Abstract: Mangroves provide multiple ecosystem services and are strategic locations for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The response of mangrove forests to future global changes can be understood by reconstructing the mangrove development in the past. Over the years, scholars from different disciplinary fields have conducted in-depth studies on mangrove development and its constraints in different time scales, which has greatly contributed to the development of palaeoecological studies on coastal vegetated habitats represented by mangroves, and laid the scientific foundation for the formulation of short-term/long-term mangrove protection and restoration programs for different strategic needs. We summarized the tracing indicators and key methods of mangrove development in different time scales, reviewed the history of mangrove dynamics at long time scales (i.e., since the Late Cretaceous and since the Holocene) and short time scales (i.e., in the last hundred years and in the last few decades), deeply revealed the controlling roles of changes in natural environments and anthropogenic factors on mangrove forests, and finally proposed key scientific objectives for future research in the field of mangrove development.