Kansas (U.S. state)
Kansas is one of the states comprising the United States of America. It joined the Union as 34th state on January 29, 1861. The state's area is 82,277 square miles (213,098 square kilometers) and its estimated population is 2,990,000 in 2025. The state is bordered by Nebraska on the north, Missouri on the east, Oklahoma on the south, and Colorado on the west. Its northern border coincides with the 40°N parallel and its southern border is at the 37°N parallel.
Kansas contains the geographic center of the contiguous United States.
The state capital is Topeka. The largest urban area is that of Kansas City, which is a twin city with Kansas City, Missouri; it is one metropolitan area with the Missouri River through the center.
Wichita was once a center for cattle drives, but it is now one of the world's centers for aviation manufacturing, the large Boeing facility, but also Cessna, Citation, Bombardier/Lear, and Hiller, as well as many subcontractors.
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History
Before European colonization, Kansas was occupied by the Caddoan Wichita and later the Siouan Kaw people. Tribes in the eastern part of the state generally lived in villages along the river valleys. Tribes in the western part of the state were semi-nomadic and hunted large herds of bison. The first European to set foot in present-day Kansas was the Spanish conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, who explored the area in 1541.
Between 1763 and 1803, the territory of Kansas was integrated into Spanish Louisiana. During that period, Governor Luis de Unzaga promoted expeditions and good relations with the Amerindians. Explorer Antoine de Marigny and others continued trading across the Kansas River, especially at its confluence with the Missouri River, tributaries of the Mississippi River.
In 1803, most of modern Kansas was acquired by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Southwest Kansas, however, was still a part of Spain, Mexico, and the Republic of Texas until the conclusion of the Mexican–American War in 1848, when these lands were ceded to the United States. From 1812 to 1821, Kansas was part of the Missouri Territory. The Santa Fe Trail traversed Kansas from 1821 to 1880, transporting manufactured goods from Missouri and silver and furs from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Wagon ruts from the trail are still visible in the prairie today.
In 1827, Fort Leavenworth became the first permanent settlement of white Americans in the future state. The Kansas–Nebraska Act became law on May 30, 1854, establishing Nebraska Territory and Kansas Territory, and opening the area to broader settlement by whites. Kansas Territory stretched all the way to the Continental Divide and included the sites of present-day Denver, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo.
Bleeding Kansas and the Civil War
The first non-military settlement of Euro-Americans in Kansas Territory consisted of abolitionists from Massachusetts and other Free Staters who founded the town of Lawrence and attempted to stop the spread of slavery from neighboring Missouri.
Missouri and Arkansas continually sent settlers into Kansas Territory along its eastern border to sway votes in favor of slavery prior to Kansas statehood elections. Directly presaging the American Civil War, these forces collided, entering into skirmishes and guerrilla conflicts that earned the territory the nickname Bleeding Kansas. These included John Brown's Pottawatomie massacre of 1856.
Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state on January 29, 1861. By that time, the violence in Kansas had largely subsided, but during the Civil War, on August 21, 1863, William Quantrill led several hundred of his supporters on a raid into Lawrence, destroying much of the city and killing nearly 200 people. He was roundly condemned by both the conventional Confederate military and the partisan rangers commissioned by the Missouri legislature.
Homesteading and The Wild West
Passage of the Homestead Acts in 1862 accelerated settlement and agricultural development in the state. After the Civil War, many veterans constructed homesteads in Kansas. Many African Americans also looked to Kansas as the land of "John Brown" and, led by freedmen like Benjamin "Pap" Singleton, began establishing black colonies in the state. Leaving southern states in the late 1870s because of increasing discrimination, they became known as Exodusters.
At the same time, the Chisholm Trail was opened and the Wild West era commenced in Kansas. Storied lawman Wild Bill Hickok was a deputy marshal at Fort Riley and a marshal at Hays and Abilene. Dodge City was home to both Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp, who worked as lawmen in the town. The Dalton Gang robbed trains and banks throughout Kansas and the Southwest and maintained a hideout in Meade. In one year alone, eight million head of cattle from Texas were shipped on trains from Dodge City to the East.
20th century
In response to demands of Methodists and other evangelical Protestants, in 1881 Kansas became the first U.S. state to adopt a constitutional amendment prohibiting all alcoholic beverages, which was repealed in 1948. Anti-saloon activist Carrie Nation vandalized her first saloon in Kiowa in 1900. In 1922, suffragist Ella Uphay Mowry became the first female gubernatorial candidate in the state when she ran as "Mrs. W.D. Mowry". She later stated: "Someone had to be the pioneer. I firmly believe that some day a woman will sit in the governor's chair in Kansas."
Kansas suffered severe environmental damage in the 1930s due to the combined effects of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, and large numbers of people left southwestern Kansas. The outbreak of World War II spurred rapid growth in aircraft manufacturing near Wichita, and the aerospace sector remains a significant portion of the Kansan economy to this day.
See also
Attribution
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