Prehistoric sites around the lake and throughout the canton include examples from the Neolithic Egolzwiler, Cortaillod, Pfyn and Horgen cultures.

Traces of the later Neolithic Bell Beaker and Corded Ware cultures as well as the early Bronze Age are less common.

On the Baarburg the ruins of an Iron Age celtic prince's castle from about 500 BC contained Greek ceramics and etruscan metal vessels.

In addition to a number of coin hoards, graves and ruins, a collection of 23 terracotta religious statues were discovered in Cham.

During the Early Middle Ages a number of parish churches were founded in the canton as the population grew.

The actual battlefield is just across the border in the hamlet of Schornen (Municipality of Sattel) in the canton of Schwyz.

In 1845 the canton of Zug became a member of the Sonderbund and participated in the war of 1847 which was lost to the Swiss Confederation.

[5] The canton of Zug is located in central Switzerland and covers an area of 239 square kilometres (92 sq mi).

It originates in Ägerisee, from where it flows northward through moraine deposits in a deep gorge with fine stalactite caverns.

[5] The river eventually enters the Zugersee, before flowing back out of the lake through the town of Cham, and joining the Reuss in the northern corner of the canton.

The lowest point in the north of the canton is at 388 m, at Rüssspitz (German: Reussspitz) on the border, the confluence of the rivers Lorzen and Reuss.

The power of the glaciers in the ice ages is impressively shown in the lateral moraines of the mountains Walchwilerberg and Zugerberg.

In Cham, the Lorze leaves Lake Zug and joins the Reuss at the aforementioned Reussspitz.

Round the town of Zug there are great numbers of fruit trees, and Kirsch (a high grade clear cherry schnapps) and cider are largely manufactured.

In 2014, about 1.8% of the workers in Zug work in the primary sector (the total for all of Switzerland is 3.3%) Of these 1.8%, in 2008, nearly two-thirds kept dairy cows.

[14] In 2016, the town of Zug began accepting digital currency for small payments of municipal fees.

[15][16] Zug has also been referred to as the Crypto Valley by Ethereum co-founder Mihai Alisie because of the large number of companies engaged in cryptocurrency in the area.

[17] At the end of 2019, the following were identified as the largest cryptocurrency companies in Zug: Ethereum ($14.4 billion), Dfinity ($2bn), Polkadot ($1.2bn), Bitmain ($1bn), Libra ($1bn), Tezos ($924m), Cardano ($869m) and Cosmos ($818m).

Eleven companies were described as 'unicorns' with the largest – Ethereum ($157 billion), Cardano ($41bn) and Polkadot ($29bn), all being based in the canton.

Bloomberg L. P. reported that trading houses with ties to Russian oligarchs are peppered all over the low tax canton of Zug.

Local officials estimate that there are at least 40 companies connected to Russia that employ about 900 people in the canton.

Twenty firms identified as Russian by the canton paid CHF31 million ($33 million) in cantonal and municipal taxes in 2020, but "the true scale of Russian operations in Zug is hard to determine because Swiss registration rules demand limited information from companies looking to do business there," writes Bloomberg.

[21]Zug is located on the north side of the transalpine north–south axis via the Thalwil–Arth-Goldau railway, connecting the Gotthard line to Zürich.