Villeneuve-Saint-Georges was settled during the Paleolithic and the Neolithic ages at the meeting of the Yerres and the Seine rivers, as well at Triage, with evidence from archeological remains found by Francis Martin in the 19th century, which includes flints and some stone tools.

The strategic position on the road between Paris towards the cities of Melun, Clermont-Ferrand and Lyon made it a transport hub and wan regularly visited and traversed by kings and dukes.

Mansions, like the castles of Beauregard and Bellevue were built in the area, and people of the higher classes visited Villeneuve, like Henry IV of France, Catherine de' Medici and Mme of Sévigné.

Many people came to live in Villeneuve, including composers (Boieldieu), painters (Francesco Casanova, Karl Joseph Kuwasseg) naturalists (Charles Athanase Walckenaer), ministers (Victor Duruy), ceramists (Jean-Paul Louis Chesnel-Larossière), and ambassadors (Louis-Jules Mancini-Mazarini).

On 30 July 1908, following the calls for a 24-hour general strike launched by the General Confederation of Labour to demand a 10-hour day, weekly rest, a salary increase and the end of Piece work, thousands of demonstrators gathered in Vigneux-sur-Seine and Draveil, then converged in the town where a violent confrontation took place between the National Gendarmerie and the workers.

The next day, Georges Clemenceau ordered the arrest of thirty leaders of the CGT, including its general secretary Victor Griffuelhes, to neutralize the union.

A painting by Théodore Rousseau, titled La Seine à Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, which was in the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille was destroyed in 1916.

After the introduction of paid leave, at the time of the great departures on vacation, a derailment on 30 July 1937 left twenty-nine dead and one hundred and eleven injured at the junction between the Brunoy and Corbeil lines.

It has lost its charm during the 18th and 19th centuries, and starting from 1980 workers have deserted the city, leaving a mostly immigrant population, most from the Maghreb and Subsaharan Africa.