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The history of Dhaka begins with the existence of urbanized settlements in the area that is now Dhaka dating from the 7th century CE. The city area was ruled by the Buddhist kingdom of Kamarupa before passing to the control of the Sena dynasty in the 9th century CE.

Many believe that the name of the city was derived after the establishment of the Goddess Dhakeshwari's temple by Raja Ballal Sena in the 12th century CE. The Dhaka area of that time was identified as Bengalla. The town consisted of a few market centers like Lakshmi Bazar, Shankhari Bazar, Tanti Bazar, and a few localities of other craftsmen and businessmen like Patuatuli and Kumartuli, Bania Nagar and Goal Nagar. After the Sena dynasty, Dhaka was successively ruled by the Turkish and Afghan governors descending from the Delhi Sultanate before the arrival of the Mughals in 1608. The Afghan Fort in Dhaka was located at the present Central Jail.

The development of townships, public works and a significant growth in population came as the city was proclaimed the capital of Bengal under Mughal rule in 1608 CE. Mughal subedar Islam Khan was the first viceroy administrator of the city.[2] The city was called "Jahangir Nagar" (City of Jahangir) in honour of the Mughal emperor Jahangir. The greatest expansion of the city took place under Mughal general Shaista Khan (1662-1677 and 1679-1689). The city then stretched for 12 miles in length and 8 miles in breadth and is believed to have had a population of nearly a million people.

The historical Chawk Mosque is located in the bazaar area of the old town of Dhaka, south of the current city centre. It was originally built during the rule of the Mughals in the 17th century and may be the earliest dated mosque built on a high vaulted foundation in Bengal.

The city passed to the control of the British East India Company in 1765 after the Battle of Plassey. Owing to the war, the city's population shrank dramatically in a short period of time.[4] Although an important city in the Bengal province, Dhaka remained smaller than Kolkata, which served as the capital of British India for a long period of time. Under British rule, many modern educational institutions, public works and townships were developed. A modern water supply system was introduced in 1874 and electricity supply in 1878.[5] The Dhaka Cantonment was established near the city, serving as a base for the soldiers of the British Indian Army. Dhaka served as a strategic link to the frontier of the northeastern states of Tripura and Assam.

Following the partition of Bengal in 1905 and again in 1946, Dhaka became the capital of East Bengal. On August 15, 1947 East Bengal became a part of the new Muslim state of Pakistan. The city witnessed serious communal violence that left thousands of people dead. A large proportion of the city's Hindu population departed for India, while the city received hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants from the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam and Bihar. The city's population catapulted in a very short period of time, creating severe shortages and infrastructural problems.[6] As the centre of regional politics, Dhaka saw an increasing number of political strikes and incidents of violence. The adoption of Urdu as the sole official language of Pakistan led to protest marches and strikes involving hundreds of thousands of people. Known as the BengaliLanguage Movement, the protests soon degenerated into widespread violence after police firing killed students who were demonstrating peacefully. Martial law would be imposed throughout the city for a long period of time.

The arrest of Bengali politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1968 would also spark intensive political protests and violence against the military regime of Ayub Khan. The 1970 Bhola cyclone devastated much of the region, killing numerous people. More than half the city of Dhaka was flooded and waterlogged, with millions of people marooned. The following year saw Sheikh Mujib hold a massive nationalist gathering on March 7, 1971 at the Race Course Ground that attracted an estimated one million people. Galvanising public anger against ethnic and regional discrimination and poor cyclone relief efforts from the central government, the gathering preceded the March 26 declaration of Bangladesh's independence. In response, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight, which led to the arrests, torture and killing of hundreds of thousands of people, mainly Hindus and Bengali intellectuals. The fall of the city to the Indian Army on December 16 marked the creation of the independent state of Bangladesh.

Despite independence, political turmoil continued to plague the people of Dhaka. The Pakistan Army's operations had killed or displaced millions of people, and the new state struggled to cope with the humanitarian challenges. The year 1975 saw the killing of Sheikh Mujib and three military coups. The city would see the restoration of order under military rule, but political disorder would heighten in the mid-1980s with the pro-democracy movement led by the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Political and student strikes and protests routinely disrupted the lives of Dhaka's people.

However, the post-independence period has also seen a massive growth of the population, attracting migrant workers from rural areas across Bangladesh. A real estate boom has followed the development of new settlements such as Gulshan, Banani and Motijheel. In 1985, Dhaka hosted the inaugural summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. It has also hosted the summits of the D8 group and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.