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The Andhras are originally an Aryan race, believed to have migrated to the south of the Vindhyas where they mingled with the non-Aryans.  The earliest accounts of Andhra Pradesh date back to the time of Ashoka the Great Mauriyan king ( 3rd century B.C.) during whose reign it became an important Buddhist center.  Even today there still are good evidences of the early Buddhist influence in Amaravathi and Nagarjunakonda, one of the greatest archaeological sites in the India.

The Satavahana dynasty ( 2nd century BC 2nd century A.D), also known as the Andhras, took control of much of central and southern India.  They had their capital at Amravati on the Krishna.  They enjoyed extensive international trade with both eastern Asia and Europe.  The Satavahanas too were great patrons of Buddhism.  Subsequently, the Pallavas from Tamil Nadu, the Chalukyas from Karnataka, and the Cholas all held sway.  In the 13th century,  the Kakatiyas, with their capital at Warrangal, dominated Andhra Desa.  They were under the constant threat from Muslim incursions, while later on, after the fall of their city at Hampi, the Hindu Vijayanagars transferred operations to Chandragiri near Tirupati.

In 1323, the Tughlak Sultan of Delhi captured the Kakatiya ruler and ended the dynasty.  The Tuglaks never cared to annex the Kakatiyan dominions and four local kingdoms arose out of the old Kakatiyan empire.  One of these kingdoms was Vijayanagar.  The Vijayanagar empire stood as a bulwark against Muslim expansionism for more than 200 years.  Vijayanagar had to contend with Muslim sultanates in the north time and again.  Sometimes Vijayanagar joined on sultan against another.  These tactics finally led to a grand alliance of the sultanates of Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Golconda and Bihar against Vijayanagar.  On 23rd January, 1565 the Deccan sultans humbled the mighty Vijayanagar army at the battle of  Talikota.

The next significant development was in the mid 16th century, with the advent of the Muslim Qutb Shahi dynasty.  The Qutb Shahis of Golconda laid the foundations of the modern city of Hyderabad.  In 1687, the son of the Moghal emperor Aurangzeb routed the Qutub Shahis and seized Golconda.  He appointed Asaf Jah the governor of Deccan.  As the Mughal Empire tottered under Aurangzeb's successors, the Asaf Jahis made themselves independent rulers under the title of Nizam.  Five years after Aurangzeb died in 1707,  the Viceroy of Hyderabad declared independence and established the Asaf Jahi dynasty of Nizams.  In return for allying with the British against Tipu Sultan of Mysore, the Nizam was allowed to retain a certain degree of autonomy even after the British had come to dominate all India.  The Nizams became involved in the Anglo-French wars in the Deccan and had finally to enter into a subsidiary alliance with the British in 1800.

Andhra Pradesh is the first state in India that has been formed on a purely linguistic basis.  When India became independent, the Andhras, that is, the Telugu-speaking people (although Urdu is widely spoken in Hyderabad) were distributed in about 21 districts, 9 of them in the Nizam's Dominions and 12 in the Madras Presidency.  On the basis of an agitation, on Oct. 1, 1953, 11 districts of the Madras State were put together to form a new Andhra State with Kurnool as capital.  On Nov. 1, 1956 in accordance with the recommendations of the State Reorganization Commission, the Andhra State was enlarged by the addition of nine districts formerly in the Nizam's Dominion.  Hyderabad, the former capital of the Nizam, was made the capital of the enlarged Andhra State.

AP thus consists of three distinct regions

• coastal region, comprising of nine districts, generally called Andhra,  
• the interior region, consisting of four districts collectively known as Rayalaseema and  
• Telengana region, consisting of the capital Hyderabad and nine adjoining districts.  

From 1969 to 1972 AP was rocked by riots, first in Telengana, then in Andhra on the question of bifurcation of the state.  The central Government refused to consider the question of bifurcation.  A six-point formula was put forward by the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi as a compromise.  The formula was generally accepted and peace was restored in the state.  The six-point formula has been incorporated into the Constitution as the Thirty-second Amendment in 1973.
In 1995, under pressure from militant wives upset with wasteful drinking habits of their men, the state government imposed a total ban on alcohol,  making Andhra Pradesh India's second major dry state after Gujarat.