The Man before conquering the sea, conquered the river. The first boats were intended for the rivers. The Egyptians were the precursors of the river transport. They transported the blocks of stone from the mines to the place of construction by the river. All great civilizations used the rivers to transport their goods: the Nile for Egypt, the Tiger and Euphrate for Mésopotamie and Indus for civilization araméenne.

During the pax romana, shipping was very developed in Gaule Roman.

In China, at the same time, exists a canal system which crosses the Chinese plain where cross pêle-mixes rafts, boats with wheels, barges, sampans and jonques. On the Large Channel (5th-VIIIème century) which connects Peking to Hangzhou (1782 km) certain boats reach 2 000 T the jonque one is the most interesting boat of the Chinese fleet. River or maritime, there were infinite varieties of jonques: smaller with a mast with largest with 4 masts, carrying 700 men and 260 T of freight. The jonque one did not have a skittle but a rudder and did not have a stem with the front one.

The river transport taken then importance with the urban development. Indeed, majority of the necessary goods arrived by boats. The industrial revolution increased the river traffic. The boats were the best means of transporting heavy loads like coal. In the United States, existed the paddle steamers which sailed on the large rivers like Mississippi. But this means was quickly competed with by the train and then the road. Today the river transport is concentrated on large axes like the Rhine or the Danube.