Bajoran history goes back 30,000 years and is divided in at least four ages. During their early history, the Bajora ethnic group dominated the other nations on Bajor on a cultural and economic basis. Because of this, the Bajoran people sometimes refer to themselves as the Bajora. One of the earliest known governments is the Old Bajoran Republic. During this time, the Bajorans encountered and battled a non-humanoid species known as the Vorel. The Old Bajoran Republic stretched as far as the Tarvo system. Certain manuscripts dating from the time of the Bajoran First Republic survived to the 24th century.

In 2270, the USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk, made first contact with the Bajoran colony world of Pillagra, in the R-855 solar system. Later rescuing the settlement from the Ascendants, an alien race from the other side of the Bajoran wormhole. In the decades that followed, the Bajoran people were suffering from an unknown problem. It was at this point that the Cardassians approached their people and offered to help them which resulted in the first contact between the two species. Initially coming to the aid of Bajor, over the next twenty years their presence gradually changed becoming oppressive. Twenty years later, the Cardassian Union officially annexed the planet and began the Occupation of Bajor.

In the aftermath of the Cardassian withdrawal, the Bajoran Provisional Government was formed and sought aid from the United Federation. At their invitation, Starfleet took control of the former Cardassion mining platform Terok Nor, now renamed Deep Space 9. Whilst still recovering, the newly freed Bajorans with the aid of Starfleet, discovered an artificial wormhole, known by the Bajorans as the Celestial Temple.