This is the main article of a series that covers the history of Seattle, Washington, a city in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America.

Seattle is a major port city that has a history of boom and bust. Seattle has on several occasions been sent into severe decline, but has typically used those periods to successfully rebuild infrastructure. There have been at least five such cycles:

The lumberindustry boom, followed by the construction of an Olmsteddesigned park system.
The Klondike gold rush started in 1896, but reached Seattle in July 1897. This constituted the largest boom for Seattle proportional to the city's size at the time, and ended the economic woes Seattle had been suffering since the Panic of 1893.
The shipbuilding boom, which peaked during World War I and crashed immediately thereafter, followed by the unused city development plan of Virgil Bogue.
The Boeing boom, followed by general infrastructure building.
Most recently, the boom based on Microsoft and other software, web, and telecommunications companies, such as Amazon.com, AT&T Wireless, and RealNetworks.
Early history of Seattle
What is now Seattle has been inhabited since the end of the last glacial period , for at least 4,000 years. In the mid1850s the Coast Salish peoples of what is now called the Duwamish Tribe and Suquamish, as well as other associated groups and tribes, were living in some 13 villages within the presentday city limits of Seattle. Evidence of continuous human habitation of a village site within the current city limits of the city of Seattle dating back to the 6th century C.E. exists on the Port of Seattle Terminal 107 site, located on the Western bank of the Duwamish River. The site was abandoned in approximately 1800, for unknown reasons. Other notable village sites include the birthplace of Chief Seattle, which was located near the current footprint of the King Street Station.