The royal town of Klang has been a site of human settlement since prehistoric times. Bronze Age drums and other artefacts have been found within the town itself and within the vicinity. Commanding the approaches to the tin rich Klang Valley, Klang has always been of key strategic importance.
The celebrated Tun Perak, the Malacca Sultanate's greatest Bendahara, came from Klang and became its territorial chief. After the fall of Melaka to the Portuguese in 1511, Klang remained in Malay hands, controlled by the Sultan Johor-Riau until the creation of Selangor sultanate in the 18th century.
In the 19th century the importance of Klang greatly increased by the rapid expansion of tin mining as a result of the increased demand for tin from the West. The desire to control the Klang Valley led directly to the Selangor Civil War (sometimes called the Klang War) of 1867–1874 when Raja Mahdi fought to regain what he considered his birthright as territorial chief against Raja Abdullah. He failed and the end result was British intervention and control.
After 1874, the British soon selected Klang over Jugra as the centre of their administration, which it remained until 1880 when they transferred it to the mining centre of Kuala Lumpur.
Klang did not lose its importance, however. Until the construction of Port Swettenham (now known as Port Klang) in 1901, the royal town remained the chief outlet for Selangor's tin, and its position was enhanced by the completion of the Klang Valley railway (to Bukit Kuda) in 1886. In the 1890s its growth was further stimulated by the development of the district into the State' leading producer of coffee, and then rubber.
In 1901, it became the official seat of Sultan Sulaiman (Sultan Alauddin Sulaiman Shah). Today Klang is no longer State capital or the main seat of the Ruler, but it remains the headquarters of the District to which it gives it name
