The port town of Rotterdam, the second largest city in the Netherlands, lies on both banks of the Nieuwe Maas, the southern arm of the Rhine, here joined by the little river Rotte. At this point, and for a good distance upstream, the Maas is still tidal, with a variation in water level between high and low tide of between 1.2 and 2.5m (4 and 8ft)
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Since the opening of the Europoort in 1966 Rotterdam has been the largest port in the world in the volume of goods handled, and in consequence has developed into a gigantic commercial and industrial center whose full growth potential is still very far from being realized. The major imports are oil, mineral ores, grain, timber and fats, the main exports coal and foodstuffs; and Rotterdam is also an important transshipment point for raw tobacco. The city's principal industries are shipbuilding (with the largest shipyard in Europe), engineering, the manufacture of railroad rolling stock, electrical engineering, petrochemicals (with the largest plant in Europe), semi-luxury foods and tobacco, clothing manufacture and papermaking. Rotterdam owes its rapid development to its fortunate situation on a navigable waterway with access to the North Sea throughout the year without the intervention of any locks. Its seaport can handle ships of up to 90,000 tons with a draught of up to 12m (39ft), and in addition it has the largest inland port in Europe.
Central Rotterdam was almost completely destroyed by German air attacks in 1940. The energetic rebuilding of the city after the war, re-planned with modern shopping streets and residential districts and with numerous high-rise blocks, has made Rotterdam one of the most modern cities in Europe. Around the city center are the districts of Kralingen to the east, Delfshaven to the west and Feijenoord to the south, with an outer ring of suburbs (Overschie, Hillegersberg, IJsselmonde and Pernis) beyond this. Hoek van Holland (Hook of Holland) also lies within the city area; Schiedam, Vlaardingen and Maassluis are independent towns, though closely adjoining Rotterdam on the west. Together with its surrounding satellite towns Rotterdam now forms a highly industrialized conurbation with well over a million inhabitants.
Rotterdam developed out of a settlement founded in early medieval times. A first period of prosperity began in the 13th century, when a dam was built to separate the little river Rotte from the Nieuwe Maas: hence the name Rotterdam. The town received its municipal charter in 1340. Soon afterwards a canal to the Schie linked it with the then important commercial town of Delft, from the prosperity of which it soon began to benefit. This first period of prosperity saw the birth of Rotterdam's most celebrated citizen, the famous humanist Erasmus (born ca. 1467, d. 1536 in Basle). In 1563 most of the town was destroyed by fire. A new phase of development began, however, in 1585, when many thousands of refugees from the Spanish Netherlands settled in Rotterdam. The manufacture of cloth and carpets in particular brought a further period of prosperity. The port was less important in the 17th century, with only about a fifth of the turnover of the rival town of Amsterdam. The rapid growth of the port began after the split with Belgium, when the Dutch dammed the Schelde (1830-39). The obstacle to the passage of large vessels by the steady silting up of the Maas estuary was removed in 1866 by the construction and constant deepening of the Nieuwe Waterweg, and at the point where it reached the North Sea the new suburb of Hoek van Holland (Hook of Holland) came into being.
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