Kansas is a Midwestern state in the Central United States. The state is named after the Kansas River that flows through it, which in turn derived its name from the Siouan word Kansa meaning "People of the south wind."

Located in the heartland of the country, Kansas is home to the geographical center of the contiguous United States. Historically home to large numbers of Native Americans who hunted buffalo there, the state was first settled by white Americans in the 1850s. Beginning in 1854, abolitionists from New England and pro-slavery settlers from neighboring Missouri rushed to the territory to determine if Kansas would become a free state. Known as Bleeding Kansas, the state was a hotbed of violence and chaos in its early days as these forces collided. In 1861 Kansas entered the Union as a free state. After the Civil War, the population of Kansas exploded as wave after wave of immigrants turned the desolate prairie into productive farmland. Today Kansas is one of the most productive agricultural states, leading the nation in wheat production.

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