The Centennial State (as it became the 38th US State 28 days after the 100th birth of an independent America), Colorado came to be when white settlers of European descent invaded and colonised land in the south west of what is now the United States from the indigenous population. The groups indigenous to Colorado were the Apache (the namesake for the pizza shop), the Comanche, the Shoshone, the Ute and their sub groups.
In 1541, a Spanish explorer named Francisco de Coronado travelled through the region in search for gold but to no avail. As the year go by, France colonises the east of Colorado and Spain colonises the west through the Viceroy of New Spain, the colony that would become modern day Mexico. It was the Spanish who christened the land Colorado, the word means red coloured in Spanish.
France sold their side of Colorado to US through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 but Spain wasn't done with their side yet. Between the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican-American War, new settlers came to Colorado and their contributions to the territory's growth included fur trading as well as setting up Fort Bent, which started out as a trading post. How were the natives affected? Same as other parts of the "New World" that were taken over by European settlers, overcome with new diseases and shoved off their ancestral land.
In the aftermath of the Mexican-American War in 1848, western Colorado was taken over by America. A gold rush occurred 10 years later near Pikes Peak which saw thousands upon thousands of people rushing to Colorado to make money from mining gold with a slogan that read "Pikes Peak or Bust". The Colorado Territory was created in 1861 by the US and on 1 August 1876, it was made the 38th US State. Colorado was also the 2nd US State to grant American women voting rights.