The first inhabitants of Hvar Island were Neolithic people who probably established trade links between Hvar and the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. The Hvar Culture lasted from 3500 to 2500 BC.
Beginning in the 4th century BC, the Greeks colonized the island.In 384 BC the Greek colonisers of Pharos defeated Iadasinoi warriors and their allies, invited by the Hvar indigenes in their resistance to the Greek colonization. Their victory over much larger forces was immortalized in one of the oldest known inscriptions of Croatia.
Hvar in 219 B.C. became a part of the Roman Empire and the Greek name Pharos was changed to Pharia.
After the fall of the Roman Empire the island was under the control of Bisantium. The population increased in the Late Antiquity with an abundance of archeological finds. A large number of new villa rustica in Stari Grad Plain and also on the previously vacant eastern shores was built.
In the early Middle Ages, Slavic tribes occupied the island. In the first half of the 7th century the Narentines took over the island. Venetian sailors saw the island while sailing towards the south and were threatened by the Narentine pirates from the island. In the 11th century the island joined the Kingdom of Croatia.
In the 12th century the rise of the Republic of Venice brought vines and wine cultivation which blossomed into a major industry for the island in the Middle Ages. The island eventually again fell under Byzantine rule, and then under Kingdom of Croatia and Hungary. In 1331 the Venetians put the island under protection from threats of piracy. According to the 1358 Treaty of Zadar, the island was handed over to the Kingdom of Hungary. For short time in the summer of 1390 it was held by the Bosnian king Stephen Tvrtko I. In 1409, the Republic of Venice finally again became its long-term owner.
In the 16th century, an uprising occurred between the plebeians and aristocracy, the most serious of the uprising
