water board or Water Authority. This is a separate governing body that is responsible for water management. It can collect its own tax and is one of the earliest forms of democracy in the Netherlands and even in the world. There are separate elections for this governing body, and the earliest forms of this type of body exist from the 12th century. The reason it is not part of the regular government is that this way politicians can’t cut back funds for safety measures and maintenance. Like for example happened in New Orleans.

The reason that the lady is looking (played) grumpy, is because of his obsession about the water management in The Netherlands. :)

Holland is different from the Netherlands or the dutch. Holland is made from two provinces (I think the translation is) while the Netherlands refers to the entire country and the dutch refers to the people in the country.

We, the Dutch, did not start with gaining land from the sea but with small defenses against it. Farms and villages were build on artificial hills that stayed dry during floods, so people and live stock would survive. Little by little these tossed up hills (only 10 to 20 feet high) were connected with long stretching dikes to travel during high water. We created sluices that let the water out when the sea was low, and closed them when the tide turned. In this way we kept the land behind the dikes dry all year round. This was also done at the dam in the Amstel river. Later when we learned how to use windmills for powering all sorts of mechanical tasks, we started to use them as pumps. First to drain small lakes, with not much more technical things. Then we started to build a dike around the lake so water could not reenter, and used the mills to pump away the water. The lakes were a threat to farms and towns because during a storm they would wash away the banks and grow dangerously. When most of these growing lakes were tamed and turned into fertile agricultural land, we started at a bigger scale. Shallow waters near rivers were surrounded by dikes and the mills did their work. But the estuary in the middle of our country, the Zuiderzee (Soutern Sea) kept growing after each ferocious storm. That is why and how the plans of engineer Lely were realized, closing of the Zuiderzee with a big dam to protect the lands around this estuary. And that is where the video started, in big lines. This dam was finished in 1932. They planned to gain land by laying long and heavy dikes around big areas. For such enormous areas, windmills wont do the job, not even steam engines that were used to drain the last big lakes, but electrical powered pumping stations and a lot of technology is used to keep the areas dry and fertile.

around the 8 minute mark '''''salt does NOT evaporate

@4:20 this mans on a roll...thats another mistake...the Netherlands is not "Sinking" it is however depressing because the Alps are still rising and due to the leverage effect of the continental shelf it is lowering but it is not sinking, it is in fact below sea level or rather we pumped out the sea and thus parts of it are on the former sea bed or lake beds if you will, the area was and remains swampland, its like saying the amazon delta is sinking or the lakebed of lake ontario is sinking... as if the land is somehow afloat on top of the water and sprung a leak...well thats not how geology works

@11:35 kind of forgets to mention that the last time these "walls" broke on a big scale was because we didnt exactly had much oppertunity to maintain them while...youknow...getting bombed to fuck by the nazis and being occupied for 5 years... but sorry we should have done better... i know ... (sorry for my cynical sneer, but on the bright side; comments are good for the algorithm)

@4:00 "has to do with the same thing" and "is the same thing" is quite different.. so no, Holland a former province split in two, the most populous and governmental central part of the Netherlands is one of the then main 17 or 7 (depends which time period) of regions that together form a united .... former republic but now kingdom of the netherlands... which...not coincidently is the same model as say...the united states (or rather THESE united states of america) ....the Netherlands is the whole union including complete peoples groups outside the dutch namely the Frissians and with some argument you can count Limburg as seperate and with some argument you can include the flemmish either as a dutch group or an own etnicity , the Dutch are the dutch peoples group named after the main person standardizing the early language (Nassau von Dietz) , which if one has paid attention would be ultimately wrong to call a frissian dutch since frissians have been here just about a few thousand years longer then the dutch , frissians being more related to danish jutlanders (east and west frissians) while the Dutch are franco-saxon as are the flemmish while the limburgers are closer related to high germanics ... and that is just a ultimately faulty but for brevity sake somewhat more accurate description . (for example the Netherlands proper is not the Same as the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the latter which includes aruba bonaire curacao sint maarten (well half of it with 2 airports 6 miles apart because well never like the french) Saint eustacius and Saba)

The Dutch helped and are still helping New Orleans 🐱‍👤😎👍

If some one is in doubt he/she cant do something or its is imposible point to that little country , and say did not exist a hundred years ago. Nothing is imposible .

He doesn't mention it in this video, but that water color difference you thought was so cool, it's actually visible from space, which is a pretty cool thing.

10:02 The green water on the left is actually the freshwater lake. It looks green because the water in there is not moving very much, so there's a lot of plants growing on the bottom. The seawater on the right is much clearer because it's refreshed twice a day by the changing tides, causing strong currents.

The last 'defeat' was the 'perfect storm' in the night of january 31st to february 1st 1953 in the Zeeland province and parts of South Holland. The dikes there were damaged severely during the battle of the Schelde in october/november 1944. After the war they were rebuilt provisionally, but they could not withstand the forces of nature. Also due to the lack of maintenance in the post war period.

9:38 See? That's what I've told you in one of your other reaction videos. You have so much eye for the tiniest piece of detail. I never noticed the difference in colour of the water. Your eye for detail and your curiosity are two things I really like about your reaction videos. It just makes me look at things differently as well. Thanks :-) 10:33 Holy shit. I never realized that! I knew it, but didn't realize that we've been using one force of nature to fight another force of nature. So basically Mother Nature is our b*tch, right? ;-) 11:39 Yes there are wall watchers. On their first day on the job they have this pledge. It's something like: "(...) and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. (...)" hehe Just kidding obviously, but we do have dike watchers. 15:00 There you have it. Told you the answer to your, Tex' and Highly's question on why The Netherlands is the tulip capital of the world is a short answer. :P

I am not an expert on desalination of water, but I think there are two methods used to get the salt water out: 1) have a river flush all the salt water out 2) make sure no new salt water can come in, and plant things like reed that dont mind the salty water that much, use crops that like the salt and take it out, then (after 15 years or so), you have normal soil (without the sea salt).

L ❤

New York is jam full off cars is because all cars HAVE TO DRIVE THROUGH New York to get to other places!!In the Netherlands we have some kind off ring roads to get those cars to other places AROUND AMSTERDAM.That takes a lot off car traffic OUT off the city..

L IS FRES 8ts moore bl

yes from salt to fresh water. in the Netherlands you can drink tap water witout a problem. and the last flood was in 1953 in zeeland

The Dutch, the Netherlands and Holland are *not* all the same thing.

Flatness is not a reason for using bikes, maybe in a in a city full of buildings, it's give you some comfort, but on normal roads. Our Government, Cities, Villages created a environment to use bikes, or to walk. You know the wind is not always blowing from behind, in my experience mostly at front. Aside is more bad, the wind blows you off road. The reason to use a bike more as a car are fuel prices and car-tax. I'm paying 1.80 Euro a liter, and 45 euro a month, for driving my small Skoda Roomster. I have to drive a car Nower days, bad knees and riding a bike, it won't work. OfCourse using Public transport, in Holland ok, but going more into the real Netherlands, next to the Randstad ,.... In my town, every half hour a bus, starting at 7.15, not later as 20.00, in the weekends.... nope. That's the difference between Holland and the Netherlands. By the way the narrotor got a lot of things wrong Like the fight to the Ocean. There is no Ocean nearby the Netherlands, only the Nord sea. The fight against water is not only the sea, but also rivers, floating out of Belgica, Germany. Much of the coast of the Netherlands is not hand built. A natural barrier made of natural sand dunes and Islands at the top. And the Netherlands is not all flat, Parts of the Veluwe, Sallandse Heuvelrug, Southern part of Zuid Limburg, not flat at all.

Cycling along the "Afsluitdijk"? Many a cycle enthusiast has done that already ..... and by hardcore cyclists often made into a "rondje IJsselmeer" (tour around the entire IJsselmeer) which is about 166 miles that on a touring bike will take about 14 hours, but on a racing bike probably can be done in 8-10 hours

Because of peat oxydation the land is sinking 1 cm per year. The sea will be rising with 1 cm per year (projection). We can handle another 150 cm of sea level rise. You can calculate when it is over, in the Netherlands. (I guess with technological improvements we will manage another 200 years and then we should learn German, I suppose).

It started a lot earlier than 500 years ago. Although that is roughly when the major reclamations started. But 500 years before that cultivation of the land already involved drainage systems, polders and dykes to protect arable land and villages were often situated on a 'terp' (a mound). These were managed by local councils, from which some members were elected to check on the maintainance of the structures. In 1255 the first official 'watercounty' (Rijnland) was installed by the Count of Holland. These watercounties are the oldest more or less democratically elected bodies of government in the Netherlands. And they still exist to this day, their function enshrined in the constitution, complete with board elections and headed by a 'dijkgraaf' (dyke count, a title that has stuck since the 13th century).

@4:50 no about 5000 years we started to fight back, we just wernt called dutch then ... but nevermind that one... but flee... for one why would you flee something thats one of the best trade hubs in the world...but moreover...where do you suppose we flee to? ... spain? ... other coastal areas? ... or do you think people want to live in landlocked places like Moldova or Lesotho ?... because if you do (maker of the video not you simple) ...well... then you don't understand basic human needs and risk-reward ratios (for fks sake; theres people living in the shadow of active vulcanos and next to earthquake lines..like say...yellowstone and the san andreas faultline, dno why those 2 specific examples but theres others ;) ) ... theres some downsides but even a bit of investigation will tell you that we have had less floods then "technically less risky areas" because we have incentive to 1) maintain our coastal protection constantly and 2) we do not have full strength tropical hurricanes like say.... florida...new orleans ... the biggest issues is not even with the sea which is fairly predicable but with rivers overflowing due to snowmelt in the alps in germany and austria .... I mean I dont expect just random people to know these things but if one is going to make a video AND pretend to knowitall i do expect some research into it since it isnt exactly impossible to find this information (or even if...just ask dutch people since we have absolutely no shame in spending a few hours talking about the finer details of water)

@11:55 that would be 1953 ... you ask great questions the maker of the video you are watching could learn a lot from you , sometimes its much more informative to ask things then to make up things because knowitall mentality ... 1953 and the area of my family was one of the worst hit ... weve had smaller river floods more recent which are almost impossible to completely prevent due to some weeks there being just so much snowmelt rushing down the meas and rhine rivers that its hard to keep it in, but we have uiterwaarden which are basicly places designated for flooding in such events preventing flooding of more valuable and more populated regions... one of the bigger of these river floods was just this year with a couple of million euros in damages, some injuries but otherwise well managed

@11:20 this one just keeps bringing gems... no most of the dutch coastline is not concrete and/or asphalt "walls" (im going to stick with it, i mean we have very specific words for each of these things but walls...fine) ... most of the coastline consists of natural dunes

the yellow blue thing whasn't a metro but a train. you can only take your bike in the low hours, not during rush hours. the afsluitdijk the big dike they build to close of a part of the sea is, 32km long it takes around 25 to 30 minutes to drive over it, by car. you can also bike or walk.

Not sure how slow you drive ?? It is only a few feet short of 20mi. The last time serious water trouble was here is 1953, the big flood in the south which was the major cause to built the Delta Works.

@8:45... half an hour ...its a lot shorter then driving around the whole goddarn lake/sea tho ;) .. and obviously it has a bicycle path... its a good challenge especially against the wind, makes you into a stong boy or gal

@4:30 well that for example is not a map of holland bar Texel ... but while "strips of land" is technically a term you can use, most people would call them sandbanks, a good portion of them temporary and wandering, which btw we could close of but we keep due to its unique function for migratory birds who during summer and winter travel like to use the netherlands as a midway rest stop , in that vein its also a unesco heritage site and thus also partly 'of everyone else' , for bonus; they are also technically not in the north sea but in the waddensea but ill forgive that distinction

Lol @ that point you stopped at 3.50 ( which is 300 meters from where i live) It's often pretty busy and if you're not careful there is big chance you'll get hit by a tram hahaha

@15:00 well flowers and decorative plants generally, if i remember right we provide something like 70 or 80% of the worlds big events cut flowers, but also in brabant theres massive fields with just decorative garden trees , people pay good money for it and not many nations care to see it as a main product

Ohhh amsterdam is full of cars, loaded as well, but big difference is that many use bikes as well so traffic isn’t as bad as in New York luckily.

@2:25 not looks...there is a giant land bridge up the top, the afsluitdijk in which the former southern sea (salt) was turned into the ijselmeer (fresh) ... more interestingly is the prototype power station thats on it; a 250 mW osmosis (difference between sweet and salt) powered generator...if you are interested: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-idXhRiG0EWE.html, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SVkCwv48dhA.html , ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-W31CTzVGzYY.html (this last one is the best but sadly no close caption.. i dont have time to translate but if you want to make a video on it I can put some time in translating it so it does have close caption, if you want react under and well set something up, ive got discord if we need to coordinate)

First we fought back. Until we realist we would never win. So we started to work with the water.

Last comment, no timestamp needed... the maker of the video seems to think dikes (or walls) are concrete, but dikes like the afsluit dike have a foundation of bundled willow branches that are hand placed, then weighed down by rocks, and then layered with sand and clay then covered with more bundled willow branches then weighed down with more rocks and finally covered with either top soil or a thin layer of concrete mostly for making it smooth, nowadays theres also alternatives to willow branches but in principle its still the most cost effective and best ways to do it

@13:00 well we would use the word "noodgedwongen" (from need forced) rather then "intentionally" since without it you can't live here and it would be a soggy swamp so given the options "not live" and "live like this" it's not that theres other options but we intentionally choose this impressive but also expensive and labour intensive option

@13:00 Ill give that one a "partly true" obviously our water management created prerequisites for amsterdam and rotterdam becomming respectively large banking and trade hubs but frankly the fact that the first stock exchange and relative liberal and uniform trade laws were set up here has been the biggest part in that not the water management an sich, in fact even in the 21st century it takes a lot of convincing (or a massive flood killing many) to get fairly rich nations (read the richest in the world) that it might not be a bad idea to pay some dutch experts to make sure your river delta on the missipi is a bit better protected

@8:20 though you can make drinking water from salt water with evaporators it either costs a lot of time or a lot of energy , while we have ample rivers and aquifers , we make most drinking water either by pumping it from auqafirs or by collecting rain water and then treating it (settling then biological processing filtration and then more settling)

@1:50 its theatre but i get that reaction... to us its like...ye water...thats our life... has been since people live here...in the entire history... its like if you are a long person and every strangers comes and tell you you are long... at some point you get a bit... yeye im long, i know, water ...yeye water... we manage it... we have...we will... call us if you need waterworks.

@11:40 well they are called Dike-counts (as in the nobel title of count) but ye, every meter of dike is monitored, measured, and charted

If you like to understand why. Look at the disaster with ths big flood of 1953

@9:20 he forgets a piece the first flevopolder is on the left hand side of the former sea in the north the smallest of the lot to finetune the techniques, its right under the left end of the "wall" as he calls it (we would say a dike but wall sure well go with that) .. behind the second "wall" is the markerwaard which originally was also supposed to be made into a polder but over the decades our agriculture became so efficient that we simply did not require the land anymore , personally my idea is to still make it a polder but then make it into a giant national park right between amsterdam and almere for nature and leisure sake

The last flood was actually last summer. But it wasn't the sea, but the Meuse river that overflooded. This river enters the Netherlands from the very south of the country (near Maastricht) and flows towards the sea. There was a massive railfall in Belgium which made the river overflow and thus almost flooded the southern province (if it weren't for the river dikes).

3 j a co

@9:50 on this pic; left side is the salt waddensea , right side is the lake , you can see the salty seafoam on the left and if you are more familiar you can also see that this is the dike end at Den Oever by the shape, meaning hes standing on the west end looking north east over the dike

The Dutch never beat the ocean, The maybe beat the sea, the Northsea. Not the ocean.

The last dike breach was in 1953.

11:40 yes we have they are called dijkgrafen or dike wardens

The rivers can case huge floods.its not only the sea

Reaction video make me proud as a Dutchman because it is sometimes so normal to live as it is in the Netherlands...Come visit us, you and friends can have a free stay at my home because I have enough space, free to go anywhere and just enjoy the Netherlands. I drive The Afsluitdijk weekly 2 or 3 times and is 32 km long.

Last disaster of flooding was in 1953.

What's up with you and all these Dutch video's? 🙂

To react to 12:02. We had a major flood in 1953.

9:53 Yes, you're looking from Den Oever (pronounced Then Oover) in the direction of Friesland. Left is the sea, right the lake. On Google Earth the color difference is noticable too. Especialy between the different parts of the lake.

8:00 - Ehhh, what? The salt evaporates?

dijkgraaf is one holder/checker

Yep we had beef with Poseidon so we got The Anemoi to fight him for us...playing one against the other. 😎

12:00 last big thing was 1953

the reason our reclaimed soil is so furtile is because its compacted by having plantmatter grow and rot into it which makes peat. Very rich in all kinds of neutriants and sometimes even burnt like coal. The netherlands is very rich in clay in general because its 3 main rivers.

1953 in Zeeland

I believe there is a yearly competition where people bike over the "Big wall" against heavy winds.

You made some valid points that I never even thought about!

The wall, as you call it, from 1976 was actually the start of a new polder called the Markerwaardpolder. The polder was eventually cancelled, which is why there's only this one dike (which is now a road between the new province of Flevoland and the old land of Noord-Holland) But the polders that were made are so impressive. Lots of nature in the new land too which is great:)