The history of Nepal has been influenced by its position in the Himalayas and its two neighbours, modern day India and China. Due to the arrival of disparate settler groups from outside through the ages, it is now a multiethnic, multiracial , multicultural, multi religious, and multilingual country. Central Nepal was split in three kingdoms from the 15th century until the 18th century, when it was re-unified under the Shah monarchy. The national and most spoken language of Nepal is Nepali

Nepal experienced a struggle for democracy in the 20th century. During the 1990s and until 2008, the country was in civil strife. A peace treaty was signed in 2008 and elections were held in the same year. In a historical vote for the election of the constituent assembly, Nepalese parliament voted to oust the monarchy in June 2008. Nepal became a federal republic and was formally renamed the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
Neolithic tools found in the Kathmandu Valley indicate that people have been living in the Himalayan region for at least eleven thousand years ago.[citation needed] The earliest inhabitants of Nepal and adjoining areas were the people from Indus Valley Civilization, a people of Dravidian origin whose history predates the onset of Bronze Age in South Asia around 3300 BCE before the coming of other ethnic groups like the Tibeto-Burmans and Indo-Aryans from across the border.[5]Tharus, people of mixed Dravidian and Austro-Asiatic features are the forest-dwelling natives of Terai region of Nepal.The Kirat people arrived from Tibet[citation needed] some 2000 years ago. Other ethnic groups of Indo-Aryan origin had later migrated to southern part of Nepal from India
Gorkha rule
The old king's palace on a hill in Gorkha

After decades of rivalry between the medieval kingdoms, modern Nepal was reunified in the latter half of the 18th century, when Prithvi Narayan Shah, the ruler of the small principality of Gorkha, formed a unified country from a number of independent hill states. Prithvi Narayan Shah dedicated himself at an early age to the conquest of the Kathmandu Valley and the creation of a single state, which he achieved in 1768.

The country was frequently called the Gorkha Kingdom. It is a misconception that the Gorkhali took their name from the Gorkha region of Nepal; actually, the region was given its name after the Gorkhali had established their control of these areas.

After Shah's death, the Shah dynasty began to expand their kingdom into much of South Asia. Between 1788 and 1791, during the Sino-Nepalese War, Nepal invaded Tibet and robbed Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse. Alarmed, the Qianlong Emperor of the Chinese Qing Dynasty appointed Fuk'anggan commander-in-chief of the Tibetan campaign; Fuk'anggan defeated the Gorkhali army and halted their northward expansion.

After 1800, the heirs of Prithvi Narayan Shah proved unable to maintain firm political control over Nepal. A period of internal turmoil followed.

Rivalry between Nepal and the British East India Company over the princely states bordering Nepal and British-India eventually led to the Anglo-Nepalese War (1814–16), in which Nepal suffered a heavy defeat. The Treaty of Sugauli was signed in 1816, ceding large parts of the Nepali territories of Terai, (nearly one third of the country), to the British
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