Islam came to South Sulawesi lowlands at the beginning of the 17th century. Before that, the culture and religious practices of the Toraja and Bugis peoples appear to have had much in common. The Dutch adopted the term in the 19th century it to many of the peoples of Central Sulawesi, as well as South Sulawesi highlands.
The present boundaries of Tana Toraja more or less reflect the district boundaries set up by the Dutch; formerly the Toraja highlands had no boundaries, or any political unity. No centralized state ever former here, although in the south the three districts of Makale, Sangalla and Mengkendek had former a federation and nobles there exercised more autocratic power than elsewhere.

A degree of interdependence is reflected in myths which relate that the ruling families of the kingdoms of Gowa, Bone, and Luwu are all descended from a common Toraja ancestor name Laki Padada. Up to abolition of kingdoms in 1950s, a Toraja noble participated in the inauguration ceremonies of the new ruler of Luwu, and the ruling families of the old South Sulawesi kingdoms still send representatives to Toraja to take part in rituals celebrated by the house from which Laki Padada is supposed to have descended.

By the 19ty century, however, Luwu was an economic backwater, and the more important contacts were with the southerly Bugis and Makassar kingdoms. Relations become troubled in the 1880s and 1890s when the kingdoms of Bone, Luwu, and Sidenreng sent their forces into Toraja to wrest control of the valuable coffee trade.

Toraja nobles with expantion ambitions allied with Bugis mercenaries to raid remote districts for slave. Some of this nobles had seized large amounts of land and were consolidating their new political power when the process was halted by Dutch intervention.

Dutch troops entered the highland in1905, and in spite of the fierce resistance of several Toraja chiefs, who held out in natural rock fortresses in the mountains, Dutch control was imposed throughout the area by 1906.

Pongtiku the Toraja warlord who defended the Pangala' area with cannons and chili peppers squirters, was taken prisoner and later shot in Rantepao, purportedly while trying to escape. Today he is remembered as one of Indonesia's national heroes.