Nagmula ang Agence France-Presse sa Agence Havas, na itinatag noong 1835 sa Paris ni [[Charles-Louis Havas]], na ginagawang pinakamatandang serbisyong pambalita sa buong mundo.<ref name="Toal">{{Cite book |last=Toal |first=Gerard |editor1-first=Nigel |editor1-last=Thrift |editor2-first=Adam |editor2-last=Tickell |editor3-first=Steve |editor3-last=Woolgar |editor4-first=William H. |editor4-last=Rupp |year=2014 |title=Globalization in Practice |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ATwTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA199 |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=199 |isbn=978-0199212620|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Broderick">{{cite book |author1=James F. Broderick |author2=Darren W. Miller |title=Consider the Source: A Critical Guide to 100 Prominent News and Information Sites on the Web |url=https://archive.org/details/considersourcecr0000brod |url-access=registration |year=2007 |publisher=Information Today, Inc. |isbn=978-0-910965-77-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/considersourcecr0000brod/page/1 1]|language=en}}</ref> Binunsad ng ahensiya ang koleksyon at pamamahagi ng balita bilang isang kalakal,<ref name="Toal"/> at naitatag ang sarili bilang isang buong pandaigdigang inaalala noong huling bahagi ng [[ika-19 na dantaon]].<ref name="Kuhn">{{Cite book |last=Kuhn |first=Raymond |title=The Media In Contemporary France |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3oVTBgAAQBAJ&pg=RA5-PA3 |location=New York |publisher=McGraw-Hill Education |page=3 |isbn=978-0335236220|date=2011-03-01 |language=en}}</ref> Dalawang trabahador ng Havas, sina [[Paul Julius Reuter]] at [[Bernhard Wolff]], ang nagtayo ng sarili nilang ahensiyang pambalita sa [[London]] at [[Berlin]] ayon sa pagkakabanggit.<ref name="Toal"/>
