[4] The land that would become De Soto was part of a large territory extending to present-day St. Louis that was occupied by the Osage people, who were relocated from east of the Mississippi River in the upper Midwest.

After the Treaty of St Louis in 1825, the Shawnee were forcibly relocated from Cape Girardeau to southeastern Kansas near the Neosho River.

Later in the 19th century, many cultures of Native Americans arrived in the area after being pushed west by European-American pressure following colonial expansion and later the discovery of Gold in 1849.

[citation needed] With the construction of the 9,080-acre (3,670 ha) Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant south of De Soto, the city's population boomed in the early 1940s during World War II.

In May 1943, a Kansas City Star article reported "a town rapidly growing, with a population increase from 400 to 1,000 persons in under a year."

This sudden overflow in population put a great strain on housing and other resources in the city; however, many original residents prospered during this time, buying property and starting new businesses.

Since the 2008 recession came to an end, growth in De Soto has steadily picked up, with substantial commercial development in the K-10 Business District.

[10] After the closure of the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant in 1993, plans for potential development of the 15.5 square-mile lot south of De Soto began to receive attention.

[11] After several abandoned proposals for large-scale developments and attractions, a master use plan was adopted by the authorities of Olathe, De Soto, Johnson County, and Sunflower Redevelopment Group.

[12] The master plan called for high density housing, major commercial zoning, a "downtown" area for offices, high density commercial and civic uses, and land promised to The University of Kansas, Kansas State University and the City of De Soto, as well as land being reserved for the army reserves, parks and other public spaces.

[13] Additional funding allocation and priority from the Army led to the announcement that the portions of the lot closest to De Soto would be ready for development by 2020.

In April 2021, unrelated to the development at the former ammunition plant site, Flint Logistics announced a proposal to construct a $500 million logistics center and high-density residential complex three miles west of De Soto, petitioning annexation of the property adjacent to the Johnson-Douglas County line.

[14] Shortly thereafter, De Soto established a short-term plan to improve roadway and utility access to the area, as well as establishing a TIF (tax increment financing) district, in an effort to encourage development of the largest remaining undeveloped plot of land in the region.

[15] Amidst wide speculation of a large-scale development potential on the site, in July 2022, Panasonic North America announced its intent to construct the company's first United States-based, and world's largest electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility.

[18] The city avoided extending the TIF district into the portion of recently annexed land that lie within Gardner-Edgerton USD 231, fearing that school board would consider veto of the TIF agreement in its entirety, requiring the city to restart the agreement approval process.

[19] In November 2022, Sunflower Redevelopment Group renamed the site of the former ammunition plant to Astra Enterprise Park.

[22] Considered by many locals to be an exurb, rather than a suburb, De Soto is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area, and it borders other communities on the eastern edges.

[11] However, a 2022 Kansas Supreme Court ruling on a disagreement between Spring Hill and Olathe nullified most boundary agreements between Johnson County cities.

Huhtamaki Americas, Inc. and Engineered Air, two international enterprises, chose De Soto for their North American headquarters.

Rehrig Pacific, a plastics manufacturer, chose De Soto to house their Midwestern U.S. operations.

[38] Shortly thereafter, De Soto established a short-term plan to improve roadway and utility access to the area, as well as establishing a TIF (tax increment financing) district, in an effort to encourage development of the largest remaining undeveloped plot of land in the region.

[38] In early 2022, the Kansas legislature passed a bill, referred to as APEX, signed by Governor Laura Kelly, providing $800 million in tax breaks and incentives on a proposed $4 billion project by a company whose identity was concealed by a non-disclosure agreement between the two parties.

[39] It was believed that this project was to either be developed in De Soto, or Pryor Creek, Oklahoma,[40] due to the extensive amount of land that was expected to be required.

[15] On July 13, 2022, state officials announced during a press conference that Panasonic was the company in question, and had selected De Soto for its planned $4 billion electric-vehicle battery manufacturing facility, to be constructed on the northernmost portion of the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant.

[43] In the science fiction novel The Calculating Stars, the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant south of De Soto became the headquarters and primary spaceport of the International Aerospace Coalition due to its proximity to Kansas City, the new capital of the United States.

[45] Winesong at Riverfest - A cultural attraction which began in 2012, is a wine festival hosted by the De Soto Rotary Club annually in early June.

An effort to recall Mayor Tim Maniez and City Councilmember Bill McDaniel from their positions was launched in February 2016.

[47] Recall supporters submitted their petition applications against Maniez and McDaniel to the Johnson County Elections Board on February 18, 2016.

Judy Macy and other De Soto residents filed petitions against Maniez and McDaniel due to concerns about meeting decorum.

Several years later, in 1857, the Atchison, Topeka, Santa Fe Railway constructed track through northern portions of town, parallel to the river.