The first town acquired was Weggis (in 1380), Rothenburg, Kriens, Horw, Sempach and Hochdorf (all in 1394), Wolhusen and Entlebuch (1405), the so-called "Habsburger region" to the northeast of the town of Lucerne (1406), Willisau (1407), Sursee and Beromünster (1415), Malters (1477) and Littau (1481), while in 1803, in exchange for Hitzkirch, Merenschwand (held since 1397) was given up.

Other animal bones including mammoth, reindeer and giant deer from the local glacial maximum have also been found in the canton.

The first Paleolithic and Mesolithic settlement discovered in the canton is in the Wauwilermoos, which is now a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

The villages had ceramic vessels and wood, bone, antler, stone and flint tools as well as textiles.

The Late Bronze Age settlement at Sursee-Zellmoos on Lake Sempach featured houses arranged in rows with mortared stone.

Another Late Bronze Age settlement near the village of Schötz was densely populated between 1350 and 800 BC.

Some iron tools, gold coins, ceramic vessels and a glass bangle as well as a burial ground with at least four graves have been found.

During the 1st century AD, the farms provided food for the Legion camp in Vindonissa and for the larger settlements located in the Swiss plateau.

The west bank of the Suhre was fortified with a stone slip and may have served as a ship or raft berth.

Two early medieval stone grave vaults, both of which were used for multiple burials, were found in the church of Altishofen.

In the treasury of Beromünster Abbey there is a 7th-century ornate reliquary of gilded copper plates, which probably came from northern Italy.

[8] Lucerne grew up around a Benedictine monastery, founded about 750 on the right bank of the Reuss by Murbach Abbey in Alsace, of which it long remained a "cell".

It is first mentioned in a charter of 840 under the name of Luciaria, which is probably derived from the patron saint of the monastery, St Leodegar.

With the growing power of the Habsburgs in the area the ties that bound Lucerne to Murbach weakened.

The purchase of Lucerne by the Habsburgs drove the three forest cantons (Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden) to form an Eternal Alliance, an act that is considered to be the foundation of Switzerland.

In 1332 Lucerne became the fourth member of the Eidgenossen or Swiss Confederation, and the first town to join the rural forest cantons.

In a plot to limit the power of the city, officials from the neighbouring canton of Obwalden had promised their support.

The incident furthered the distrust amongst rural and urban cantons in the Old Swiss Confederacy and was one of the reasons for the conclusion of the Stanser Verkommnis (Treaty of Stans) in 1481, an important coalition treaty of the cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy During the Reformation Lucerne remained attached to Roman Catholicism.

In the 16th century, during the early modern age, the town government fell into the hands of an aristocratic oligarchy, whose power, though shaken by the Swiss peasant war of 1653 in the Entlebuch, lasted until 1798.

They quickly recalled the Jesuits, who had been expelled by earlier radical governments, to head the cantonal school system.

The riots that followed brought about the Sonderbund War (1847) in which the Conservatives were defeated, the decisive battle taking place at Gisikon, not far from Lucerne.

It borders the cantons of Obwalden and Nidwalden to the south, Schwyz and Zug to the east, Aargau to the north, and Bern to the west.

[10] The Canton is divided into six districts (Wahlkreise): Entlebuch, Hochdorf, Luzern-Land, Luzern-Stadt, Sursee, Willisau.

[2] As of 2013[update], 18.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals, of which 15.5% are from Europe, 1.4% from Asia, 0.7% from Africa, and 0.5% from America.

The canton of Lucerne is a gateway to holiday resorts in the nearby Alps, and much of the transit traffic between Germany and Italy crosses the region.

The number of jobs in the primary sector was 9,608, of which 9,462 were in agriculture, 119 were in forestry or lumber production and 27 were in fishing or fisheries.