History of Panama
[2] Archaeological finds, as well as testimonials by early European explorers, describe diverse native isthmian groups exhibiting cultural variety and already experienced in using regional trade routes.
A year later Christopher Columbus on his fourth voyage, sailing south and eastward from upper Central America, explored Bocas del Toro, Veragua, the Chagres River and Portobelo (Beautiful Port) which he named.
[6][7] In the meantime in 1635 Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, the then governor of Panama, had recruited Genoese (Participants in the Crusades), Peruvians, and Panamanians, as soldiers to wage war against Muslims in the Philippines and to found the city of Zamboanga.
[8] Governor Pedrarias sent Gil González Dávila to explore northward, and in 1524 Francisco Hernández de Córdoba to settle that region (present day Nicaragua).
Pedrarias was a party to the agreement authorizing the expedition by conquistadors Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro that brought the European discovery and conquest of the Inca Empire (present day Peru).
This was due to its prosperity during the first two centuries (1540–1740) while contributing to colonial growth; the placing of extensive regional judicial authority (Real Audiencia) within its jurisdiction; and the pivotal role it played at the height of the Spanish Empire—the first modern global empire.
However, by this time, Panama's importance and influence had become insignificant as Spain's power dwindled in Europe and advances in navigation technique increasingly permitted to round Cape Horn in order to reach the Pacific.
As the isthmus' central interoceanic traffic zone, as well as the City of Panama had been of great historical importance to the Spanish Empire and subject of direct influence, so, the differences in social and economic status between the more liberal region of Azuero, and the much more royalist and conservative area of Veraguas displayed contrasting loyalties.
The Panamanian movement for independence can be indirectly attributed to the abolishment of the encomienda system in Azuero, set forth by the Spanish Crown, in 1558 due to repeated protests by locals against the mistreatment of the native population.
The Grito was an incredibly brave move by Azuero, which feared quick retaliation by staunch loyalist Colonel José de Fábrega, who had controlled the isthmus' military supplies.
After the act, Fábrega wrote to Bolívar of the event, saying: I have the pleasure to communicate to Your Excellency the praiseworthy news of the Isthmus' decision of independence from Spanish dominion.
The town of Los Santos, to the comprehension of this Province, was the first town to pronounce with enthusiasm the sacred name of Liberty and immediately almost every other town imitated their glorious example... Inasmuch as I am concerned, Most Excellent Sir, the effusion of my gratitude is inexplicable, at having had the unique satisfaction capable of filling the human heart, as is to deserve the public confidence in circumstances so critical to govern the independent Isthmus; and I can only correspond to such high distinction with the sacrifices I am willing to make since I devoted myself, as it wished, to the mother country that has seen me be born and to who I owe all that I own... Bolívar, in turn, replied, It is not possible to me to express the feeling of joy and admiration that I have experimented to the knowledge that Panama, the center of the Universe, is segregated by itself and freed by its own virtue.
Its canals will shorten the distances of the world: they will narrow commercial ties between Europe, America and Asia; and bring to such fortunate region the tributes of the four parts of the globe.
New Granada will join Venezuela, if they convene to form a new republic, their capital will be Maracaibo....This great nation would be called Colombia in tribute to the justice and gratitude of the creator of our hemisphere.
Nevertheless, in 1821, convinced that under Bolívar's leadership the nation's destiny would move in the most progressive direction, the Isthmus joined Venezuela, New Granada (present day Colombia) and in 1822 Ecuador.
The Anfictionic Congress of June 1826, under Bolívar ideal of territorial unity, brings together representatives of the new countries of the American continent in Panama City, such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Central America, the United States, Gran Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru, as a confederation in defense of the continent against possible actions of the League of the Holy Alliance formed by the European powers and their claims of lost territories in America.
During this war, in November 1840, the isthmus led by General Tomás de Herrera, who assumed the title Superior Civil Chief, declared its independence as did multiple other local authorities.
The new state established external political and economic ties and by March 1841, had drawn up a constitution which included the possibility to rejoin New Granada, but only as a federal district.
In the 1840s, two decades after the Monroe Doctrine declared US intentions to be the dominant anti-European imperial power in the Western Hemisphere, North American and French interests became excited about the prospects of constructing railroads and/or canals through Central America to quicken trans-oceanic travel.
The US Navy gunboat USS Nashville was dispatched to local waters around the city of Colón, where 474 Colombian soldiers had landed to cross the isthmus and crush the rebellion.
On his December 7, 1903 Third Annual Message to the Senate and House of Representatives, he enumerated an extensive list of interventions the US armed forces had made in Panama since 1850 explaining: The above is only a partial list of the revolutions, rebellions, insurrections, riots, and other outbreaks that have occurred during the period in question; yet they number fifty-three for the fifty-three years... And he added: In short, the experience of over half a century has shown Colombia to be utterly incapable of keeping order on the Isthmus.
To sanitize the area before and during construction, engineers developed an infrastructure to treat potable water, sewage, and garbage, that encompassed the Canal Zone and the cities of Panama and Colon.
In February 1974, following OPEC's model for oil, it attempted to form the Union of Banana Exporting Countries with the other Central American States to respond to the influence of these multinationals, but did not obtain their support.
On September 7, 1977, the Torrijos–Carter Treaties were signed by the Panamanian head of state Omar Torrijos and US President Jimmy Carter for the complete transfer of the Canal and the 14 US army bases from the US to Panama by 1999.
Despite undercover collaboration with US president Ronald Reagan on his Contra war in Nicaragua (including the Iran–Contra affair), to deliver arms and drugs by airplane, relations between the United States and Panama worsened in the 1980s.
In April 1988, Reagan invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, freezing Panamanian Government assets in US banks, withholding fees for using the canal, and prohibiting payments by US agencies, firms, and individuals to the Noriega regime.
Foreign observers including the Catholic Church and Jimmy Carter certified Endara's electoral victory despite widespread attempts at fraud by the regime.
[23] In the morning of December 20, 1989, hours after the invasion started, the presumptive winner of the May 1989 election, Guillermo Endara, was sworn in as president of Panama at a US military installation in the Canal Zone.
President Endara took office as the head of a four-party minority government, pledging to foster Panama's economic recovery, transform the Panamanian military into a police force under civilian control, and strengthen democratic institutions.
He ran as the candidate for a three-party coalition dominated by the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), the erstwhile political arm of the military dictatorship during the Torrijos and Norieiga years.
