Natal Bay, around which Durban is centered, provided refuge for seafarers at least as early as 1685, and it's thought that Vasco de Gama anchored here in 1497. With a good port established at Delagoa Bay now Maputo, Mozambique, Natal Bay attracted little attention from Europeans until 1824 when Henry Fynn and Francis Farewell set up a base here to trade for ivory. By 1835 there was a small town with a mission station, and that year it took the name Durban, after the Cape governor.

In 1837 the Voortrekkers crossed the Drakensberg and founded Pietermaritzburg, 80-km northwest of Durban. The next year, after Durban was evacuated during a Zulu raid, the Boers claimed control, renaming it Port Natal. It was reoccupied by a British force later that year, but the Boers stuck by their claim. The British sent troops to Durban but they were defeated at the Battle of Congella in 1842. The Boers retained control for a month until a British frigate arrived and dislodged them.

The next year the whole of Natal was annexed by the British and Durban began its growth as an important colonial port city. In 1860 the first indentured Indian arrived to work the canefieldsand soon many more Indian labourers arrived, including, in 1893, Mohandas Gandhi.

With the discovery of gold in the then South African Republic (Transvaal), Durban grew as prospectors poured into the country. The first railway line in Southern Africa was laid at an area called The Point on Durban's harbour. This railway eventually went all the way to the goldmining areas of the Witwatersrand.

During the Boer War (1899 to 1902), Durban was not directly affected by any action apart from the landing of British troops and equipment on their way to the front.

Durban became a part of South Africa in 1910 when the colonies of Natal, the Orange Free State, the Transvaal and the Cape Colony joined together. In the ensuing years, various apartheid laws were enacted. A number of forced removals took place as did riots and demonstrations. There were also a number of clashes between black and Indians, the most famous of these being the 1949 Durban Riots.

In 1994 South Africa held its first all-race elections. Durban was changed from a white-run city to a multiracial governed city. Subsequently the city's boundaries were expanded and it absorbed various satellite cities such as KwaMashu, Umhlanga, Pinetown, Westville, Ballito, Pheonix etc.

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