Nepal enjoys the glory of always being a sovereign and independent country. It has never been under foreign domination.

Ancient Nepal consisted of many small autonomous states. King Prithivi Narayan Shah unified modern Nepal by bringing these small states together into one nation in 1769. Since then, Kathmandu has been the capital of Nepal. After the Anglo-Nepali War (1814-1816), Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana greatly expanded his powers and established the Rana lineage of hereditary Prime Ministers who ruled Nepal until 1951, when the late King Tribhuvan led a popular revolution which put an end to the Rana autocracy. In 1959, the first general election was held and the parliamentary government was set up for a short period. Nepal experienced the liberal Panchayat system for three decades.

The popular people's movement welcomed the new era of democracy in 1990. A new constitution was written to secure the sovereignty of the people and a democratic political system with constitutional monarchy was established.

Nepal experienced a dark period in its history after the Communist Party of Nepal (Moist) began a violent insurgency throughout the nation in 1996. About 13,000 people: civilian, police and insurgents have been killed during the period.

The royal massacre on June 1, 2001 killed the royal family including their relatives in which only the family of Gyanendra, brother of King Birendra, survived. After the two days of incident Gyanendra was established as new king of Nepal.

In 2005 when King Gyanendra suspended the parliament and encforced martial law. A broad coalition called the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) was formed opposing royal takeover. The SPA led Loktantra Andolan along with Nepal communist Party (Moist) resulting massive and spontaneous demonstrations and rallies. The movement succeeded in returning peoples’ rights back ending a decade long insurgency.

A coalition government formed after the movement. An agreement was made for the monarchy to be abolished and the country to become a federal republic with the Prime Minister becoming head of the state. The constituent assembly election held in April, 2008 and officially a federal republic was established in Nepal in May 2008 by the assembly.

Dr. Ram Baran Yadhav becomes the first president of Federal Republic of Nepal. And currently, the peace keeping process, new constitution drafting and reintegration of former moist combatants are underway.