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In 1729, a county seat was established at the village of Richmondtown, located at the headwaters of the Fresh Kills near the center of the island.

The existence of the borough dates from unification of New York City in 1898. Until 1975, however, the borough was known formally as Richmond.

During the American Civil War on July 13, 1863 opponents of conscription began five days of rioting, the 'Draft Riots' that for a century would be regarded as the worst in United States history.

Archaeological evidence of wampum manufactured in the New York area has been found throughout the Northeast and Great Lakes area, indicating an extensive trading network that flourished among the Lenape and other Native ethnic groups such as the Iroquois, who at times inhabited the area of present-day western New York State. In effect, New York City was a financial center even before the arrival of the Europeans.

The World Trade Center site pays homage to the tragedy by leaving intact the slurry wall (which withstood the force of the destruction and held the waters of the Hudson river back), and by keeping the footprints of the towers available as a memorial site.

The city rebounded somewhat in the mid- and late 1990s due to the steady expansion of the national economy and the stock market boom (or bubble) that took place concomitantly, although stubbornly high unemployment remained a local problem. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, is credited by many for revitalizing Times Square and making the city more "liveable" by cracking down on crime.

New York newspapers were read across the continent as editors James Gordon Bennett, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst battled for readership.

New York County and the Borough of Manhattan are coextensive. As a part of New York City, New York County contains no other political subdivisions. It occupies the whole of Manhattan Island, surrounded by the East River, the Harlem River, and the Hudson River. It also includes some smaller islands, including Roosevelt Island (formerly Welfare Island, and even earlier Blackwell's Island), U Thant Island (officially known as Belmont Island), and a small portion of the North American mainland (Marble Hill) contiguous with The Bronx.

As in much of North America, human habitation appeared in the island fairly rapidly after the retreat of the ice sheet. Archaeologists have recovered tool evidence of Clovis culture activity dating from approximately 14,000 years ago. The island was probably abandoned later, possibly because of the extinction of large mammals on the island. Evidence of the first permanent Native American settlements and agriculture date from about 5,000 years ago (Jackson, 1995).

The building of the New York Subway, as the separate IRT and BMT systems, and the later IND, was a later force for population spread and development. The first IRT line opened in 1904.

The Hudson River is named for Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Netherlands, who explored it in 1609, though the first European to see it, in 1524, was the Italian Giovanni da Verrazano whose expedition was financed by the citizens of Lyon, France, under the auspices of King Francois I. Early European settlement of the area clustered around the river.

Its borough president is Republican James Molinaro, elected in 2001. Two of the three Republicans who sit on the New York City Council are also from Staten Island; however, the portion of the island north of the Staten Island Expressway votes mainly Democratic.