Timeline of Kansas history

When the area was opened to Euro-American settlement in the 1850s, Kansas became the first battlefield in the conflict in the American Civil War.

After the war, Kansas was home to Wild West towns servicing the cattle trade.

With the railroads came heavy immigration from the East, from Europe, and from Freedmen called "Exodusters".

For much of its history, Kansas has had a rural economy based on wheat and other crops, supplemented by oil and railroads.

Since 1945 the farm population has sharply declined and manufacturing has become more important, typified by the aircraft industry of Wichita.