Kansas

Kansas is a state located in the Midwestern United States of America. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was probably not the term's original meaning. Residents of Kansas are called "Kansans."

Historically, the area was home to large numbers of nomadic Native Americans who hunted bison. It was first settled by European Americans in the 1830s, but the pace of settlement accelerated in the 1850s, in the midst of political wars over the slavery issue. When officially opened to settlement by the U.S. government in 1854, abolitionist Free-Staters from New England and pro-slavery settlers from neighboring Missouri rushed to the territory to determine if Kansas would become a free state or a slave state. Thus, the area was a hotbed of violence and chaos in its early days as these forces collided, and was known as Bleeding Kansas. The abolitionists eventually prevailed and on January 29, 1861, Kansas entered the Union as a free state. After the Civil War, the population of Kansas exploded when waves of immigrants turned the prairie into productive farmland. Today, Kansas is one of the most productive agricultural states, producing many crops, and leading the nation in wheat, sorghum and sunflower production most years.

Alternate versions of Kansas have been discovered across the multiverse:


 * Free Republic of Kansas (Timeline 1867)
 * Kansas-Nebraska Union (CIC)
 * United States of Nebraska and Kansas (The Many Nations of North America)

Alternate versions of Kansas have also been discovered belonging to different nations:


 * Arkansas
 * Commonwealth of America (American Commonwealth)
 * Confederate States of America
 * Commonwealth of Heartland (An Independent in 2000)
 * Great Sioux Nation (Vegetarian World)
 * Iowa
 * Louisiana
 * Mexico
 * Mid-Columbian Empire (Via Latina)
 * State of Misuri (Toyotomi)
 * Nebraska
 * North American Union (1983: Doomsday)
 * United States of America

Certain locales in Kansas have also come to the attention of multiverse explorers:


 * Lawrence, Kansas (1983: Doomsday)