React is a declarative, component-based JavaScript library used for creating user interfaces. It has been in active development since 2013 with regular releases. To get started, React and ReactDOM JavaScript files need to be included in an HTML page or installed via npm/Yarn. A basic Hello World component can be defined as a class extending React.Component with a render method returning a JSX element. The component can be rendered to the DOM using ReactDOM.render(). State can be added to make the component interactive.