[2] The history of Zaandam (formerly called Saenredam) and the surrounding Zaan River region (the Zaanstreek) is intimately tied to industry.

Thousands of windmills powered saws that processed Scandinavian wood for the shipbuilding and paper industries.

[citation needed] In 1697, Tsar Peter I of Russia spent some time in Zaandam, where he studied shipbuilding.

He stayed in a little wooden house built in 1632 but was soon forced to leave because he attracted too much attention from the local population.

[6] The Albert Heijn supermarket chain (founded in nearby Oostzaan in 1887), now grown into the Ahold Delhaize retail company, is headquartered in Zaandam.