The area of the present District of Aleksandrów is situated in the north-eastern part of the Kuyavian Region, stretching out along the left bank of the Vistula which used to have borders with two historical and geographical regions, namely the District of Chełmno on the north-western side and the District of Dobrzyń in the north-east.

    The first people to appear here were nomadic hunters who came after the withdrawal of the Scandinavian continental glacier, that is about ten thousand years ago. They inhabited sandy dunes and left behind remains of their bonfires, characteristic flint tools, which are today numbered among the so called Świdry culture (named after Świdry Wielkie, a village near Otwock where the first finds were discovered), and also, rather rarely preserved artefacts made of animal bones and horns. Traces of one of the oldest inhabitation places of people living towards the end of the Palaeolithic Era have been discovered in Wołuszewo (the Commune of Aleksandrów Kujawski). Following the footsteps of the above-mentioned late Palaeolithic Era people, the territory of the present Aleksandrów District was becoming more and more often peopled by other groups of settlers whose settled mode of life resulted mainly from gradual warming up of the climate. Land farming and animal breeding were the main occupation of the newcomers, but - according to archaeological sources - they also had the skill of making clay kitchen utensils, weaving and using a bow and arrow. Traces of these people's settlements have been discovered in Zarębowo (the Zakrzewo Commune) where remains of the utensils numbered among the so-called funnel-shaped cup culture (about 3500 yrs BC) were excavated from a primeval cave. In the same village, a small cup belonging to the string pottery culture (about 2500 yrs BC) was found which shows that nomadic people were also present at that time in the north-eastern parts of the Kuyavian Region. Otłoczyn excavations (the Commune of Aleksandrów) turned out to be a real archaeological revelation, however. Tombs from the 4th Century BC were encountered there as well as remains of a drier oven used for salt making in the La Tčne period (2nd - 1st century BC); it is one of the oldest European ovens which is considered by archaeologists to be influenced by the Celtic culture found in this territory.

    From the beginning, the territories of the present District of Aleksandrów were a part of the Polish State founded by Mieszko the First. They had a rich history in the Middle Ages which can be attested, amongst other things, in very early mentions of some places (e.g. Słońsk, Raciążek and Przypust - 1065, Bądkowo - 1239, Straszewo - about 1250, Służewo - 1286), numerous archaeological finds, architectural relics (e.g. remains of the thirteenth-century castle in Raciążek or the fifteenth-century parish church in Nieszawa), preserved emplacements of medieval castles, i.e. remains of the ancient city settlements (Otłoczyn - 12th C., Brzeźno - the turn of the 14th and 15th Centuries), and in particular the fascinating history of Raciążek, Nieszawa and Służewo.

    From the 11th C., Raciążek belonged to the Benedictine Order from Mogilno, and then (before 1250) it became the property of Włocławek bishops. It was they who built in Raciążek - whose name was Raciąż at that time - a fortified castle, and in 1317 one of the bishops named Gerward granted the settlement civic rights. In 1358, one of bishop Gerward's successors, Maciej of Gołańcza, received King Kazimierz the Great in the castle while he was settling a dispute between Mazovian Prince Siemowit the Third and bishop Jan of Poznań.
And in the 15th C. according to Jan Długosz, the castle chambers housed several times King Władysław Jagiello who visited this land to settle different matters of political nature. In 1402, the King received homage from Count Ulryk von Osten of Drezdenko, and in 1404 he negotiated a treaty with the Teutonic Knights concerning the repurchase of the Dobrzyń District which had been pledged to the Teutonic Order by Prince Władysław Opolczyk in 1393. Also, at the turn of 1410 and 1411, a few months after the battle of Grunwald, Vladislaus Jagiello negotiated peace in Raciążek with the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, the defender of Malbork - Henryk von Plauen. In 1414, the King came here again in connection with the negotiations which he conducted with the Teutonic Knights in Słońsk and Grabie near Służewo, and in Raciążek in 1433.
Between 1597 and 1616, with the endowment provided by the Kuyavian bishop Hieronim Rozrażewski, a new parish church under the invocation of All Saints and St. Hieronim was built, and it has survived up to the present day. In the first years of the Partitions of Poland, the Castle of Raciąż fell into ruin and it was pulled down in 1827, and Raciążek itself, after the fall of the January Uprising, lost its civic rights (1870).

    Nieszawa is often called a 'wandering town' as there have already been three places of the same name. In 1230, the first one - called Old Nieszawa - was given to the Teutonic Knights by Prince Konrad Mazowiecki; the Knights built a huge castle there which was made the Commander's residence. Between 1423 - 1424, the castle was taken to pieces, and then the village was 'transferred' to a place opposite Toruń, on the other bank of the Vistula, which from then on was called New Nieszawa or Dybowo. It was granted civic rights in 1431.
Since soon, the town turned out to be competitive to Toruń on the corn market (it was situated up-stream of the Copernicus City), King Kazimierz Jagiellon - acting at Toruń townsmen's instigation - ordered in 1460 to take the town to pieces and 'transfer' it 30 km up the Vistula, to the royal village named Roskydalino. This gave rise to the present Nieszawa which, due to numerous royal privileges in the 15th and 16th Centuries, flourished economically, and became the granary of the eastern part of the Kuyavian Region. The economic growth was accompanied by a cultural and religious revival of the town, a proof of which was provided by bringing to Nieszawa the Franciscan Monastic Order as well as building of a monastery with a church (1463-1467), and also a Gothic parish church devoted to St. Hedwige (1468). Several years later, Władysław Oporowski, a bishop from Włocławek founded and furnished a parish school attached to the church.

    Służewo also has its medieval roots. It is an old settlement situated at the past route leading from the Mazovia Land through Brześć Kujawski to Toruń, mentioned for the first time in a Władysław Łokietek's document of 1286. In the 15th and 16th Centuries, the town was owned by the Służewski family of the Sulima coat of arms, and before 1458 it had been granted civic rights (having lost them during the Partitions in 1870). As early as about 1325, there was a parish there, and the present parish church under the invocation of St. John the Baptist dates back to 1560, and was founded by Jan Służewski, the governor of the Brześć and Kuyavian Province, and his wife Małgorzata Kostkówna from Szremberk. Służewo ranked among the better developed Kuyavian towns of the Nobility Republic and it was a gathering place of the Kuyavian nobility regional dietines of the Province of Inowrocław.

    The three centuries separating the signature of the Second Peace Treaty of Toruń (1466) and the Second Treaty of Partition (1793) were the period of relative political stabilization and expanded autonomy of the nobility self-government. In respect of administration, the territory of the present district belonged in part to the Province of Inowrocław, the Province of Brześć and Kuyavia, and to the District of Dobrzyń. During the period of the Nobility Republic, a visible economic and cultural revival was observed in the territory of the present Aleksandrów District. It was related, amongst other things, to the arrival in the vicinity of Słońsk of colonists from Germany and the Netherlands (Mennonites) who on the turn of the 16th C. started the so-called 'nederland' colonization. The aforementioned economic boom was braked by the 17th C. Swedish Wars, the military operations during the Northern War (1700-1721) and the tragic results of pestilence. It is worth adding that the last time when the Black Death had its abundant harvest on this land was between 1708 and 1712, and it caused one of the most intensive disasters of the 18th Century.

    In the 18th C., the collapse of the Republic brought about important political changes in respect of the administrative allocation of the described lands. As a result of the 2nd Partition of Poland (1793), the area of today's Aleksandrów District was encompassed within South Prussia (Sudpreussen), a province created at that time as a part of the Prussian Kingdom.
At that time, Radziejów was the capital of the district, and Raciążek was the seat of the Land Office and Forest Office, the latter belonging to Poznań Department. Between 1807 and 1815, the area belonged to the Warsaw Duchy, and in consequence of the Congress of Vienna (1815) it was incorporated into the Polish Kingdom. In 1823, the border between Prussia and Russia was marked out on the River Tążyna. The area was within the Radziejów District. In 1867, the district was renamed the Nieszawa District, and the final transfer of its seat to Nieszawa took place in 1872. 
During the January National Rising (1863-1864), insurgent troops at the command of Ludwik Mierosławski were active here. Insurgents and railwaymen from Aleksandrów took over secret Prussian and Russian documents (the so-called 'Alvensleben's Convention' of 8th Feb., 1863) with regard to mutual suppressing of the insurgent movements which were afterwards transferred to the National Government. Their divulgement caused an international diplomatic scandal.

    The 19th C. stamped its significance in the history of the region, as it was then that the health resort in Ciechocinek came into being which was to become Poland-wide renowned (although salt sources drilling was commenced as early as in the 17th C.) Priest Stanisław Staszic, the Treasury of State Minister Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki, and primarily Konstanty Leon Wolicki, a noble-industrialist were those who contributed to the foundation of Ciechocinek health resort. In 1824, the latter bought thirty two hectares of land with salt water sources where a salt mine and graduation towers were constructed. The first two graduation towers were constructed between 1824 and 1828, and as early as in 1836 Ciechocinek became an official spa. The settlement was quickly developing becoming very famous and accessible to patients. The boom was also owed to the navigation started in 1851 on the River Vistula between Warsaw, Ciechocinek and Toruń, and the railway line to Aleksandrów Kujawski (1867). In the mid - 19th C, endeavours were undertaken to change its administrative status. In 1908, the locality of Ciechocinek was created, and in 1916 it was granted civic rights, simultaneously to the nearby Aleksandrów.

    The development of Aleksandrów Kujawski was linked to the conctruction of a railway line in this area which was to join Warsaw and Bydgoszcz. Its construction was started in 1859 but its official commencement was only in 1865. During its construction, in 1860, a sumptuous railway station was built which, apart from railway institutions, also housed the telegraph and the Post Office. Shortly afterwards, the Customs Office and Frontier Guard were transferred there from Służewo. In 1879, Tsar Alexander II visited this locality where he entertained Wilhelm I, the German Emperor. It was to honour the Russian tsar that the name of Aleksandrów Pograniczny (on the Frontier) was awarded to the locality.
In 1916, the locality was endowed with civic rights, and in 1919 with the introduction of Polish Self-Government, the name of the town was changed to Aleksandrów Kujawski. A four-class school of the Polish School Society was founded at the same period of time in Aleksandrów. In 1919, it was entrusted with Salesian Brothers. From 1921 on, it was the only lower Secondary School of humanistic type in the Nieszawa District.

    After the recovery of independence, the division into provinces and districts was restored, and in 1919 the Nieszawa District was reconstructed to make up a part of the Warsaw Province. In 1932, the district authorities were moved to Aleksandrów Kujawski and on 1st April 1938, the district was incorporated into the Pomeranian Province. In the interwar period this district included four towns (Aleksandrów Kujawski, Ciechocinek, Radziejów and Nieszawa) and 13 rural communes (Bądkowo, Boguszyce, Bytoń, Czamanin, Koneck, Lubanie, Osięciny, Piotrków Kujawski, Raciążek, Radziejów, Ruszkowo, Sędzin and Służewo).

    Between 1939 and 1945, the district underwent a martyrology of Polish and Jewish population which had never before occurred in this area. In many localities, occupied by the German army and Selbstchutz, Polish priests, intelligentsia representatives, social activists, teachers, leaders of pre-war political and trade union organizations were arrested. Many of those arrested were shut already in autumn of 1939, many others were transported away to concentration camps. Local Jews were subjected to a similar treatment. They were transported to the Siedlce District in the Warsaw Province to be murdered there. The purpose of these actions was the extermination or total Germanization of the residents of this area which - pursuant to the decree by Adolf Hitler of 8th October 1939 was incorporated to the Warta District (Reischsgau Wartheland) and subordinated to the Inowrocław Regency. Apart from direct extermination, many Poles from the area of the Aleksandrów District were transported to the General Governorship and instead, German population from Estonia, Latvia, Gdańsk and other Reichstag Provinces was brought to this area. In total, about 2 thousand inhabitants of this area were murdered by the Germans and over 11 thousand were transported away.

    Polish population was also persecuted after the Russian Red Army had occupied this area. Already in the first weeks of their reign, Red Armists and their communist authorities caught people in the streets and arrested them. A large number of Aleksandrów Kujawski residents were confined, and generally accused of belonging to the so-called German national third group during the war or of conspiratory actions in the Polish Country Army.

In 1956, the district was reduced by an area of the separated Radziejów District. Between 1975 and 1998 the territory of the former Aleksandrów District was within the borders of the Włocławek District. From 1991, the seat of the Regional Office was in Aleksandrów.
On 1st January 1999, in consequence of an administrative reform, the Aleksandrów District re-appeared on the map of Poland. It makes up a part of the Kuyavian and Pomeranian Province. In the boundaries of this district, there are three municipal communes (Aleksandrów Kujawski, Ciechocinek and Nieszawa) and 6 rural communes (Aleksandrów Kujawski, Bądkowo, Koneck, Raciążek, Waganiec and Zakrzewo).