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The United States Virgin Islands, often abbreviated USVI, are a group of islands and cays located in the Lesser Antilles of the Eastern Caribbean, consisting of three main islands (Saint Croix, Saint John, and Saint Thomas) and fifty smaller islets and cays. Like many of their Caribbean neighbors, the history of the islands is characterized by native Amerindian settlement, European colonization, and the Atlantic slave trade. Before the colonial period, the islands were inhabited at different times by the Arawak, Ciboney, and Kalinago peoples. Europeans first encountered the islands during Columbus' second voyage. Over the next century, settlers from across western Europe laid claim to the land and the majority of indigenous peoples either perished or were displaced. The islands initially profited from the triangular trade, and many enslaved peoples were brought to the islands, beginning in 1673. They officially became an unincorporated U. S. territory in 1927. The islands were inhabited at different times by the Arawak, Ciboney, and Kalinago peoples. These tribes were maritime peoples who subsisted primarily on hunting and gathering and used dugout canoes for transportation and fishing. The Ciboney people are thought to be the first to have settled the island, around 300–400 BCE, followed by the Arawaks around 100–200 CE. The majority of rock art on the Virgin Islands is dated to the Ostionoid period, after 1000 CE. During the 14th century, the Kalinago began settling the islands. An archaeological site at Salt River Bay shows evidence that an Arawak religious center was taken over by the Kalinago during the 14th century. Remains of tools and everyday objects crafted from bone, shell, stone, cotton, grass, and hemp have also been discovered on the islands. Pottery from the Arawaks and Kalinago has also been preserved, while a lack of ceramic evidence suggests the Ciboneys did not work with clay.

The first documented Europeans to visit the islands arrived with Christopher Columbus. Blown off course during his 1493–1496 voyage, Columbus landed on Saint Croix, then continued exploring Saint Thomas and Saint John. He gave the islands their original Spanish names—Santa Cruz, San Tomas, and San Juan, all names with religious meanings. The collection of tiny islets, cays, and rocks dotting the sea around them reminded Columbus of Saint Ursula and her 11,000 virgin martyrs, which inspired him to name the archipelago Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Virgenes (English: Saint Ursula and her Eleven Thousand Virgins). In practice, the name was shortened to Las Vîrgenes. In 1625, The English and Dutch took joint possession of Saint Croix. The island was later settled by the French too, leaving all three of these populations living in separate settlements.

Following the Treaty of Copenhagen in 1670, the Danish West India Company was chartered by King Christian V in 1671. Through the charter, the company was permitted to annex any islands "as might be uninhabited and suitable for plantations, or if inhabited, then by such people who have no knowledge concerning us." In particular, the charter authorized the company to occupy Saint Thomas, which was then annexed in 1672. Beginning in 1673, enslaved peoples were brought from Africa to work on the plantations of St. Thomas. From 1675 and onwards, the company made several unsuccessful attempts to colonize Saint John. Governor Jørgen Iversen Dyppel stationed two men on the island in 1675, but no permanent settlement was made. In 1684, Governor Adolph Esmit employed two merchants from Barbados who then sent 40 men to occupy the island. Esmit had hoped that by involving British citizens in a seemingly economic endeavor, he would avoid any military opposition. However, two sloops were promptly sent by Governor William Stapleton of the nearby British Leeward Islands, which drove away the men occupying the island. In 1718, the company successfully annexed Saint John by establishing a settlement in Coral Bay. Following a drought in the late 1720s, the Danish West India Company sought to expand to the nearby island of St. Croix to acquire more arable land. The island had been unoccupied by its French owners since 1696. The French were willing to sell the island to the Danish to secure their neutrality and money for the War of the Polish Succession. In 1733, the Danish West India Company purchased Saint Croix from the French West India Company in exchange for 750,000 livres. The treaty which gave Denmark sovereignty stipulated that the islands could not be sold to another nation in the future without the consent of the French government. This would become relevant 132 years later when the island was sold to the United States in 1917. When the Danish acquired it, there were approximately 150 British inhabitants and 400–500 enslaved people on Saint Croix, who were allowed to remain if they swore allegiance to the king of Denmark.

King Frederick V of Denmark–Norway assumed direct control of the former territories of the Danish West India Company in 1754, inheriting all of its assets and debts. Although the crown had acquired the company's assets, it had no intention of maintaining the islands as a public enterprise. The crown paid the par value for the 1,250 shares of the company, coming to a total of 1,250,000 rigsdalers. At its peak in the late 18th century, more than 58% of the land area on St. Croix was in use for sugar cultivation. Across the islands, cotton, indigo, and tobacco plantations were also prevalent. These plantations relied almost exclusively on slave labor. British forces occupied the Danish West Indies in 1801–1802 and again from 1807 to 1815 during the Napoleonic Wars. Because Denmark was effectively allied with Napoleon, England occupied the islands to prevent them from possible military use by the French Empire. On both occasions, the islands had minimal naval protection and quickly surrendered to the occupying forces. The first occupation officially ended in 1802 with the Treaty of Amiens. The second invasion began in 1807 and lasted until 1815, when they were returned to Denmark in exchange for Heligoland through the Treaty of Paris. The Danish company enlisted the help of French and Swiss troops from Martinique to regain control. The rebellion officially ended in late August 1734, after all rebels on the island were captured. Controls on the colony's Afro Caribbean population were increased after the revolt. In 1789, enslaved people constituted 88% of the islands' population. As the mercantile interests of the islands became more profitable, an increasing number of enslaved peoples worked in ports instead of agricultural plantations. The delay in prohibiting international trade was reportedly to give plantation owners a chance to "stock up". For example, on St. John the number of enslaved people increased by 40% during the 11 year period. By 1838, a total of more than 100,000 enslaved people had been imported to the Danish West Indies; some of whom were then sold to other colonies. Pressure mounted in the following decades as other colonial regimes in the Caribbean abolished slavery completely: Great Britain in 1833 and France in 1848. The Governor General of the Danish West Indies, Peter von Scholten, traveled to Denmark to petition for the emancipation of enslaved peoples within the kingdom in 1833. It is likely that his views were influenced by his free colored mistress Anna Heegaard. Though his petition was unsuccessful, in 1834 von Scholten secured an ordinance which allowed an enslaved person to purchase their freedom without the expressed consent of the slaveholder. In 1848, King Christian VIII enacted a gradual abolition of slavery, ruling that every child born would be free from birth and promising that slavery would be entirely abolished at a later date. Dissatisfied by these meager appeasements, the enslaved population of the islands remained in a state of unrest. General Buddhoe (Moses Gottlieb) and Admiral Martin King organized a rebellion, and on July 2, 1848, approximately 8,000 people gathered outside of Fort Frederik. On July 3, 1848, General Buddhoe delivered an ultimatum, declaring that the crowd would burn down the surrounding town of Frederiksted unless emancipation was declared within the next four hours. Governor Von Scholten promptly announced that "all unfree in the Danish West Indies are from today emancipated." After the abolition of slavery in 1848, conditions for formerly enslaved workers on the islands did not improve significantly. Workers were paid meager rates, struggled to provide for themselves, and in most cases, were still employed at the same plantations as before the rebellion. A labor law of 1849 mandated a working wage but also ruled that workers could only change employment once a year on October 1. Continued insecurity and unrest among the working population eventually led to the 1878 St. Croix labor riot, in which most of Frederiksted and around 50 surrounding plantations were destroyed by fire. Conditions and pay improved slightly after the rebellion, though the freed slave population continued to be exploited and discriminated against.

After the abolition of slavery in the islands, the plantation economy of the islands collapsed. Sugar produced in St. Croix was met with intense competition on the global market, while shipping and trade on St. Thomas had already declined. The islands became a strategic and financial burden to the Danish state. The United States' first secretary in London, Henry White, attributed the failure to the influence of Wilhelm II, Kaiser of the ascendent German Empire. During World War I, US interest in the islands was revived by fear of German expansion into the Caribbean. In particular, it was feared that Germany would seize the islands for use as a U boat base or coaling station. The islands' location on the Atlantic approach to the newly completed Panama Canal was strategically important for the United States. The US offered $25,000,000, and the third sales treaty was signed on August 4, 1916. On August 17, an unofficial referendum on the sale of the islands to the United States was held in the Danish West Indies, in which 99% of voters within the islands were in favor of the sale. At the following non binding referendum held in Denmark on December 14, 64% of the public also voted in favor of the sale. The treaty was subsequently ratified by the Danish parliament on December 20, 1916, signed by both the King of Denmark on December 22, and by the US president on January 16, 1917. The United States officially took possession of the islands on March 31, 1917, when Danish ambassador Constantin Brun was presented with a warrant for the agreed $25 million in gold. Thus, nearly 250 years of Danish administration ended, and the territory became the United States Virgin Islands.

After the United States officially took possession of the islands, they were renamed the Virgin Islands of the United States. May 31 is still celebrated annually as Transfer Day. Most residents were granted U. S. citizenship by 1936. Through an act of 1932, all natives of the Virgin Islands who on the date of the act were residing in the continental United States or any of its insular possessions or territories were declared U. S. citizens. Today, the population of the United States Virgin Islands forms a complex society with multiple diverse ethnic groups: Virgin Islanders, Eastern Caribbean Islanders, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Europeans, Americans (locally known as "continentals"), Arabs, and Asians. At least one writer feels the ethnic and cultural practices and institutions that remain, migration, and the influence of the mainland United States have made the society more pluralistic than given it any common Virgin Islands identity. Virgin Islander Americans include people born there, plus immigrants from the British Virgin Islands, and their descendants. It also includes migrants from the U. S. Virgin Islands to the U. S. mainland. American citizenship was conferred in 1927, and U. S. citizens moving between the Virgin Islands and the rest of the U. S. can do so without the need for a passport. Rear Admiral Kitten ordered yeoman Percival Wilson Sparks, who was known to be interested in graphic design, to design a new flag for the territory. Sparks had his wife, St. Thomas native Grace Itah Maria Joseph Sparks, and her sister, Blanche Joseph Sasso, sew the first flag for the USVI. Professionally made flags had to be manufactured in the States and would take weeks to arrive by ship. The sisters from St. Thomas were then known as the Betsy Rosses of the Virgin Islands. While the Danish West Indies had been purchased from Denmark in 1917, Water Island, off the coast of St. Thomas, remained under private administration by the East Asiatic Company. The Danish had first settled the island in the late 17th century. Amid growing fear that the company might be used as a front for a German naval base, the U. S. purchased the island on June 19, 1944, for $10,000. From 1944 to 1996, Water Island remained a federal property. Control of it was transferred to the United States Virgin Islands government on December 12, 1996, for $25 million. Though none have succeeded, at least four constitutional conventions have since attempted to establish a constitution for the islands: in 1972, 1979, 1981, and 2009. The Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands from 1954 remains the article that defines the islands' government. The Fifth Constitutional Convention of the U. S. Virgin Islands passed a proposed constitution on May 26, 2009. The draft was eventually forwarded to President Barack Obama in December, who then submitted it to the United States Congress on February 26, 2010. The office of the President, the U. S. Congress, and the U. S. Department of Justice took issue with several aspects of the document. Congress did not ratify the constitution and instead urged the convention to revise the document. The 1930s represented a watershed as the economy reversed itself because of two external stimuli: The repeal of prohibition in the U. S., which significantly increased the demand for plantation workers, and the wartime decision to construct a submarine base on St. Thomas. Because of chronic out migration to the U. S. and the historical absence of an agricultural worker tradition, the existing labor supply was insufficient for the growing demand on the islands. This vacuum created a demand for workers from the Eastern Caribbean, resulting in the first of several immigrant waves. The Virgin Islands government set a new policy of export diversification via tourism and light industry. People continued to immigrate in substantial numbers—some legally and others illegally. They benefited from loose interpretations and favorable revisions of immigration law, which reduced occupational restrictions and generally lax enforcement. After World War II, tourism became an increasingly important sector within the islands' economy. Today, it constitutes the largest industry of the USVI. As of 2022, the islands have a permanent population of approximately 105,400 people, yet annually receive 2.5–3 million tourists, primarily from cruise ships.