query: When did Kansas become a state?
passage: Kansas
Kansas was first settled by European Americans in 1827 with the establishment of Fort Leavenworth. The pace of settlement accelerated in the 1850s, in the midst of political wars over the slavery debate. When it was officially opened to settlement by the U.S. government in 1854 with the Kansas–Nebraska Act, abolitionist Free-Staters from New England and pro-slavery settlers from neighboring Missouri rushed to the territory to determine whether 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 prevailed, and on January 29, 1861,[9][10] Kansas entered the Union as a free state.
passage: Kansas
Kansas /ˈkænzəs/(listen) is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States.[4] Its capital is Topeka and its largest city is Wichita, with its most populated county being Johnson County.[5] Kansas is named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area.[6] The tribe's name (natively kką:ze) is often said to mean "people of the (south) wind" although this was probably not the term's original meaning.[7][8] For thousands of years, what is now Kansas was home to numerous and diverse Native American tribes. 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.