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1870–1910
Venstre was founded in 1870 under the name Det Forenede Venstre (eng. The United Left) and originally consisted of multiple conflicting groups, all united under the liberal ideology, the safeguarding of farmers' interests and opposition to the then conservative party Højre (eng. litterally "Right"). After the party in 1872 gained an absolute majority in the Folketing, it became the leading voice in the battle for parliamentarism, whereafter the party in 1895 split in two, Venstrereformpartiet (eng. "Venstre Reform Party") and Det Moderate Venstre (eng. "The Moderate Left"). In 1905, the Danish Social Liberal Party split from the party, and in 1910 Venstrereformpartiet and Det Moderate Venstre reunited again under the name Venstre.

1910–2009
With the decreasing numbers of farms and the growing urbanisation, membership and voter support dropped in the 1950s. During the 1960s the party gradually evolved from being a traditional farmers' party to a more general liberal party. In 1984 Uffe Ellemann-Jensen was elected chairman, and by profiling the liberal ideology in sharp confrontation to the Social Democrats, for example by campaigning for a reduction of the public sector, increasing market management and privatisation, and by being pro-EU, the party returned to its historical position as the biggest liberal party in the 1990s.

After a disappointing 1998 general election, Ellemann-Jensen resigned as chairman and Anders Fogh Rasmussen was elected in his place. He immediately changed the party's usual confrontational strategy, instead appealing to the political centre. In the 2001 general elections the party campaigned for tighter immigrations policies and a "tax stop", which proved succesful and the party once again became the biggest in parliament, winning 31.2% of the vote and 56 seats. Venstre formed a coalition government with the Conservative People's Party and the Danish People's Party. For the first time since 1929 a liberal government was no longer dependent of the centre parties. Despite a small decline in both the 2005 general elections (29% and 52 seats) and the 2007 general elections (26.2% and 46 seats), the party remained the biggest and the coalition government continued.

On 5 April 2009 Fogh Rasmussen resigned as chairman, instead serving as Secretary-General of the United Nations. In his place Lars Løkke Rasmussen was elected.

2009–2019
In the 2011 general elections the gained 26.7% of the vote and 47 seats, but wasn't able to form a government, instead leading the opposition of Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidts Social Democratic coalition.

Even though the party lost voter support in the 2015 general elections, only gaining 19.5% of the vote, the party formed a minority government. This government was short lived, and in 2016 Løkke Rasmussen invited the Conservative People's Party and the Liberal Alliance to form a coalition government instead.

During the campaign of the 2019 general elections Løkke Rasmussen published an autobiography, in which he opened up for the possibility of forming a government with the Social Democrats. This was seen as controversial in the liberal "blue bloc", and Social Democratic leader Mette Frederiksen immediately declined the proposition.

Following internal fighting in the party, Løkke Rasmussen and vice chairman Kristian Jensen both resigned on 31 August 2019. On 3 September 2019 political spokesman and former Minister for Environment and Food Jakob Ellemann-Jensen announced his campaign to became the party's next chairman.