History of Panama

Panama’s history has been formed by a rich pre-Columbian era for more than 12‘000 years. Early cultures in Panama were the Monagrillo, the Cueva and the Conte, particularly famous for their pottery, which was the first in the Americas.

The first European claiming the territory of today’s Panama was Rodrigo de Bastidas, coming from Colombia’s Atlantic coast in 1501. A year later Columbus was sailing from Honduras over Costa Rica along the Caribbean shore to Panama to map this coastline. He discovered the Chagres River and after two months he reached the bay of Portobelo. In 1513 Vasco Nuñez de Balboa was able to confirm the stories of the indigenous people, when he was the first Spaniard to see the Pacific Ocean from the top of a hill. Four days later he and his men stood at the shores of the new ocean. In 1519 Panama City was founded and became an important hub on the way from Peru to Spain. The Peruvian Inca gold and silver was shipped on the Pacific to Panama City, crossed the Isthmus overland before being shipped again to Spain. The path through Panama became famous as Camino Real – Royal Trail. Because of the many dead on this road and the crosses that were built for them, the path is also known as Camino de las Cruces.

In 1671 the notorious English buccaneer Henry Morgan looted and completely destroyed Panama City. These ruins of Panama la Vieja (Old Panama) are nowadays open to visitors. In the same decade, a new Panama City was constructed 10 kilometers away on a better suited place – today’s Casco Viejo.

From 1538 to 1821 Panama was governed by the Spanish Crown. Thereby the indigenous tribes were suppressed and finally eradicated as elsewhere in the Americas. Already in the 17^th century the Cueva people had disappeared completely. The only indigenous tribe defending itself successfully from colonization was the Kuna. Still today, the Kuna honor their traditions and life in an independent territory within Panama.

On November 28 in 1821 Panama, together with several other Latin-American countries, declared its independence from Spain. At the same time it united with Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador to Gran Colombia under the lead of Simon Bolivar. During the following decades, Panama undertook several intents to become independent from Gran Colombia but never succeeded. Nevertheless, the country enjoyed a high degree of autonomy.

After the failed attempt of a French investor group to build the Panama Canal between 1881 and 1889 the plans were sold to the United States. In 1903 Panama – with support of the US – finally declared its independence from Colombia. Due to the help of the US, Panama had to entitle a 50 miles long and 10 miles wide strip across the Isthmus, the Canal Zone, to the United States. From the moment of independence on, Panama was a constitutional democracy. At least until the mid 1950’s when the army started to butt in to politics. After several putsches a junta under the lead of Brigadier Omar Torrijos Herrera was established. In 1972 the junta was dissolved and an elected parliament formed the government. In 1977 the United States and Panama signed the Torrijos-Carter-Treaty, committing the US to give back the Panama Canal Zone to the Panamanian government by the end of the millennium.

In the 1980’s the relation between the US and Panama changed for the worse. 1983 General Manuel Noriega became president of Panama and ruled dictatorially over his country. In 1988 he was accused of drug trafficking in the US. Noriega lost the elections of 1989 but did not accept the results and accused the United States of election fraud. Due to this development in Panama the United States began to concentrate troops in Panama and on December 20 in 1989 they started the invasion under the operational name “Just Cause”. The predominant US troops reached their primary targets very fast and efficiently and on December 27 they already started to withdraw their troops. How many casualties the short war claimed is not known, since neutral organizations were not allowed to enter Panama until the third day of the invasion. During the operation Manuel Noriega has been arrested and is now serving a 30 years sentence in a US prison.

After the end of the Noriega regime the situation defused and the following elections proceeded without any problems. On December 31^st 1999 the Panama Canal and the Canal Zone were handed over to the Panamanian government and all American troops withdrawn as agreed in the Torrijos-Carter-Treaty. In 2004 Martin Torrijos, son of the former president, won the election and presides over the country since then.