The area to the north west of Burundi is inhabited by Bahutu since the tenth century BC. Their region includes since around 1000 also Present-day Burundi. In the seventeenth century the Batutsi arrive in the area, oppress the Bahutu and establis the Sultanate of Urundi around 1680. After a German occupation in 1884/1896 Urundi is incorporated into German East Africa. During World War I (in 1916) Belgium occupies Urundi and in 1922 it becomes part of the League of Nations Mandate territory of Ruanda-Urundi under Belgian administration. The territory Urundi is converted into a United Nations Trust Territory in 1946. Belgium permits the emergence of competing political parties. Dominant party becomes the multi-ethnic Union pour le Progrès National (Union for National Progress, UPRONA) of prince Louis Rwagasore. In 1961 Ruanda-Urundi recieves autonomy under prime minister Joseph Cimpaye of the Union des Partis Populaires (Union of People's Parties, UPP). After the legislative elections of that year, won by the UPRONA, the new prime minister Rwagasore is assassinated. He is succeeded by André Muhirwa.

A year later, in 1962, Urundi becomes independent as the Kingdom of Burundi, a constitutional monarchy. From 1963 until 1965 the UPRONA prime ministers ar all Bahutu: Pierre Ngendandumwe, Albin Nyamoya and Joseph Bamina. The governments seek a equilibrium between the Bahutu and the Batutsi. After the assassination of prime minister Pierre Ngendandumwe in 1965 the Batutsi Léopold Biha becomes prime minister. The The assassination leads to a series of destabilizing Hutu revolts and subsequent governmental repression. In 1966 King Mwambutsa is deposed by his son prince Ntare IV, who himself is deposed the same year by a military coup lead by Michel Micombero. Micombero abolishes the monarchy and declares the Republic of Burundi, although a de facto military regime dominated by Batutsi emerges. The UPRONA becomes the sole ruling party. After another coup in 1976 Micombéro is succeeded as dictator by Jean-Baptiste Bagaza. He reorganizes the UPRONA to support his dictatorship. In 1987 Bagaza is overthrown by Pierre Buyoya, also a member of the UPRONA.

Burundi develops in 1993 into a presidential parliamentary democracy. The UPRONA candidate is defeated by Melchior Ndadaye of the mainly Bahutu Front pour la Démocratie au Burundi (Fort for Democracy in Burundi, FRODEBU). For the first time a Bahutu becomes president. He forms a coalition of FRODEBU and UPRONA. At the end of 1993 Ndadaye is assasinated. He is succeeded in 1994 by Cyprien Ntaryamira. Three months later Ntaryamira dies in an airplane accident and Sylvestre Ntibantunganya is elected president by the parliament. The Batutsi dominated army stages a coup in 1996 that brings Pierre Buyoya as president to power. In 1998 Burundi gets a transition government and in 2001 a Tutsi-Hutu power-sharing agreement is finalised. This leads in 2003 to the presidency of Domitien Ndayizeye of FRODEBU. Under this agreement elections are supposed to take place in 2004.