Fuerte Amador/Panama City History

Pre-Columbian Panama

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Panama was widely settled by Chibchan, Chocoan, and Cueva peoples; among whom the largest group were the Cueva.

There is no accurate knowledge of the size of the indigenous population of the isthmus at the time of the European conquest. Estimates range as high as two million people, but more recent studies place that number closer to 200,000. Archeological finds as well as testimonials by early European explorers describe diverse native isthmian groups exhibiting cultural variety and suggesting people already conditioned by regular regional routes of commerce.

Spanish Discovery & Administration

Rodrigo de Bastidas, sailing westward from Venezuela in 1501 in search of gold, was the first European to explore the isthmus of Panama. A year later, Christopher Columbus visited the isthmus and established a short-lived settlement in the Darien.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa's tortuous trek from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 1513 demonstrated that the Isthmus was, indeed, the path between the seas, and Panama quickly became the crossroads and marketplace of Spain's empire in the New World. Gold and silver were brought by ship from South America, hauled across the isthmus, and loaded aboard ships for Spain. The route became known as the Camino Real, or Royal Road, although it was more commonly known as Camino de Cruces (Road of the Crosses) because of the abundance of grave sites along the way.

Spanish authorities exercised little control over much of the territory of Panama, large sections managing to resist conquest until very late in the colonial era. Because of this, indigenous people of the area were often referred to as "indios de guerra" (war Indians), and resisted Spanish attempts to conquer or missionize them.

However, Panama was enormously important to Spain strategically because it was the easiest way to transship silver mined in Peru to Europe. The original settlement of Panama City was established in 1519 on the Pacific coast. Silver cargos were landed at Panama City, and then twice each year the treasure was taken overland to Portobello or Nombre de Dios on the Caribbean side of the isthmus for further shipment.

Because of the incomplete Spanish control, the Panama route was vulnerable to attack from pirates (mostly Dutch and English) and from "new world" Africans called cimarrons who had freed themselves from enslavement and lived in communes or palenques around the Camino Real in Panama's Interior, and on some of the islands off Panama's Pacific coast. One such famous community amounted to a small kingdom under Bayano, which emerged in the 1552 to 1558. Sir Francis Drake's famous raids on Panama in 1572/73 were aided by Panama cimarrons, and Spanish authorities were only able to bring them under control by making an alliance with them that guaranteed their freedom in exchange for military support in 1582.

In 1671, English privateer Henry Morgan led a force of 1,400 men who marched from the Caribbean coast across the jungle to attack Panama City, which was destroyed by a subsequent fire. In 1673, just two years after the sacking of Panama Viejo, the building of Casco Viejo was begun. The new Panama City was developed by Spanish and French colonists, as well as the Catholic church, as a walled city to protect its settlers against future pirate attacks.

When Panama was colonized, the indigenous peoples who survived many diseases, massacres and enslavement of the conquest ultimately fled into the forest and nearby islands. Indian slaves were replaced by Africans.

In 1717, the viceroyalty of New Granada (today's Venezuela, Colombia and parts of Peru) was created in response to other Europeans trying to take Spanish territory in the Caribbean region. The Isthmus of Panama was placed under its jurisdiction. However, the remoteness of Bogota--the governing seat of New Granada--proved a greater obstacle than the Spanish crown anticipated, as the authority of New Granada was contested by the seniority, closer proximity, and previous ties to, the viceroyalty of Lima. This uneasy relationship between Panama and Bogota would persist for over a century.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa

Independence from Spain

On November 10, 1821, the Grito de La Villa de Los Santos (Cry From the Town of Saints) occurred. It was a unilateral decision by the residents of the town of Azuero (without backing from Panama City) to declare their separation from the Spanish Empire. In both the province of Veraguas and the capital, this act was met with disdain, although on differing levels. To Veraguas, it was the ultimate act of treason, while to the capital, it was seen as inefficient and irregular, and furthermore forced them to accelerate their plans.

The Grito was an event that shook the isthmus to the core. It was a sign, on the part of the residents of Azuero, of their antagonism towards the independence movement in the capital, who in turn regarded the Azueran movement with contempt, since the separatists in Panama believed that their counterparts in Azuero were fighting selfishly for their right to rule, once the peninsulares (Spaniards born in the Iberian peninsula) were long gone.

In the event, Panama, as a department in the Republic of Greater Colombia, received its independence from Spain in 1821.

Simon Bolivar

Post Colonial Panama and the Panama Canal

In the first eighty years following independence from Spain, Panama was a department of Colombia, since voluntarily becoming part of it at the end of 1821. The people of the isthmus made several attempts to secede and came close to success in 1831, and again during the Thousand Days War of 1899 to 1902.

When the Senate of Colombia rejected the Hay/Herran Treaty--a treaty signed on January 22, 1903 between United States Secretary of State John M. Hay of the United States and Dr. Tomas Herran of Colombia, granting the United States a perpetual lease on a six-mile wide strip across the isthmus of Panama in exchange for $10 million and an annual payment of $250,000--the United States decided to support the Panamanian independence movement.

In November 1903, Panama proclaimed its independence and concluded the Hay/Bunau-Varilla Treaty with the United States. The treaty granted rights to the United States "as if it were sovereign" in a zone roughly 10 miles wide and 50 miles long. In that zone, the U.S. would build a canal, then administer, fortify, and defend it "in perpetuity." In 1914, the United States completed the existing 52-mile long canal.

From 1903 until 1968, Panama was a constitutional democracy dominated by a commercially oriented oligarchy. During the 1950s, the Panamanian military began to challenge the oligarchy's political hegemony. And the early 1960s saw the beginning of sustained pressure in Panama for the renegotiation of the Hay/Bunau-Varilla Treaty.

The Military Junta and Omar Torrijos

Panama held elections in 1967, and Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid, running under the banner of the National Union party, was declared the winner. The elections were marked by violence and accusations of fraud. In the event, Arias Madrid was deposed by the National Guard only 11 days after being sworn in as President. The military justified itself by declaring that Arias Madrid was trying to install a dictatorship, and promised a return to constitutional rule. In the meantime, the Guard began a series of populist measures that would gain support for the coup. he was succeeded by Major Omar Torrijos, a leader of the coup.

The military appointed a Provisional Government Junta that would arrange new elections. However, the National Guard would prove to be very reluctant to abandon power, and soon began calling itself El Gobierno Revolucionario. The leader of the Junta, Major Omar Torrijos, assumed the presidency.

During Omar Torrijos's control, the military regime transformed the political and economic structure of the country by initiating massive coverage of social security services and expanding public education. The constitution was changed in 1972. The new constitution proclaimed Omar Torrijos to be the "Maximum Leader of the Panamanian Revolution," and conceded him unlimited power for six years, although, to keep a facade of constitutionality, Demetrio B. Lakas was appointed president for the same period.

Torrijos negotiated the Torrijos-Carter Treaties over the Panama Canal, signed on September 7, 1977. These treaties passed United States sovereignty over the canal zone to Panama, with a gradual increase in their control over it, leading to complete control on December 31, 1999. The United States however, retained the permanent right to protect what they see as the neutrality of the canal.

Omar Torrijos

Manuel Noriega and the U.S. Invasion of Panama

Torrijos died in 1981. Torrijos' death altered the tone of Panama's political evolution. Despite the 1983 constitutional amendments, which proscribed a political role for the military, the Panama Defense Forces (PDF), as they were then known, continued to dominate Panamanian political life. By this time, General Manuel Noriega was firmly in control of both the PDF and the civilian government.

Noriega's regime had fostered the development of a well-hidden criminal economy that operated as a parallel source of income for the military and their allies, providing revenues from drugs and money laundering. Towards the end of the military dictatorship, a new wave of Chinese migrants arrived on the isthmus in the hope of migrating to the United States. The smuggling of Chinese became an enormous business, with revenues of up to $200 million for Noriega's regime.

On the night of June 9, 1987, the Cruzada Civilista ("Civic Crusade") was created and began organizing actions of civil disobedience. The Crusade called for a general strike. In response, the military suspended constitutional rights and declared a state of emergency in the country. On July 10, the Civic Crusade called for a massive demonstration that was violently repressed by the "Dobermans," the military's special riot control unit. That day, later known as El Viernes Negro ("Black Friday"), left six hundred people injured and another six hundred detained, many of whom were later tortured and raped.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan began a series of sanctions against the military regime. The United States froze economic and military assistance to Panama in the summer of 1987 in response to the domestic political crisis in Panama and an attack on the U.S. Embassy. Yet these sanctions did little to overthrow Noriega; instead they resulted in severe damage to Panama's economy. The sanctions hit the Panamanian population hard and caused the Gross Domestic Product to decline almost 25 percent between 1987and 1989.

On February 5, 1988, General Manuel Antonio Noriega was accused of drug trafficking by federal juries in Tampa and Miami. In April 1988, the President Reagan invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, freezing Panamanian government assets in all U.S. organizations. In May 1989 Panamanians voted overwhelmingly for the anti-Noriega candidates. The Noriega regime promptly annulled the election and embarked on a new round of repression.

On December 19, 1989, President George H. W. Bush decided to use force against Panama, declaring that the operation was necessary to safeguard the lives of U.S. citizens in Panama, defend democracy and human rights, combat drug trafficking and secure the functioning of the Canal as required by the Torrijos-Carter Treaties. The U.S. troops involved in Operation Just Cause achieved their primary objectives, and Noriega eventually surrendered to U.S. authorities on January 3, 1990.

Gen. Manuel Noriega

Today's Panama

Panama's Electoral Tribunal moved quickly to rebuild the civilian constitutional government, reinstated the results of the May 1989 election on December 27, 1989, and confirmed the victory of President Guillermo Endara. During its five-year term, the often-fractious government struggled to meet the public's high expectations. Its new police force was a major improvement over its predecessor, but was not fully able to deter crime. Ernesto Perez Balladares was sworn in as President on September 1, 1994, after an internationally monitored election campaign.

Perez Balladares ran as the candidate for a three-party coalition dominated by the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), the erstwhile political arm of military dictatorships. Perez Balladares worked skillfully during the campaign to rehabilitate the PRD's image, emphasizing the party's populist Torrijos roots rather than its association with Noriega. He won the election with only 33% of the vote when the major non-PRD forces splintered into competing factions. His administration carried out economic reforms and often worked closely with the U.S. on implementation of the Canal treaties.

The PRD's Martin Torrijos won the presidency and a legislative majority in the National Assembly in 2004. Torrijos ran his campaign on a platform of, among other pledges, a "zero tolerance" for corruption, a problem endemic to the Moscoso and Perez Balladares administrations. After taking office, Torrijos passed a number of laws which made the government more transparent. He formed a National Anti-Corruption Council whose members represented the highest levels of government, as well as civil society, labor organizations, and religious leadership. In addition, many of his closest Cabinet ministers were non-political technocrats known for their support for the Torrijos government's anti-corruption aims.

Though Panama suffered heavy economic upheavals because of military warfare, the Panamanian economy has been among the fastest growing and best managed in Latin America. The Latin Business Chronicle has predicted that Panama will be the fastest growing economy in Latin America in the five-year period 2010 to 2014, matching Brazil's 10% rate.

On September 17, 2007, the Expansion of the Panama Canal project officially got underway. The program will double the capacity of the Panama Canal by 2014 by allowing more and larger ships to transit from the Pacific to the Caribbean.