C++ is an object-oriented programming language that is an extension of C. It was developed in the early 1980s by Bjarne Stroustrup at Bell Labs. C++ supports concepts like inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation that make it suitable for large, complex programs. Inheritance allows classes to inherit properties from parent classes. Polymorphism is the ability to process objects of different types in the same way. Encapsulation combines data and functions that operate on that data within a single unit, hiding implementation details. File input/output in C++ can be handled through streams like ifstream for input and ofstream for output.