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It was originally a part of [[The Assyrian Church of the East]] before the 1553 consecration of [[Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa]] who entered communion with the [[Roman Catholic Church]], when it was renamed the ''Church of Athura (Assyria) and Mosul''. Subsequent to this, it was again renamed by Rome in 1683 as the Chaldean Catholic Church, despite none of its Assyrian Chaldean adherents being connected ethnically, historically or geographically to the long-extinct [[Chaldea]]ns, who had been completely absorbed into the general population of [[Babylonia]] in the 6th century BC, disappearing from history.

After the extensive massacres of Assyrian Chaldean and other Christians by [[Tamerlane]] around 1400 AD had devastated many Assyrian Chaldean bishoprics and finally destroyed the 4000 year old city of [[Assur]], the Church of the East — which had extended as far as [[China]], [[Central Asia]], [[Mongolia]] and [[India]] — was largely reduced to [[Assyria]], its place of origin. It was followed by its core founders of [[Eastern Aramaic]] speaking ethnic [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]]s who lived largely in the area of northern Mesopotamia between [[Diyarbakır|Amid (Diyarbakır)]], [[Mardin]], [[Harran]] and [[Hakkari]] in the north to [[Mosul]], [[Irbil]] and [[Kirkuk]] in the south, and from [[Salmas]] and [[Urmia]] in the east to [[Al-Hassakeh]], [[Tur Abdin]] and [[Edessa]] in the west; an area approximately encompassing ancient [[Assyria]].<ref name="Frazee">Charles A. Frazee, ''Catholics and Sultans: The Church and the Ottoman Empire 1453-1923'', Cambridge University Press, 2006 ISBN 0-521-02700-4</ref>{{rp|55}} The [[episcopal see]] was moved to [[Alqosh]], in the Mosul region, and Patriarch Mar [[Shimun IV Basidi]] (1437–1493) made the office of patriarch hereditary in his own family.<ref name="newCath Encyclopedia">Chaldean Catholic Church (Eastern Catholic), The new Catholic Encyclopedia, The Catholic University of America, Vol. 3, 2003 p. 366.</ref>

Dissent over the hereditary succession grew until 1552, when a group of Assyrian Chaldean bishops, from the northern regions of [[Amid]] and [[Salmas]], elected a priest, Mar [[Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa|Yohannan Sulaqa]], as a rival patriarch. To look for a bishop of [[metropolitan bishop|metropolitan]] rank to consecrate him patriarch, Sulaqa traveled to the [[pope]] in Rome and entered into communion with the [[Catholic Church]], after first being refused by the [[Syriac Orthodox Church]]. In 1553 he was consecrated bishop and elevated to the rank of patriarch taking the name of Mar Shimun VIII. He was granted the title of "Patriarch of the East Assyrians", and his church was named ''The Church of Athura and Mosul''.<ref>George V. Yana (Bebla), "Myth vs. Reality," ''JAA Studies'', Vol. XIV, No. 1, 2000 p. 80</ref>

Mar Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa returned to northern [[Mesopotamia]] in the same year and fixed his seat in [[Amid]]. Before being put to death by the partisans of the [[Assyrian Church of the East]] patriarch of [[Alqosh]],<ref name="Frazee"/>{{rp|57}} he ordained five metropolitan bishops thus beginning a new ecclesiastical hierarchy: the patriarchal line known as the ''Shimun line''. The area of influence of this patriarchate soon moved from Amid east, fixing the See, after many places, in the isolated Assyrian Chaldean village of [[Qochanis]].

A new so-called 'Chaldean' Patriarchate occurred in 1672 when [[Joseph I (Chaldean Patriarch)|Mar Joseph I]], Archbishop of Amid, entered in [[Full communion|communion]] with Rome, separating from the Assyrian Chaldean Church Patriarchal see of Alqosh. In 1681 the [[Holy See]] granted him the title of "Patriarch of the Chaldeans deprived of its patriarch."

Thus the term 'Chaldean Catholic' is historically, usually and properly taken purely as a [[doctrinal]] and [[theological]] term for Assyrian Chaldean converts to Catholicism.<ref>Travis, Hannibal. ''Genocide in the Middle East: The Ottoman Empire, Iraq, and Sudan''. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2010, 2007, pp. 237-77, 293–294</ref><ref name="conference.osu.eu">http://conference.osu.eu/globalization/publ/08-bohac.pdf</ref><ref name="conference.osu.eu"/> The modern Chaldean Catholics are [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]]<ref>Nisan, M. 2002. ''[http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14225.html Minorities in the Middle East: A History of Struggle for Self Expression]''. Jefferson: McFarland & Company.</ref> and originated from ancient Assyrian Chaldean communities living in and indigenous to the north of Iraq/Upper Mesopotamia which was known as Assyria from the 25th century BC until the 7th century AD (rather than the long-extinct [[Chaldea]]ns/[[Chaldees]], who were 9th century BC migrants from [[The Levant]], and always resided in the far southeast of Mesopotamia, and wholly disappeared from history circa 550 BC). Chaldean Catholics originate from the exact same cities, towns and villages as other AssyriansChaldeans, speak exactly the same dialects of Eastern Aramaic, have exactly the same family, tribal and personal names, and have the same genetic profile.

Despite this, ''a minority'' of Chaldean Catholics (particularly in the [[United States]]) have in recent times confused a purely religious term with an ethnic identity, and espoused a separate ethnic identity to their Assyrian Chaldean brethren, despite there being no historical, academic, cultural, geographic, archaeological, linguistic, anthropological or genetic evidence supporting a link (or any sort of [[Chaldean continuity]]) to the late Iron Age Chaldean land or race, rather they are regarded as part of the [[Assyrian continuity]] by scholars.

The largest and oldest [[episcopal see|patriarchal see]] of the Assyrian Chaldean Church of the East was based at the [[Rabban Hormizd Monastery|Rabban Hormizd]] monastery of Alqosh. It spread from [[Aqrah]] up to [[Siirt|Seert]] and [[Nusaybin|Nisibis]], covering in the south the rich plain of [[Mosul]]. Already in the short period between 1610 and 1617 it entered in [[Full communion|communion]] with Rome, and in 1771 the patriarch Eliya Denkha signed a Catholic confession of faith, but no formal union resulted. When Eliya Denkha died, his succession was disputed by two cousins: Eliyya Isho-Yab, who was recognized by Rome but soon broke the communion, and [[Yohannan Hormizd]], who considered himself a Catholic.

On the other hand, the Shimun line of patriarchs, based in [[Qochanis]], remained in the Assyrian Chaldean church, independent of the new Chaldean Church. The Patriarchate of the present-day [[Assyrian Church of the East]], with its See in Chicago, forms the continuation of that line.<ref name="Murre">{{cite web|url=http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol2No2/HV2N2Murre.html |title=The Patriarchs of the Church of the East from the Fifteenth to Eighteenth Centuries |publisher=Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies |accessdate=2009-02-04 |author=Heleen H.L. Murre}}</ref>

The following years of the Chaldean Church were marked by externally originating violence: in 1838 the monastery of [[Rabban Hormizd Monastery|Rabban Hormizd]] and the town of Alqosh was attacked by the [[Kurds]] of [[Soran Emirate|Soran]] and hundreds of Christian Assyrians Chaldeans died.<ref name="Wilm">David Wilmshurst, ''The Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Church of the East, 1318-1913'', Peeters Publishers, 2000 ISBN 90-429-0876-9</ref>{{rp|32}} In 1843 the Kurds started to collect as much money as they could from Assyrian Chaldean villages, killing those who refused: more than 10,000 Assyrian Chaldean Christians of all denominations were killed and the icons of the Rabban Hormizd monastery defaced.<ref name="Frazee"/>{{rp|298}}

In the early 20th century [[Russian Orthodox]] missionaries established two dioceses in north [[Assyria]]. Many Assyrian Chaldean leaders believed that the [[Russian Empire]] would be more interested in protecting them than the [[British Empire]] and the [[French colonial empire|French Empire]].<ref name="Wilm"/>{{rp|36}} Hoping for the support of the Russians, [[World War I]] and the subsequent [[Assyrian Genocide]] was seen as the right time to rebel against the Ottoman Empire. An [[Assyrian War of Independence]] was launched, led by [[Agha Petros]] and [[Malik Khoshaba]]. On 4 November 1914 the Turkish [[Enver Pasha]] announced the [[Jihad]], the holy war, against the Christians.<ref name="Bauer">{{cite book|first=Baumer|last=Christoph|year=2006|title=The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity|isbn=978-1-84511-115-1|publisher=I B Tauris & Co}}</ref>{{rp|161}} Assyrian Chaldean forces fought successfully against overwhelming odds in northern Iraq, southeast Turkey and northwest Iran for a time. However, the [[Russian Revolution]] in 1917 and the collapse of [[Armenia]]n resistance left the Assyrians Chaldeans cut off from supplies of food and ammunition, vastly outnumbered and surrounded. Assyrian Chaldean territories were overrun by the [[Ottoman Empire]] and their [[Kurdish people|Kurdish]] and [[Arab]] allies, and the people forced to flee: most who escaped the massacres and continuation of the [[Assyrian Genocide]] died from cold in the winter or hunger. The disaster struck mainly the regions of the Assyrian Chaldean Church of the East and the Chaldean dioceses in north Assyria (Amid, [[Siirt]] and [[Gazarta]]) were ruined (the Chaldeans metropolitans [[Addai Scher]] of [[Siirt]] and [[Philip Abraham]] of [[Gazarta]] were killed in 1915).<ref name="Wilm"/>{{rp|37}}

In 2008, Mar Bawai Soro of the [[Assyrian Church of the East]] and 1,000 Assyrian Chaldean families were received into full communion with the Chaldean Catholic Church from the Assyrian Chaldean Church of the East.<ref name="Assyrian Bishop Mar Bawai Soto explains his journey into communion with the Catholic Church" >{{cite web

Assyrians Chaldeans of all denominations, and other religious minorities in Iraq, have endured extensive persecution since 2003, including the abductions and murders of their religious leaders, threats of violence or death if they do not abandon their homes and businesses, and the bombing or destruction of their churches and other places of worship. All this has occurred as anti-Christian emotions rise within Iraq after the American invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and the rise of militant [[Jihadists]] and religious militias.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chaldean.org/Home/tabid/36/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/308/Iraqs-Persecution-of-Christians-Continues-to-Spiral-out-of-Control.aspx |title=Iraq's Persecution of Christians Continues to Spiral out of Control |accessdate=2009-02-07}}</ref>

The Church's relations with its fellow Assyrians Chaldeans in the [[Assyrian Church of the East]] have improved in recent years. In 1994 [[Pope John Paul II]] and [[Patriarch Dinkha IV of the Assyrian Church of the East|Patriarch Dinkha IV]] of the Assyrian Chaldean Church of the East signed a ''[[Common Christological Declaration Between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East|Common Christological Declaration]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_11111994_assyrian-church_en.html|title=Common Christological Declaration between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East|publisher=Vatican|accessdate=2009-04-01}}</ref> On the 20 July 2001, the [[Holy See]] issued a document, in agreement with the Assyrian Chaldean Church of the East, named ''Guidelines for admission to the [[Eucharist]] between the Chaldean Church and the Assyrian Church of the East'', which confirmed also the validity of the [[Holy Qurbana of Addai and Mari|Anaphora of Addai and Mari]].<ref name="Guidelines">{{cite web|url=http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_20011025_chiesa-caldea-assira_en.html|title=Guidelines issued by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity|publisher=Vatican|accessdate=2009-04-01}}</ref>