Editing Rotterdam (section)

==History==
{{For timeline}}

===Early history===
[[File:Rotterdam Map by Frederick De Wit c1690.jpg|thumb|left|Map of Rotterdam by [[Frederick de Wit]] ({{Circa|1690}})]]

The settlement at the lower end of the [[fen]] stream ''[[Rotte (river)|Rotte]]'' (or ''Rotta'', as it was then known, from ''rot'', "muddy" and ''a'', "water", thus "muddy water") dates from at least the year 950.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vredenbregt |first1=A.H.L. |last2=Van Trierum |first2=M. C. |title=Rotterdam Markthal, Archeological Research |date=2012 |publisher=Bureau Oudheidkundig Onderzoek Rotterdam |location=Rotterdam |page=81 |edition=1 |url=https://archisarchief.cultureelerfgoed.nl/Archis2/Archeorapporten/32/AR30071/BOORrapporten%20469-1.pdf |access-date=3 January 2021 |language=Dutch |chapter=7.6: Dating of the occupation and the different occupation phases |quote=The habitation phase [...] starts in the middle of the 10th century (circa 950) and continues until [...] around the middle of the 11th century (circa 1050-1060). (translated) |archive-date=4 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904133310/https://archisarchief.cultureelerfgoed.nl/Archis2/Archeorapporten/32/AR30071/BOORrapporten%20469-1.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Around 1150, large [[flood]]s in the area ended development, leading to the construction of protective [[Levee|dikes]] and dams, including ''Schielands Hoge Zeedijk'' ("Schieland's High Sea Dike") along the northern banks of the present-day [[Nieuwe Maas]] river. A dam on the Rotte was built in the 1260s and was located at the present-day ''Hoogstraat'' ("High Street").

On 7 July 1340, Count [[William II, Count of Hainaut|Willem IV of Holland]] granted [[City rights in the Low Countries|city rights]] to Rotterdam, which then had a population of only a few thousand.<ref>{{cite web |date=9 March 2015 |title=Geschiedenis van Rotterdam |url=http://www.rotterdam.nl/tekst:bescheiden_begin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305123510/https://www.rotterdam.nl/tekst:bescheiden_begin |archive-date=5 March 2016 |publisher=Gemeente Rotterdam}}</ref> Around the year 1350, a shipping canal (the ''[[Schie|Rotterdamse Schie]]'') was completed, which provided Rotterdam access to the larger towns in the north, allowing it to become a local trans-shipment centre between the Netherlands, [[England]] and [[Germany]], and to [[Urbanization|urbanize]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Rotterdam - City, Port, History, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Rotterdam-Netherlands |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180310035028/https://www.britannica.com/place/Rotterdam-Netherlands |archive-date=10 March 2018 |access-date=1 March 2018 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref>

Beginning in the 1600's, Rotterdam was involved in the [[Atlantic slave trade]]. According to historian Gerhard de Kok, "Rotterdam merchants were the pioneers of the [[History of Dutch slavery|Dutch slave trade]]". From the 17th century until 1814, when the [[Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands|United Netherlands]] abolished the Netherland's involvement in the slave trade at the request of the [[Government of the United Kingdom|British government]], Dutch [[slave ship]]s from Rotterdam sailed to [[Africa]] and the [[Americas]] as part of the [[triangular trade]]. Rotterdam merchants also sold significant quantities of [[gunpowder]] to [[Zeeland]]-based slave ships.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.erasmusmagazine.nl/en/2020/08/27/why-the-netherlands-slavery-past-is-rotterdams-past-too/ | title=How Rotterdam, too, was involved in the slave trade | date=27 August 2020 }}</ref>

[[File:Detroit Publishing Company - Rotterdam - Delftsevaart, c. 1895.jpg|thumb|left|The Delftsevaart, c. 1890–1905]]
[[File:Standbeeld_Maagd_van_Nederland,_Nieuwe_Markt,_Rotterdam,_1915.jpg|thumb|Nieuwe Markt, 1915]]

The port of Rotterdam grew slowly but steadily into a port of importance, becoming the seat of one of the six "chambers" of the ''Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie'' (VOC), the [[Dutch East India Company]] and one of the five "chambers" of the '' West-Indische Compagnie'' (WIC), the [[Dutch West India Company]].

The greatest spurt of growth, both in port activity and population, followed the completion of the [[Nieuwe Waterweg]] in 1872. The city and harbour started to expand on the south bank of the river. The ''[[Witte Huis]]'' or ''White House'' skyscraper,<ref>{{cite web |title=The ''Witte Huis'' or ''White House'' |url=http://glasssteelandstone.com/BuildingDetail/229.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041220211137/http://glasssteelandstone.com/BuildingDetail/229.php |archive-date=20 December 2004 |url-status=usurped |access-date=15 May 2008}}</ref> inspired by American office buildings and built in 1898 in the French [[Art Nouveau|Art Nouveau style]], is evidence of Rotterdam's rapid growth and success. When completed, it was the tallest office building in Europe, with a height of {{cvt|45|m|2}}.

===20th century===
[[File:Rotterdam, Laurenskerk, na bombardement van mei 1940.jpg|thumb|left|Rotterdam centre after the [[Rotterdam Blitz|1940 bombing of Rotterdam]]. The ruined [[Grote or Sint-Laurenskerk (Rotterdam)|St. Lawrence Church]] has been restored.]]
[[File:Rotterdam-Kop van Zuid, World Portcenter, Montevideo en hotel New York foto12 2011-01-09 14.12.JPG|thumb|[[Tower block]]s in the [[Kop van Zuid]] neighbourhood]]

During [[World War I]], the city was the world's largest spy centre because of Dutch neutrality and its strategic location between Britain, Germany and German-occupied Belgium. Many spies who were arrested and executed in Britain were led by German secret agents operating from Rotterdam. [[MI6]] had its main European office on de Boompjes. From there the British coordinated espionage in Germany and occupied Belgium. During World War I, an average of 25,000 Belgian refugees lived in the city, as well as hundreds of German deserters and escaped Allied prisoners of war.<ref>Ruis, Edwin. ''Spynest. British and German Espionage from Neutral Holland 1914–1918''. Brimscombe: The History Press, 2016.</ref>

During [[World War II]], the German army [[German invasion of the Netherlands|invaded the Netherlands]] on 10 May 1940.<ref>{{harvnb|Evans|2008|pp=122–3}}.</ref> [[Adolf Hitler]] had hoped to conquer the country in just one day, but his forces met unexpectedly fierce resistance. The Dutch army was forced to capitulate on 15 May 1940, following the [[Rotterdam Blitz|bombing of Rotterdam]] on 14 May and the threat of bombing other Dutch cities.<ref>{{harvnb|Brongers|2004|loc=(ONR Part III), p. 235}}</ref>{{sfn|Amersfoort|2005|p=369}}{{sfn|Götzel|1980|pp=149, 150}}<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Helen Hill Miller |title=Rotterdam - Reborn from Ruins |journal=[[National Geographic]] |date=October 1960 |volume=118 |issue=4 |pages=526–553}}</ref> The heart of Rotterdam was almost completely destroyed by the [[Luftwaffe]]. Some 80,000 civilians were made homeless and 900 were killed; a relatively low number since many had fled the city because of the warfare and bombing going on in Rotterdam since the start of the invasion three days earlier. The City Hall survived the bombing. [[Ossip Zadkine]] later attempted to capture the event with his statue ''[[De Verwoeste Stad]]'' ('The Destroyed City'). The statue stands near the Leuvehaven, not far from the [[Erasmusbrug]] in the centre of the city, on the north shore of the river Nieuwe Maas. In 1941, 11,000 Jews still lived in Rotterdam. Before the war there were 13,000. Between 30 July 1942, and 22 April 1943, 6,790 people were deported in 8 transports via Loods 24. The vast majority of the Jews who were deported via Loods 24 were murdered in [[Sobibor extermination camp|Sobibór]] and [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz-Birkenau]]. Research in 2000 showed that 144 people survived the deportations. In 2013 the {{Ill|Jewish Children's Monument|nl|Joods Kindermonument (Rotterdam)}} was unveiled.

In January 1948, [[Wilhelmina of the Netherlands|Queen Wilhelmina]] presented the motto 'Sterker door strijd' (Stronger through effort) as part of the [[coat of arms of Rotterdam]] to the city government:

''...as a reminder also for posterity of the courage and strength with which the people of Rotterdam bore all the trials of the war and the important part they took in the liberation of the fatherland....''
—Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

Rotterdam was gradually rebuilt from the 1950s through to the 1970s. Because the city centre was largely destroyed, new spatial infrastructure could be built, making it an open and modern city. In 1953 the [[Lijnbaan]] was opened, the first car-free shopping street in Europe. The progressive design attracted a lot of international attention, in which film and television played an important role.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Paalman |first=Floris |title=Cinematic Rotterdam: The Times and Tides of a Modern City |publisher=010 Publishers |year=2011 |isbn=9789064507663 |location=Rotterdam |language=en}}</ref> The new [[Rotterdam Centraal station|Central Station]] was completed in 1957, with the [[Groothandelsgebouw]] from 1953 next to it. The [[Euromast]] was erected in 1960 on the occasion of the [[Floriade (Netherlands)|Floriade]].
From the 1980s onwards the city councils began developing an active architectural policy. The harbours were moving westwards and the old environment had to be reshaped. Daring and new styles of [[apartment]]s, office buildings and recreation facilities resulted in a more '[[Quality of life|livable]]' city centre with a new skyline. In the 1990s, the [[Kop van Zuid]] was built on the south bank of the river as a new business centre. Rotterdam was voted 2015 European City of the Year by the Academy of Urbanism.<ref name="Academy of Urbanism" /> A profile of Rem Koolhaas in ''[[The Guardian]]'' begins "If you put the last 50 years of architecture in a blender, and spat it out in building-sized chunks across the skyline, you would probably end up with something that looked a bit like Rotterdam".<ref name="Wainwright 2013">{{cite news |last=Wainwright |first=Oliver |title=Rem Koolhaas's De Rotterdam: cut and paste architecture |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/nov/18/rem-koolhaas-de-rotterdam-building |url-status=live |work=The Guardian |date=2013 |access-date=3 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190103210450/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/nov/18/rem-koolhaas-de-rotterdam-building |archive-date=3 January 2019}}</ref>