Rozenburg Island was formed centuries ago from several sand bars in the mouth of the river Maas. In 1568 construction started on the first set of
dikes and in 1586 the land known as
Roosenburgh was leased to Dirk Ariensz. Bisdommer and Son, the first permanent inhabitant of Rozenburg. In 1950, the Nieuwe Maas (or Brielse Maas) was dammed off at both ends of Rozenburg Island, thereby forming
Brielse Meer and connecting it to
Voorne-Putten Island. Beginning in the same period, most of the island was given to
industrial enterprise, part of the
Port of Rotterdam (
Botlek and
Europoort). When these sea ports were being planned in the 1950s, the councils of
Rotterdam and Rozenburg made the arrangement that Rotterdam would lead the development of the ports and industry, whereas Rozenburg would take care of housing development for the expected population increase. The village of Blankenburg on the island had to be completely removed to make way for new canals and industry. The new housing developments were concentrated around the old village centre of Rozenburg on Het Scheur. In a short period, its population rose from 3500 to over 14000. The Hook of Holland bit was extended with a large
polder called
Maasvlakte, which contains large sea harbours and
petrochemical industry. There is a
refinery located in Rozenburg. The
Rozenburg refinery is now owned by Kuwait Petroleum Europort BV which is a subsidiary of
Kuwait Petroleum International, KPI. Image:Beneeden rivier de Maas.jpg|Rozenburg Island in 1769 Image:Brielse Maas2.png|The same region today, Rozenburg Island in green,
Brielse Meer in dark blue. Image:Rozenburg 1867.png|Rozenburg Island in 1867, just before the construction of the Nieuwe Waterweg, its planned route visible in the top left corner Image:RMSDeltaNorth.jpg|Satellite image of the
Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta showing the island of Rozenburg (10) ==Born in Rozenburg==