In the 16th century it became part of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom and its successor the Principality of Transylvania, acting as one of the centres of the Banate of Lugos and Karánsebes.

In the late 19th century, the Romanian people of the settlement elected to the Parliament of Hungary the Hungarian Lajos Mocsáry, who was a progressive democratic politician fighting for the cultural and administrative rights of all nationalities (including the Romanians) living in the Hungarian Kingdom of that time.

In late October 1918, near the close of World War I, a Romanian National Committee was established in Caransebeș.

It formed the core of the largest Banat delegation to Alba Iulia, where the Union of Transylvania with Romania was proclaimed on December 1.

In August 1919, during the Paris Peace Conference, the Banat was divided between the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and Greater Romania, with Caransebeș assigned to the latter.

[6] At the previous census, from 2011, the city had a population of 21,932, mainly Romanians (93.48%), with Ukrainians (1.56%), German (1.17%), and Hungarian (0.78%) minorities present, but in decline.