The island of Cres was inhabited as early as the Neolithic. The first Croats settled on the island in the early 7th century (see Landing of the Slavs in the Balkans). From the 16th century to 1797, Cres, like the neighboring islands, was under Venetian rule.
After the fall of Venice, the Habsburgs took control of the eastern Adriatic coast and thus also of Cres. Between 1805 and 1814, Cres was briefly part of France and later part of the Danube Monarchy (Austria-Hungary). Finally the island came to Italy with the signing of the Treaty of Rapallo on November 12, 1920. During the Second World War, the island was occupied by German troops. After the end of the war it became part of the Republic of Croatia within Yugoslavia and after Croatia's independence in 1991 it remained part of the Republic of Croatia.
The largest population group of the islanders are Croatians, followed by Bosniaks, Serbs, Slovenes and small populations of Italians and Germans.