The Kuban lands are ancient lands.  The favourable natural conditions and gentle climate made it possible for the first settlements to appear here very early.  The discovery of sites of ancient peoples within the territory of the Krai allows us to trace almost all archaelogical periods.  Ancient Kuban has a very rich history, many tribes and nations were present on this land: the ancient Greeks founded colony towns, the Hun army invaded, as did the Khazar, Petcheneg, Polovtzy and Tartar Mongols.  There were colonies of Italian merchants, maintaining close contacts with the Adigeya tribes.  Later the Turks expanded their influence into the Kuban.  The first Slavic settlement appeared as early as the 10th century, after the founding on the Tamanskoi peninsular of the Russian town Tmutarakan, existant before the Mongol invasion.  The second wave of Russian settlers was connected to the defeat of the Kondratii Bulavin revolt, when his comrade-in-arms Ignat Nekrasov led the surviving participants here.

The planned settlement of the Kuban by Russian subjects began after the two Russo-Turkish wars of the 18th century.  On 30 June 1792 Ekaterina II gave the land on the Taman peninsula and its surrounding territories to those who had become famous in the war against Turkey (the former Zaporozhetsie) with the aim of protecting the new southern borders of Russia.  The first group of combatant Cossacks led by the Ataman Belii arrived by sea and on 25 August 1792 landed at Taman.

On 13 September 1937 the Azov-Black Sea Krai was divided into Rostov Oblast and Krasnodar Krai with a territory of 85 000 square kilometres including the Adegeiskaya Autonomous Oblast.  In 1991 the Adegeiskaya Autonomous Oblast separated from the Krai and was reformed as the Republic of Adigeya.