However, from 1846 until the 1951 revolution, the country was de facto ruled by the hereditary prime ministers from the Rana dynasty, reducing the role of the Shah monarch to that of a figurehead.

On 13 February 1996, the Nepalese Civil War was launched by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), with the aim of overthrowing the kingdom and establishing a "People's Republic".

On 1 February 2005, as the security situation deteriorated in the civil war, King Gyanendra staged a coup d'état, declared a state of emergency, suspended the constitution and assumed direct control over the country.

[5] On 24 April 2006, after the Loktantra Andolan movement, the king agreed to give up absolute power and to reinstate the dissolved House of Representatives.

King Prithvi Narayan Sha was the first ruler of "unified" Nepal, but the history of the Shah dynasty predates his reign.