Until the beginning of the 18th century, the area between the present borders of Sikkim and the plains of Bengal, including Darjeeling and Kalimpong, belonged to the kings of Sikkim. In 1706 the king lost Kalimpong to the Bhutanese.

And control of the remainder was wrested from them by the Gurkhas who invaded Sikkim in 1780, following consolidation of the latter's rule in Nepal.

These annexations by the Gurkhas, however, brought them into conflict with the British. A series of wars followed, eventually leading to the defeat of the Gurkhas and the ceding of all the land they had taken from the Sikkimese to the British. Part of this territory was restored to the king of Sikkim and the country's sovereignty guaranteed by the British in return for British control over any disputes which arose with neighboring states.

One such dispute in 1828 led to the dispatch of two British officers to this area, and it was during their fact-finding tour that they spent some time at Darjeeling. The officers were quick to appreciate Darjeeling's value as a site for a sanatorium and hill station, and as the key to a pass into Nepal and Tibet. The officers' observations were reported to the authorities in Calcutta and a pretext was eventually found to pressure the king into granting the site to the British.
The transfer, however, rankled with the Tibetans who regarded Sikkim as a vassal state. Darjeeling's rapid development as a trading centre and tea-growing area in a key position along the trade route leading from Sikkim to the plains of India began to make a considerable impact on the fortunes of the lamas and leading merchants of Sikkim. Tensions arose and eventually the British annexed the whole of the land between the present borders of Sikkim and the Bengal plains, and withdrew the Raja's annual stipend.
These annexations brought about a significant change in Darjeeling's status. Previously it had been an enclave within Sikkimese territory, and to reach it the British had to pass through a country ruled by an independent king. After the takeover, Darjeeling became contiguous with British territory further south and Sikkim was cut off from access to the plains except through British territory. This eventually led to the invasion of Sikkim by the Tibetans and the British military expedition to Lhasa.

When the British first arrived in Darjeeling it was almost completely forested and virtually uninhabited, though it had once been a sizeable village before the wars with Bhutan and Nepal.

Development was rapid and by 1840 a road had been constructed, numerous houses and a sanatorium built and a hotel opened. By 1857 Darjeeling had a population of some 10,000.

The population increase was due mainly to the recruitment of Nepalese laborers to work the tea plantations established in the early 1840s by the British. Even today, the vast majority of people speak Nepali as a first language and the name Darjeeling continues to be synonymous with tea.
The immigration of Nepali-speaking peoples, mainly Gurkhas, into the mountainous areas of West Bengal, eventually led to political problems in the mid-1980s. Resentment had been growing among the Gurkhas over what they felt was discrimination against them by the government of West Bengal. Their language was not recognized by the Indian constitution and government jobs were thus only open to those who could speak Bengali.

The tensions finally came to a head in widespread riots throughout the hill country which continued for several years, and in which hundreds of people lost their lives and thousands were mode homeless. Tourism came to a grinding halt. The movement was lead by the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), led by Subash Ghising, which demanded a separate state to be known as Gorkhaland.
A compromise was eventually hammered out in late 1988 whereby the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) was given a large measure of autonomy from the state government and fresh elections to the council were held. Darjeeling remains part of West Bengal but now has greater control over its own affairs.