The first known habitation of Lithuania dates back to the final ice age, 10 000 BC. Farmers slowly replaced the hunter’s gatherers. The origin of Baltic tribes in the area is disputed, but it probably dates to 2500 BC. These forefathers of Lithuanians were outside the main migration routes and thus are among the oldest European ethnicities to have settled in approximately the current area. The word “Lithuania” was mentioned for the first time in the annals of Quedlinburg (the year 1009), where a story describes how Saint Bruno was killed by the pagans “on the border of Lithuania and Russ.”

These Baltic peoples traded amber with Romans and then fought Vikings. In the era, only one small tribe from the area around Vilnius was known as Lithuanians, but it was this tribe that consolidated the majority of other Baltic tribes. This process accelerated under King Mindaugas (ca. 1200– 12 September 1263), who became a Christian and received a crown from the Pope in 1253. Mindaugas was the first and only crowned king of Lithuania 

In the early 13th century, Lithuania was inhabited by various pagan Baltic tribes, which began to organize themselves into a state – the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. By the 1230s, Mindaugas emerged as the leader of the Grand Duchy. In 1249, an internal war erupted between Mindaugas and his nephews, Tautvilas and Edivydas. As each side searched for foreign allies, Mindaugas succeeded in convincing the Livonian Order not only to provide military assistance but also to secure the royal crown of Lithuania in exchange for his conversion to Catholicism and some lands in western Lithuania. The kingdom status was granted on July 17, 1251, when the Bishop of Chełmno was ordered to crown Mindaugas by Pope Innocent IV. Two years later, Mindaugas and his wife Morta were crowned as the King and Queen of Lithuania. In 1255, Mindaugas received permission from Pope Alexander IV to crown his son as King of Lithuania. 

The coronation and the alliance with the Livonian Order allowed a period of peace between Lithuania and Livonia. During that time, the Lithuanians expanded east while Livonia attempted to conquer Samogitia. Enticed by his nephew Treniota, Mindaugas broke the peace after the Order was defeated in the Battle of Skuodas in 1259 and the Battle of Durbe in 1260. Treniota's influence grew as he waged a war against the Order, and his priorities began to diverge from those of Mindaugas. The conflict resulted in the assassination of Mindaugas and two of his sons in 1263. After his death, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania fell back to pagan ways, leading to a centuries-long conflict with Teutonic Knights. The state survived as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the subsequent monarchs were known as Grand Dukes as they could not be crowned as kings until they converted to Christianity, which occurred only in 1387. 

The eventual adoption of Christianity by Grand Duke Jogaila (1387) did not stop the knights. The allied forces of Lithuania and Poland achieved an important victory in the Battle of Žalgiris (Grünwald-Tannenberg) in 1410. The Order of Teutonic Knights was decisively defeated. Ruled by Grand Duke Vytautas, Lithuania became the largest state in Europe, stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea in the 15th century.

A new threat came from the east, with Moscow rapidly gaining power and conquering lands. In response, Lithuania and Poland formed a Commonwealth in 1569. Initially, it was successful in deterring enemies. However, the political union led to the gradual colonization of the Lithuanian nobility, as Lithuanians of the time regarded Polish culture as superior.

By the 17th century, Poland-Lithuania was weakened due to a unique yet hard-to-manage political system of "Noble democracy" where a consensus was a prerequisite for any important decision. The Commonwealth lost a series of wars that wiped out its great power position. In the late 18th century (1772-1795), the country was completely partitioned and annexed by Prussia, Austria, and Russia, with the main Lithuanian lands falling under Russian rule. 

The Russians banned the Lithuanian language and suppressed the Catholic religion. There were two unsuccessful revolts to restore Poland-Lithuania (1830 and 1863), but eventually, the National Revival established a goal for Lithuania to become independent of Russia and Poland. The restoration of statehood finally became possible after the crumbling Russian Empire and the Germans surrendered in World War 1.