Andorra, a landlocked principality of 468 square kilometres in the eastern Pyrenees between France and Spain, is made of high valleys around the Valira rivers, and people have lived in them since hunters sheltered in the rock shelter of the Balma de la Margineda about 11,700 BCE. Neolithic farmers buried their dead at La Feixa del Moro and at Segudet, Bronze Age herders settled the slopes of El Cedre, and the Iberian Andosins, whom Polybius names among the peoples Hannibal met in 218 BCE, were drawn into Roman Hispania Tarraconensis. After the Visigothic kingdom, whose bishopric of Urgell is attested about 527, and the Muslim conquest of 711, the Franks made the Alt Urgell part of the Marca Hispanica. Andorran tradition credits Charlemagne with a founding charter, which is echoed in the anthem El gran Carlemany, but the document is a later forgery; the first written mention of the Andorran parishes is the Act of Consecration of Urgell Cathedral, dated 839.

In 988 Count Borrell II exchanged his rights in the valleys with the church of Urgell, and in 1133 Count Ermengol VI ceded his last claims to the bishop. The bishops entrusted the valleys to the lords of Caboet, whose rights passed by marriage to the viscounts of Castellbò and in 1208 to the Counts of Foix, and the quarrel between bishop and count ended in the Paréage of 8 September 1278 between Bishop Pere d’Urtx and Count Roger-Bernard III, completed on 6 December 1288. The two became joint lords of Andorra, and the arrangement still underlies the co-principality. In 1419 the Andorrans were allowed to form the Consell de la Terra, which bought the Casa de la Vall in Andorra la Vella in 1702. The Foix inheritance passed to Navarre in 1479, and in 1589 Henry of Navarre brought the co-lordship to the French crown; his edict of 1607 made it permanent. Andorra kept its privileges through the wars of Catalonia and Spain, and recorded its customs in the Manual Digest of 1748 and the Politar of 1763.

The French Revolution refused the Andorran tribute as feudal in 1793, and Napoleon restored the co-principality in 1806. After the Carlist wars, the New Reform of 22 April 1866 gave the vote to all heads of household, a rebellion overthrew the Consell General in 1881, and the young Andorrans who seized the Casa de la Vall on 5 April 1933 won universal male suffrage. In July 1934 the adventurer Boris Skossyreff proclaimed himself King Boris I and was arrested within days. Andorra was neutral in the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, a refuge, a smugglers’ route and an escape route over the Pyrenees. After 1945 duty-free shopping, ski resorts, radio stations and banking brought a tourist economy, mass immigration from Spain, Portugal and France turned native Andorrans into a minority, the population rose from 6,176 in 1950 to 88,941 in 2026, and women gained the vote in 1970.

A reform of 1981 separated the executive from the Consell General, and Òscar Ribas Reig became the first head of government on 8 January 1982. A constitution approved by referendum on 14 March 1993 and in force from 4 May made Andorra a sovereign parliamentary co-principality, with the Bishop of Urgell and the President of France as co-princes; the country joined the United Nations on 28 July 1993 and the Council of Europe in 1994. The Madriu-Perafita-Claror valley became its first World Heritage Site in 2004, the euro replaced the peseta and the franc in 2002 and became the official currency by agreement in 2011, and banking secrecy ended with the automatic exchange of financial information in 2018. The EU Association Agreement, negotiated in 2015–2023, was authorised for signature on 16 July 2026. Josep-Lluís Serrano Pentinat has been Bishop of Urgell and co-prince since 31 May 2025, Emmanuel Macron since 2017, and Xavier Espot Zamora has headed the government since 2019. Explore the eight ages below through selected events from the timeline.