Approximately 300,000 years ago, Istanbul gave her lands free for settlement in the Yarimburgaz cave beside Kucuk Cekmece Lake. Human beings of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods around the end of the last Ice Age lived within the cave near the lake. Excavations have uncovered tools belonging to the early Paleolithic period (100,000 years ago).

Beginning in 146 B.C., Byzantion, which was situated at the crossroads of the trade routes, became the administrative center of the Eastern Roman Empire and became known as Nea Roma. As the capital city of the eastern part of the empire, Nea Roma assumed an important role in world politics and culture. In keeping with this new status, new construction was started.Harbors and waterways were reconstructed. In the hippodrome at the center of the city, the emperor and nearly the entire population would gather to watch wild animal races and athletic events and enjoy feasts and celebrations. After Emperor Constantine took the throne, the city was renamed Constantinopolis.

During the period of the height of Ottoman imperial power, the city was covered all over with tulips, in what is known as the "Tulip Era." In the 19th century, efforts modernization were undertaken. Istanbul entered the 20th century worn out and burdened by its history as the capital city of three great empires. At that time, the Ottomans were just about to end their imperial period of 630 years.

After World War I, resistance movements became active during the Allied occupation of Istanbul, an occupation that lasted for nearly five years. When the resistance movement in Anatolia finally gained success, the last of the foreign soldiers left the city on October 5, 1923. On October 6, the Turkish army entered the city heralding the message of a new government led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the leader of the Turkish independence war, and his colleagues had made a decision in the new National Assembly that Istanbul would turn over its function as capital of the new nation to Ankara.