Maybe because Amsterdam is not the capitol of Holland, De Hage or however you spell it, is the capitol city of Holland

I am sorry to have to dispute ' SEARLV ' on this point. Amsterdam is NOT the capital of Holland. It is Den Haag. My parents come from Amsterdam, Amsterdam my be the Capital of North Holland, it is not the Capital of Holland (Netherlands). If you do a search on Google, it will confirm my data. In Australia, Canberra is the Capital city of Australia, it is where the Fedral parliament sits as well as the high court. As 'SEARLV' states DEN HAAG, is Hollands Capital, as that is where Fedral parliament sit and makes laws.

Amsterdam is the capital of The Netherlands. Since the change in the constitution of 1983, article 32 of this constitution explicitly mentiones Amsterdam as the capital of the country. However, the government resides in The Hague since the 16th century. Apart from some small periods, The Hague has also been the place of residence for the monarch. The confusion started in 1808, when Louis Bonaparte made Amsterdam the capital as well as the city of government, and started to live in the Royal Palace at the Dam Square. Two years later, in 1810, he got called back to France, and The Netherlands became French. After the independence of 1813, the government moved back to The Hague, but Amsterdam stayed the capital. The first official reference to this is in the consitution of 1814 (article 30). Though odd, this situation is not unique. Sucre is the capital of Bolivia, while all government institutions (except for the high court of justice) are in La Paz. Yamoussoukro is the capital of Ivory Coast since 1983, but most government institutions are still residing in Abidjan. West-Germany had its government in Bonn, while the official constitutional capital was Berlin. To make things more complicated, Chile has its government in Santiago and its government in Valparaiso. The best are the South Africans: parliament in Cape Town, government in Pretoria, and the high court of justice in Bloemfontein.