Present-day Belarus is populated by Baltic and Slavonic tribes since the first century. As far as a Belarusian state, the state of Polatsk emerges in the ninth century, it is absorbed by Rus' in the tenth century. The principality had diverse degrees of autonomy. After the collapse of Rus' in 1240, in the northwest of present-day Belarus, a new state under the name Lithuania starts to flourish. The state is mainly populated by Belarusians. This state, called the Great Lithuanian Principality, includes also Baltic tribes, and absorbs all Belarusian lands. The state language is Belarusian and the Belarusian culture dominates the country.

Lithuania unites with Poland in a personal union in 1386. The two countries are united 1569 as the United Commonwealth of the Two Nations. Lithuania is from now on part of Poland. The Commonwealth includes areas from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. Three divisions between Prussia, Austria and Russia in the period between 1772 and 1792 lead to the disapppearance of the Commonwealth. Present-day Belarus becomes becomes part of Russia.

At the end of World War I, in 1918, major parts of these region, now named Belorussia, are occupied by Germany. Later that year Belarus secedes from Russia as an independent state: originally a Belarusian Democratic Republic, but shortly after the Belarusian People's Republic. In 1919 the country is renamed Belarus Soviet Socialist Republic and becomes a communist dictatorship. At the end of that year Eastern Belarus merges with Soviet controlled areas of Lithuania into the Lithuanian-Byelorussian Socialist Soviet Republic. Poland and Russia fight a war in Belarus, in which in 1920 the Lithuanian-Belorussian SSR collapses.

In 1920 the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Byelorussia) is reconstituted, this republic joins the USSR in 1922. When the USSR invades Poland in 1939 Western Belarus is incorporated in Byelorussia. From 1941 to 1944 Byelorussia is occupied by Germany.

In 1991 the Republic of Belarus secedes under the presidency of the communist reformer Stanislau Shuškevič from the USSR and becomes independent. In 1994 the non-partisan candidate Aljaksandr Rigoravič Lukašenka wins the presidential elections. He establishes an authoritarian regime in which he is supported by the Belaruski Norodona Patrjatčny Sojuz (Belarusian People's Patriotic Union, BNPS). His supporters win the parliamentary elections of 2000 and he himself secures a weeping victory in the 2001 presidential elections.