Developed out of a hill-fort (18th to 10th c. BC); the name Pola is of Illyrian origin. The end of the 1st century BC marked the beginning of the Roman colonization; around 43 BC. Pula attained the status of a Roman colony.
In the early Middle Ages it was included in the Ravenna exarchate, and from AD 788 it was under the Frankonian rule. After having changed several sovereigns, it fell under the rule of the Aquileian patriarch in 1230, and after 1331 under the protection of Venice all up to the collapse of Venice (1797), when it came under the Austrian rule.
Except for a short period of the French rule (1805-1813), Pula was part of Austria, i.e. the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (until 1918).
The construction of the large shipyard in 1886 made Pula the major Austrian military port; the economic boom, in particular in the field of trade, occurred at the end of the 19th century.
Pula saw the end of the First World War occupied by Italy (1918). According to the Treaty of Rapallo (1920), Pula was ceded to Italy, and after the fall of Italy in 1943, the German troops occupied the town.
At the end of the Second World War Pula was in the hands of the Allied Forces; annexed to the parent country, Croatia, in 1947.