Prior to the annexation of the Crimean Khanate by the Russian Empire, the area was mostly settled by the Zaporozhian Cossacks and the nomadic Lesser Nogai Horde.

When Catherine the Great dissolved the Sich, the local Cossacks either fled into exile or were brought into serfdom, with the residents of what is now Huliaipole falling under the yoke of the Shabelskiys.

[6] In 1785, the board of the Yekaterinoslav Governorate ordered the Novomoskovsk Zemstvo Court to establish the Huliaipole state military settlement for protection from the Crimean Khanate.

'walk-about field') reflected the nature of the area where it was founded, which had frequently played host to fairs for a long time before the settlement's foundation.

In 1797 the wooden Orthodox Church "Exaltation of the Honest and Life-Giving Christ" was built, and Huliaipole became the township center of Alexandrovsky Uyezd.

From 1884 until the First World War, Zemstvo exhibitions and auctions of agricultural and industrial products took place in Huliaipole every three years.

After World War I, new socio-economic transformations took place in Huliaipole, caused by the change of state power and political regime.

[citation needed] During the conflict, Huliaipole became widely known as the headquarters of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine and the capital of the Makhnovshchina.

[15] On 17 December 2004, the economic court of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast filed a bankruptcy case against a privatized agricultural machinery plant.

[18][19] Under constant bombardment by Russian forces,[20] many of Huliaipole's residents have been evacuated by the local administration,[21] while a number of residential buildings and civilian infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.

[22][23][24] The town of Huliaipole is located in the Gaichur river valley[5][8] (the name of the reservoir is etymologized from the Turkic languages: gai "free" + chur "steppe"[25]), upstream at a distance of 3.5 km is the village of Marfopil, downstream at a distance of 1.5 km is the village of Zelene.