We often learn in a standard linear algebra course that a determinant is a number associated with a square matrix. We can define the determinant also by saying that it is the sum of all the possible configurations picking an element from a matrix from different rows and different columns multiplied by (-1) or (1) according to the number inversions.
But how is this notion of a 'determinant' derived? What is a determinant, actually? I searched up the history of the determinant and it looks like it predates matrices. How did the modern definition of a determinant come about? Why do we need to multiply some terms of the determinant sum by (-1) based on the number of inversions? I just can't understand the motivation that created determinants. We can define determinants, and see their properties, but I want to understand how they were defined and why they were defined to get a better idea of their important and application.