The history of Burkina Faso is largely the history of the ancient Mossi Kingdom. Various Mossi states were built up about the 14th century by peoples migrating from the north of modern Ghana. They evolved a strong administrative system and a tradition of divine kingship, which enabled them to prevent their incorporation by any of the Sudanic empires. The kingdom of Songhai, however, conquered the Mossi.

By the 19th century, the Mossi states were weakened. In 1896 the French set up a protectorate over the kingdom of Ouagadougou, and in 1904 the area became part of the colony of Haut-Sénégal-Niger. In 1919 it was made into a separate constituent territory of French West Africa, only to be divided up in 1932 between the French Sudan and Côte d’Ivoire. It was reconstituted as the separate territory of Upper Volta in 1947.

Axes belonging to a Neolithic culture have been found in the north of Burkina Faso. The Bobo, Lobi, and Gurunsi are the earliest known inhabitants of the country. In about the 15th century AD conquering horsemen invaded the region from the south to found the Gurma and the Mossi kingdoms, in the eastern and central areas, respectively. Several Mossi kingdoms developed, the most powerful of which was that of Ouagadougou, in the centre of the country. Headed by an emperor titled the morho naba (great lord), the Ouagadougou Mossi state defeated attempted invasions by Muslim Songhai and Fulani neighbours yet maintained valuable commercial links with major western African trading powers such as the Dyula, the Hausa, and the Asante (Ashanti).