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Mili was settled by Marshallese communities as part of the wider movement and voyaging culture of the Ratak Chain. Life developed around the resources of the lagoon, reef and ocean, with navigation, fishing, pandanus weaving, coconut cultivation and kinship networks shaping social organisation. The atoll's dispersed islands required skilled knowledge of currents, weather and canoe travel, traditions that remain important to understanding Mili today. As elsewhere in the Marshall Islands, land and ocean are closely connected to family identity, customary rights and oral history, so the past is preserved not only in material remains but also through community relationships and inherited knowledge.

European commercial influence expanded in the nineteenth century as traders and missionaries became increasingly active across the Marshall Islands. Germany established a protectorate over the islands in 1885 and later incorporated them into its colonial administration. Mili, like other atolls, became connected to wider trading networks centred on copra, the dried meat of the coconut, while Christian institutions gradually altered aspects of community life. Colonial rule did not erase Marshallese authority or social structures, but it introduced new political, religious and commercial pressures. The atoll's later history was shaped by this growing connection to overseas powers and maritime trade.

Japan took control of the Marshall Islands during the First World War and received a League of Nations mandate over the former German islands in 1920. During the 1930s and the Second World War, Japanese authorities strengthened their military presence in Mili. Airfield facilities, defensive positions, stores and other installations were built, bringing military personnel and wartime infrastructure into the atoll's landscape. Mili became one of Japan's bases in the eastern Marshall Islands, although its isolated position made resupply difficult. The period left a complex legacy of occupation, forced wartime conditions and physical remains that still require careful interpretation.

Mili was subjected to Allied air and naval attacks during the Pacific War as the United States sought to isolate Japanese positions across the Marshall Islands. Bombing damaged military facilities and disrupted the systems that supported the garrison and local population. The atoll was not the scene of the major American amphibious assault that took place at Kwajalein and Enewetak in 1944; instead, Japanese forces on Mili were bypassed and remained cut off. Wartime remnants, including damaged structures and military debris, survive amid vegetation and settlement. Some objects may remain dangerous, making caution essential when exploring historical sites.

After Japan's defeat, the Marshall Islands became part of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, administered by the United States. The post-war period brought new schooling, administrative systems, infrastructure and political institutions, while also exposing communities to the consequences of strategic decisions made beyond the atolls. Marshallese leaders pursued self-government and greater control over national affairs through the later twentieth century. The Republic of the Marshall Islands entered into free association with the United States in 1986, and the Compact of Free Association formalised this relationship. Mili's contemporary identity reflects both enduring local traditions and the political history of the wider island nation.