Panama has a long and rich recorded history. Archaeological discoveries indicate that native populations have been people living in Panama for more than 12,000 years.
1501
Rodrigo de Bastidas from Seville arrived in Panama. He accompanied Columbus on his second voyage to the Americas and eventually landed La Punta de Manzanillo on Panama’s upper Caribbean coast. Bastidas was the first European to claim part of Panama’s Caribbean coast.
1503
Columbus arrived in Panama on his fourth voyage to the Americas to explore the Western part of Panama from Almirante to Portobelo. He eventually returned to Belen in hopes of finding gold. He and his men stayed for several months before fleeing for their lives under an attack by local Indians led by famed warrior, Quibian.
1513
Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who had been on Bastidas’s ship in 1501, arrived in Panama and discovered that Panama had another coastline (Pacific Ocean). Balboa’s discovery led to Spain using Panama as a route to transport Peruvian treasures from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The route that the Spanish created across the isthmus was called Camino Real, or Royal Road, although it was more commonly known as Camino de Cruces (Road of Crossings).
The Spanish arrived in force with their weapons and diseases in the early 16th century and effectively removed native cultures by looting and enslaving the Indians. By the late 17th century, the Cueva culture had all but disappeared and Indian cemeteries were looted for their pre-Colombian gold treasures.
1538-1821
Panama was part of the Spanish Empire. Panama’s importance to Spain declined towards the end of the 17th century and completely faded by the middle of the 18th century. Panama City thrived as Spain conquered and plundered Peru. Caravans of gold traveled overland across the narrow isthmus from Panama City to Colon be loaded on galleons bound for Spain. Pirates controlling the Caribbean coastline heard about the caravans and began attacking the galleons. This led to shippers choosing to sail around Cape Horn (the southern tip of South America) to Peru to avoid being attacked by pirate ships. Things declined to the point where Spain did not contest Panama’s inclusion as a province of Colombia when Columbia won its independence from Spain in 1821.
1821
Pamana joined with present day Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador to form ‘Gran’ or “Greater Colombia”. In September 1830, General José Domingo Espinar, the local military commander, rebelled against Gran’s central government and Panama separated from the union and requested that General Simón Bolívar take direct command of the isthmus department.
1831
Panama had reincorporated itself into what was left of Greater Colombia, known as the Republic of New Granada. By July 1831, as Venezuela and Ecuador were being established, Panama again declared its independence. But by August Panama had re-united with New Granada.
1840
General Tomás Herrera, declared Panama’s independence, but again re-united with Columbia on December 31, 1841.
1846
The U.S. and Colombia signed the Bidlack Mallarino Treaty granting the U.S. rights to build railroads through Panama. The treaty also gave the U.S. the power to intervene by force to guarantee Colombian control of the isthmus. Between 1850 and 1903, the U.S. used troops to suppress independence revolts several times. The first such conflict was known as the Watermelon War of 1856.
1855
The first Transcontinental railway of the New World, the Panama Railway, was built across the isthmus from Colón to Panama City to transport gold prospectors wanting to access the gold fields of California.
1880’s
, Colombia negotiated a treaty with France for the construction of a canal across Panama’s narrow isthmus. From 1880 to 1889, the French Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique under the direction of Ferdinand de Lesseps, who had built the Suez Canal, attempted to construct a sea-level canal. Construction was halted 5 years into the project because an outbreak of yellow fever had claimed the lives of more than 22,000 workers.
Despite Colombia’s objections, one of the French investors negotiated a deal with the United States to complete the construction of the canal, just at the time when Panama’s independence movement needed tactical and financial assistance. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt convinced U.S. Congress to take on the abandoned works in 1902. The U.S. also encouraged a handful of Conservative Panamanian landholding families to demand a Panama independent from Colombia. Roosevelt dispatched the USS Nashville to Colón to deter any resistance from Bogotà.
November 3, 1903
With U.S. U.S. troops were already present to “protect” the new government and French financial support, Panama proclaimed its independence. In return for constructing a canal, the new Panamanian government granted U.S. sovereign control over rights on either side of the canal – a strip of land 10 miles wide and 50 miles long, (16 kilometers by 80 kilometers) on either side of the Panama Canal – “in perpetuity”. Less than three weeks later, the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty was signed between the French and the United States, without a Panamanian in the room. U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt’s “Panama Doctrine” began with the eradication of mosquitoes, which carried malaria and yellow fever.
1914
The Panama Canal was completed and has remained an important shipping route ever since.
1921
The United States paid Colombia US$25 million in exchange for revoking all claims on Panama.
1936
The United States finally gave up the legal right to use its troops outside the borders of the Canal Zone. With the onset of World War II, the canal became one of America’s most valuable strategic assets and was heavily protected by fleets of U.S. warships.
1903-1968
Panama was a constitutional republic dominated by a commercially-oriented oligarchy (government by a few). During the 1950s, the Panamanian military began to challenge the government’s authority.
1968
, a Coup toppled the government of the recently elected Arnulfo Arias Madrid. General Omar Torrijos became head of a governing military Junta until his death in an apparent airplane accident in 1981. After Torrijos’s death, political power was assumed by General Manuel Noriega. Noriega was implicated in drug trafficking by the United States.
December 20, 1989
The U.S. invaded Panama in a large military operation involving 25,000 United States troops to remove Noreiga. A few hours after the invasion, inside a U.S. military base in the former Panama Canal Zone, Guillermo Endara, the winning candidate in the May 1989 elections, was sworn in as the new president of Panama. The invasion occurred just days before the Panama Canal administration was to be turned over to Panamanian control, according to the timetable set up by the Torrijos-Carter Treaties. After the invasion, Noriega sought asylum in the Vatican diplomatic mission. After a few days, Noriega surrendered to the American military, and was taken to Florida to be formally arrested and charged U.S. federal authorities. Since then, he has been extradited to France and is serving prison time on money laundering charges.
December 31, 1999
Under the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, the United States returned all canal-related lands to Panama. As part of the agreement, the U.S. reserves the right to military intervention in the interest of its national security. Panama also gained control of canal-related buildings and infrastructure as well as full administration of the canal.
2009-Present
Panama’s current president, Ricardo Martinelli, assumed leadership of Panama amidst a global recession. Despite projections of +0.9% economic growth for 2009, the new government led Panama, whose service sector accounts for 80% of GDP, to +2.4% growth in GDP (as compared to a global GDP growth of -4.3% in 2009). Additionally, as a result of effective tax reforms under Martinelli’s leadership, Panama recently had its Fitch Rating upgraded to BBB-. Panama is projected to achieve GDP growth rates of +4% in 2010 , +9.1% in 2011 and +9.3% in 2012. A critical factor in these projections is the government’s plans to reduce the national debt by 35% by 2014.
Panama is continuing its aggressive rate of growth with ongoing megaprojects that include the Canal Expansion ($5.3BB), Petaquilla Mines ($3.5BB), Inmet Mines ($3.5BB), government infrastructure projects ($3BB), electrical plants ($945MM), Rodman port ($100MM), Manzanilla port expansion and other ports ($611MM), International Airport in Colon ($622MM), Puerto Armuelles oil pipeline ($100MM), Puerto Armuelles refinery ($8BB).
President Martinelli has moved Panama’s development forward by building more highways to open the entire country, including the Caribbean coast, to further economic growth and development.
According to the World Tourism Organization, Panama has been ranked first in tourism development for Latin America in both 2007 and 2008. This is attributable to the progressive actions of the Panamanian government, such as the tax incentives outlined in Law 8. In addition to Panama being known for its award winning coffee, the world’s largest merchant fleet and the Panama Canal (a popular feature on many vacation cruises experiences), in 2009, the port in Colon became a point of origin and termination for the U.S. cruise industry, including Carnival Cruise Lines. This advancement has significantly increased demand for higher-end accommodations and air travel to the Colon area. This expansion of tourism in Colon represents only the initial steps of the government’s master plan to open and extend tourism along its entire Caribbean coast from Colon to Bocas Del Toro. The WTTC projects that Panama’s tourism industry will grow by 6.3% in 2010 and will account for 5.6% of the total GDP. By comparison, tourism in all of Latin American is projected to grow by only 2.3% in 2010.
For more statistics about Panama, click here.
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