Introduction to History of Panama
The Caribbean coast of Panama was explored by a Spanish expedition under Rodrigo de Bastidas about 1500. The region was inhabited by several tribes of Indians, the Cuna being the largest. In 1502 Christopher Columbus sailed along the coast to the central part of the isthmus and claimed the area for Spain. The northern coast of Panama was the location of the first Spanish settlement on the mainland.
In 1509 the Spanish government issued licenses to Alonso de Ojeda and Diego de Nicuesa to settle the regions explored by Bastidas and Columbus. The first colonies were established in 1510 at San Sebastián (on what is now the northern coast of Colombia) and Nombre de Dios. They did not flourish, however, because of disease, famine, and conflicts with the Indians. The first successful settlement, Santa María, was founded in 1510, when Vasco Núñez de Balboa convinced the settlers at San Sebastián to move to a new location on the west shore of the Gulf of Darien. The Indians at the new site were quickly subdued and Balboa became governor of the new colony. In 1513 Balboa made his way across the isthmus and discovered the Pacific.
Balboa's New World journeys. The smaller map shows Vasco Núñez de Balboa's route from Spain to the Caribbean in 1501. The larger map shows his routes through the Caribbean Sea. During 1501 and 1502, Balboa sailed along the northern coast of South America and up to Hispaniola. He helped establish the colony of Darien in 1510. In 1513, Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and sighted the Pacific Ocean.Balboa was replaced in command, and later put to death, by Pedrarias de Avila, who in 1519 founded the city of Panama on the south coast of the isthmus to serve as the seat of government. Francisco Pizarro in 1531 launched his conquest of Peru from the new city. A stone road was built from Panama City to Portobelo, and all gold, silver, and gems taken from Peruvian mines passed across it to be loaded in Spanish galleons on the Caribbean coast.
Privateers of other European countries, especially of England, harassed the Spanish Main (mainland). In 1572 Francis Drake seized a mule train of treasure crossing the isthmus. At the time of his death in 1596 he was preparing to attack Portobelo. The port was captured in 1601 by William Parker, and was sacked in 1668 by Henry Morgan, who returned in 1671 to plunder and burn Panama City. In 1698 a Scottish company attempted to plant a colony at Caledonia Bay, but the Spanish drove them out. British Admiral Edward Vernon captured Portobelo in 1739. In 1746 Spain abandoned the route across the isthmus in favor of the sea route around Cape Horn, and Panama's prosperity quickly disappeared.
During the early colonial period Panama was an administrative district within the viceroyalty of Peru. In 1739, however, it was united with Colombia in the viceroyalty of New Granada. When commerce declined after 1746, Panama lost its economic importance and its separate administration was abolished. Thereafter, it was governed from Bogotá.
Panama Under Colombia
In 1821 Panama won its independence from Spain, and joined the new republic of Greater Colombia. Except for a period in 1840–41, when a revolution led by Tomás Herrera made Panama independent for 13 months, it remained part of Colombia until 1903.
The California gold rush in 1849 made Panama prosperous again as a major crossing point from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the United States and Great Britain began considering possible canal routes. In 1855 a United States firm completed a railway across the isthmus. The line flourished until the United States itself was spanned by railway in 1869.
In 1880 the De Lesseps Company, the French firm that had built the Suez Canal, began constructing a canal across Panama, but went bankrupt before completing it. The United States made arrangements to proceed with the canal, but Colombia refused permission. Encouraged by the United States, in 1903 Panama declared its independence from Colombia. A treaty was signed leasing to the United States a strip of land, called the Panama Canal Zone, on either side of the proposed canal's route, and also authorizing intervention in the domestic affairs of Panama by the United States, which guaranteed the new nation's independence. The canal was constructed by the United States and opened in 1914.
Panama As A Republic
From the founding of the new republic, the United States took a proprietary attitude toward it. Troops were brought in to quell election disturbances in 1908 and 1917, and in 1918 the United States assumed police power over Panama. Growing American involvement in Panamanian affairs caused profound resentment, and in a new treaty in 1936 the United States agreed to a policy of nonintervention. This treaty was ratified in 1939.
The government of Panama was relatively stable, although presidents were deposed in 1931, 1941, and 1951. Colonel José Remón, chief of police who seized the government in 1951, was elected president in 1952. In 1955 he was assassinated. Anti-United States sentiment resulted in rioting in 1959. In 1964, rioters protesting the flying of United States flags invaded the Canal Zone. United States troops were used to help restore order within the zone. Panama demanded complete revision of the treaties between the two countries. Negotiations, however, were inconclusive.
In October, 1968, Colonel (later General) Omar Torrijos overthrew the government in a military coup. In 1972 a newly elected representative assembly adopted a constitution that recognized Torrijos as the head of government and granted him dictatorial powers. He negotiated a treaty with the United States, signed in 1977, that provided for the transfer of the Canal Zone to Panama in 1979 and the canal in 1999. In 1978 he formally resigned as chief of government but retained actual control. Torrijos was killed in a helicopter crash in 1981, but the military remained in power.
In 1983 General Manuel Antonio Noriega took command of the Panama Defense Forces (PDF) and control of the country. Despite the election of a civilian president in 1984, Noriega retained power. In 1988 federal grand juries in the United States indicted Noriega on charges stemming from Panamanian involvement in the illegal importation of drugs into the United States. When Guillermo Endara, the candidate of the opposition, won the presidential election in early 1989, Noriega nullified the election and widespread violence erupted. In October, a coup attempt against Noriega failed.
Meanwhile, tensions with the United States increased. After a Panamanian soldier killed a U.S. Marine officer in an altercation, the United States sent combat troops into Panama in December, 1989. Resistance by the PDF was quickly put down. Noriega was apprehended and extradited to the United States in January, 1990, and was eventually convicted on drug charges and imprisoned. As the elected president, Endara took office in 1990. Panama's first female president, Mireya Moscoso, was elected in 1999. At the end of the year, the United States transferred control of the Panama Canal to Panama.