How and when were the Daleks created?

Answer 1

The Daleks were created as a result of a vicious war fought on the planet Skaro between two humanoid races, the Kaleds and the Thals. Their creator was the brilliant but insane scientist Davros.

The origin of the Daleks goes back to one of The Doctor's earliest adventures, in the early '60s when William Hartnell played the first Doctor. In this story, The Doc and his two companions arrive on Skaro in the TARDIS to find it's two peoples locked in a vicious war for control of the planet that had been going on for so long that no-one could remember when it started. Most of the population had been wiped out, the planet itself devastated, it's resources depleted, and it's environment rendered so polluted that the survivors could live only in enormous domed cities, sealed off from the outside world. Military technology had become so worn down and deprived that the two sides were reduced to using pre-WW1 weaponry- ancient rifles, swords, and not even having any proper uniforms, their soldiers instead having to wear animal skins.

The Doctor and his two companions are captured by a Kaled trooper as suspected Thal agents and taken to military HQ; however, once the Kaled government realises that The Doctor is in fact a Time Lord they immediately befriend him and try to get him on side. The Doc is reluctant to become involved in the war, but when his two companions are kidnapped by Thal spies and used as part of a slave labour gang in building a gigantic atomic bomb, which the Thals hope will finish the Kaleds forever, he reluctantly throws his lot in with them. But the Kaleds have one last trick up their sleeve- the brilliant but sinister scientist Davros, who has himself been badly injured in the war. Forced to travel in a motorised trolley, he is blind and sees through an electronic eye of his own invention that is mounted on his forehead. He has perfected an artificial race of warrior creatures which he calls the Daleks ('Dalek' being 'Kaled' spelled backwards). Genetically grown in artificial conditions in laboratories, these are highly intelligent organisms which have deliberately had the ability to feel any emotion other than hatred and fear bred out of them.

Housed in heavily armoured conical war machines, the Daleks are equipped with powerful weaponry which Davros is convinced will defeat the Thals. But The Doctor has his doubts- he doesn't trust Davros, believeing his objectives go way beyond simply a Thal defeat, and predicts that the Daleks will become a menace to civilisations everywhere in the course of time. His only objective now is the rescue of his two companions, which eventually he achieves, but not without some Kaled PoWs having to give their own lives to secure their freedom. The three then head back to the TARDIS and get off the planet as quickly as possible- the Thals never succeed in completing their A-bomb and are, indeed, ultimately wiped out by Dalek forces.

I am uncertain as to subsequent events, but this is how the Daleks came into being initially.