The first people came to Kansas about 12,000 years ago. Archeaologists know this because they found animal bones with hunting tools. Later, Native Amarican tribes like the Kansa came to what's now Kansas. The first Europeans came in 1541 looking for cities made of gold that had been rumored about but they did not find any. French explorers and fur traders came in the 1700s, and France took ownership of the area in 1800. It became U.S. territory in 1800, when the USA bought this land in the Louisiana Purchase. In 1854 the Kansas Nebraska Act was passed and  this allowed slaves to vote in Kansas and Nebraska. Because of this the Civil War started the same year that Kansas became a state in 1861.