The Raglan area has been inhabited for at least 800 years and was originally known by M?ori as Whangaroa �the long pursuit�. To avoid confusion with another place of the same name, Whaingaroa was later adopted to avoid confusion. The current name of Raglan was adopted in 1858 in honour of Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Lord Raglan, who was the commander of British forces in the Crimean War at the time.
The first Europeans to settle in the area were the Rev James and Mary Wallis who were Wesleyan Missionaries that local M?ori embraced and welcomed in 1835. European settlement including large scale conversion of land to pasture commenced in earnest almost 20 years after the mission in the mid 1850�s after a large sale of land by Chief Wiremu Neera Te Awaitaia.
The local Raglan economy was supported initially by flax and timber exports, these were followed by farming and dairy which are still the mainstays of the area. Tourism and the arts are also significant contributors to the current economy. Raglan and District Museum contains historic art efacts and archives from the region. A new museum building was built in 2011.
The town was the scene for very public civil disobedience campaigns in the 1970s. During World War II the New Zealand Government took local ancestral land from indigenous M?ori owners to construct a military airfield. When no longer required for defence purposes, part of the land, a 62-acre (250,000 m) block, was not returned to the owners but became the public Raglan golf course.
There was widespread protest and attempts to reoccupy the land, and in 1978 20 M?ori protesters were arrested on the ninth hole of the golf course. The land was eventually returned to the owners to become a focus for local job-training and employment programs, as well as for the M?ori sovereignty movement
