History of Panama (to 1821) facts for kids
The history of Panama started with native tribes like the Cueva and Coclé. When the Spanish arrived in the 1500s, many native people died from diseases and conflicts. However, some survived and continued their communities.
In 1501, Rodrigo de Bastidas was the first European to explore Panama. He was searching for gold. Ten years later, Vasco Núñez de Balboa visited the area. In 1513, Balboa made a difficult journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. This showed that Panama was a perfect path between the two seas.
Panama quickly became a vital crossroads for Spain's empire. Gold and silver from South America were brought by ship. They were then carried across Panama and loaded onto ships heading to Spain. This important route was called the Royal Road of Portobelo. It was also known as the Royal Road of the Crosses.
Panama was part of the Spanish empire for almost 300 years, from 1538 to 1821. Panama's identity was shaped by its special location. Its success depended on how important the Isthmus was to the world. The time under Spanish rule also led to a strong sense of Panamanian identity.
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Ancient Panama's People
Historians have different ideas about how many native people lived in Panama when the Spanish arrived. Some believe the population was much larger than Panama's population today. Some Panamanian historians think there were 500,000 native people from about sixty different tribes. Other researchers suggest the Cuna people alone might have numbered 750,000.
Besides the Cuna, who were the largest group, two other main groups were the Guaymí and the Chocó. The Guaymí lived in the highlands near the Costa Rican border. They are thought to be related to the Nahuatlan and Mayan people of Mexico and Central America. The Chocó, on the Pacific side of Darién Province, seem to be related to the Chibcha people of Colombia.
The Cuna people, now mostly in the Comarca de San Blas, have a debated origin. Some experts think their name might be linked to Arawak and Carib tribes. Others see possible cultural links to the Andean people. Some Cuna believe they came from the Carib people. Others trace their origin to a god named Olokkuppilele at Mount Tacarcuna.
All three native groups—the Cuna, Guaymí, and Chocó—shared and farmed their land together. They hunted and fished. They also grew corn, cotton, cacao, root crops, and fruits. They lived in round, thatched huts and slept in hammocks, just as many still do today.
Villages often specialized in making certain goods. Traders traveled between them using rivers and coastal waters in dugout canoes. The native people were skilled at making pottery, cutting stone, and working with gold and silver. Their beautiful ornaments, like breastplates and earrings made of beaten gold, helped create the Spanish myth of El Dorado, the city of gold.
The Spanish Conquest
Rodrigo de Bastidas, a wealthy Spanish explorer, was the first to reach Panama. He sailed from Venezuela in 1501, looking for gold. He explored about 150 kilometers of the coast. A year later, Christopher Columbus visited the Isthmus on his fourth voyage. He found a horseshoe-shaped harbor and named it Puerto Bello (beautiful port), which later became Portobelo.
Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who had been part of Bastidas' crew, came to Panama in 1510. He had hidden on a ship to escape his debts. At that time, about 800 Spaniards lived on the Isthmus. But soon, many died from jungle dangers, including diseases like malaria and yellow fever. Only 60 survived. The settlers at Antigua del Darién, the first Spanish city there, chose Balboa as a co-mayor.
Balboa was a good leader. He made sure settlers planted crops instead of just waiting for supply ships. Antigua became a successful community. Balboa led raids on native villages, but he also befriended some tribes. He even took a chief's daughter as his partner.
On September 1, 1513, Balboa set out with 190 Spaniards. Among them was Francisco Pizarro, who later conquered the Inca Empire. They also had dogs and 1,000 enslaved native people. After twenty-five days of cutting through the jungle, they saw the Pacific Ocean. Balboa, wearing his armor, walked into the water. He claimed the sea and all its shores for his God and his king.
Balboa returned to Antigua in January 1514 with all his soldiers. He brought cotton cloth, pearls, and 40,000 pesos in gold. Meanwhile, Balboa's enemies had complained about him to the Spanish king. King Ferdinand appointed a new governor, Pedro Arias de Avila, known as "Pedrarias the Cruel." In 1517, Pedrarias accused Balboa of treason and had him executed.
In 1519, Pedrarias moved his capital to a fishing village on the Pacific coast. This was about four kilometers east of today's capital city. The native people called the village Panama, meaning "plenty of fish." In the same year, Nombre de Dios was resettled. It served as the Caribbean port for traffic across the Isthmus until the late 1500s.
A trail called the Camino Real, or royal road, connected Panama City and Nombre de Dios. Gold from Peru was carried by mule along this trail to Spanish galleons waiting on the Atlantic coast.
The importance of the Isthmus for transporting treasure grew. The Camino Real was difficult and slow. So, in the 1520s and 1530s, the Spanish king ordered studies to see if a canal could be built. King Philip II (1556–98) finally stopped the idea. He believed that if God wanted a canal there, He would have built one Himself.
Pedrarias' time as governor was terrible. Hundreds of Spaniards died from disease and hunger. Thousands of native people were robbed, enslaved, and killed. Many more died from European diseases they had no protection against. After Pedrarias' cruel actions, most native people fled to remote areas to avoid the Spaniards.
The Spanish king's Council of the Indies had rules to protect native people and convert them to Christianity. But the colonies were far away, and few leaders followed these rules. The Roman Catholic Church, especially the Franciscans, tried to help the native people. However, their efforts were not enough.
One Spaniard, Bartolomé de las Casas, became a strong helper for the native people. He was the first priest in the West Indies. He was angry about how the native people were treated. He freed his own enslaved people and returned to Spain. He convinced the council to take stronger action against enslaving native people. He also suggested bringing Africans to replace them as enslaved workers. He later regretted this idea.
In 1517, King Charles V allowed 4,000 African slaves to be sent to the Antilles. This started the slave trade, which lasted over 200 years. Panama became a major hub for distributing enslaved people to other parts of the mainland. By the mid-1500s, there were not enough native workers. So, Panama began to use many of the enslaved Africans.
Many enslaved people on the Isthmus escaped into the jungle. They were called cimarrones, meaning wild or unruly. They attacked travelers along the Camino Real. A census of Panama City in 1610 showed 3,500 enslaved Africans.
The Spanish Colony
After the early explorations, the king took control by appointing governors. These officials were paid from the king's profits from the colony. The king's representative made sure these profits were collected. He tracked all gold, pearls, and income from trade.
Governors had some power to judge cases. But audiencias (courts) were also set up. The first audiencia in Santo Domingo oversaw all the conquered areas. As more settlements grew, other audiencias were created. In 1538, all Spanish territory from Nicaragua to Cape Horn was to be managed by an audiencia in Panama. This court only lasted until 1543 because the area was too vast to control. A new Panamanian audiencia was set up in 1563. It covered an area similar to present-day Panama.
From the early 1500s, Nombre de Dios in Panama, Vera Cruz in Mexico, and Cartagena in Colombia were the only three ports allowed to trade with Spain. By the mid-1560s, two fleets sailed yearly from Spain. One went to Mexico, and the other to southern ports. They would meet in Havana and return to Cádiz, Spain. This system mostly stayed in place until the 1700s. However, as Spain's power declined, annual visits became rare.
Shipments of gold and goods were brought to Panama on the Pacific side. They were then transported across the Isthmus and sent back to Spain. Panama itself contributed little to these shipments. Gold production was never high. There was also little extra farm produce or forest products to export. Nothing was manufactured in Panama. In fact, Spain discouraged the making of finished goods. So, Panama's wealth depended on the amount of trade, mostly from Peru. When the Inca gold ran out, silver from Peru replaced it for 150 years. Later, sugar, cotton, wine, and other goods were also traded.
Spain had banned the enslavement of native people. So, colonists began importing enslaved Africans. By 1565, there were seven enslaved Africans for every European. Many enslaved Africans ran away. They joined with escaped native people and remaining local tribes. One enslaved person named Felipillo founded a village of Africans and native people. It lasted two years before being destroyed in 1551. Escaped enslaved people, or maroons, soon outnumbered the Europeans. They defeated Spanish attacks in 1554 and 1555.
Foreign trade was forbidden unless goods passed through Spain. However, Africans were brought to the colonies by contract (asiento) from Portuguese, English, Dutch, and French traders. These traders were not allowed to trade in any other goods. Spain tried to keep its monopoly on the rich trade profits. This challenged other rising European sea nations. This led to wars in the Caribbean and later in the Pacific. The English caused the first serious problems for Spanish trade.
From 1572 to 1597, Francis Drake was involved in most attacks on Panama. Drake's actions showed that Nombre de Dios was hard to defend. In 1597, the Atlantic end of the cross-Isthmus route moved to Portobelo. Portobelo was one of the best natural harbors on the Spanish Main. Drake joined forces with the Cimarron people, the local population of escaped enslaved people.
The 1600s
Despite attacks on shipments and ports, the amount of precious metals officially imported tripled between 1550 and 1600. Panama was most prosperous in the early 1600s. This was the time of the famous ferias (fairs or markets) of Portobelo. European goods were sold there to supply trade along the entire west coast south of Nicaragua. When a fair ended, Portobelo would become a quiet seaport and military town again.
Panama City also grew rich from trade profits. After a big fire in 1644, the city was rebuilt. Accounts from that time say Panama City had 1,400 homes. Most businesses, churches, and large homes were rebuilt with stone. Panama City was considered one of the most beautiful and wealthy settlements in the West Indies, after Mexico City and Lima.
The idea of building a canal came up again in the early 1600s under Philip III of Spain (1598–1621). But the Council of the Indies convinced the king not to do it. They argued that a canal would attract attacks from other European nations. This showed that Spain's sea power was declining.
In the early 1600s, trade between Spain and Panama was mostly peaceful. At the same time, England, France, and the Netherlands, often at war with Spain, began taking colonies in the Caribbean. These new bases encouraged the growth of buccaneers. These were English, French, Dutch, and Portuguese adventurers. They attacked Spanish ships and ports, often with their governments' secret or open support. Because there were many of them and their bases were close, the buccaneers were more effective against Spanish trade than the English had been earlier.
The amount of precious metal reaching Spain dropped after its peak in 1600. By 1660, it was less than it had been a century before. This decline was due to mines in Peru running out, more smuggling, and the buccaneers.
Henry Morgan, a buccaneer, had held Portobelo for ransom in 1668. He returned to Panama with a stronger force in late 1670. On January 29, 1671, Morgan arrived at Panama City. With 1,400 men, he defeated the city's defenders in a battle outside the city. He then looted the city. Officials and citizens fled, taking important church and government funds and treasures on their ships. Panama City was destroyed by fire, likely from exploding gunpowder stores. Morgan left after four weeks with 175 mule loads of loot and 600 prisoners. Two years later, a new city was founded where the current capital stands. It was heavily fortified.
The buccaneer threat quickly faded after 1688. This was mainly due to changing alliances in Europe. By this time, Spain was often bankrupt. Its population had fallen, and its government suffered from poor management and corruption.
Reports from buccaneers about how easy it was to cross the Isthmus sparked interest in digging a canal. William Paterson, who founded the Bank of England, organized a Scottish company. They aimed to set up a colony in the San Blas area. Paterson landed on the Caribbean coast of Darién in late 1698 with about 1,200 people. The native people welcomed them, but the colonists were not ready for life in the tropics. They suffered from diseases. Their trade goods, like European clothing and English Bibles, were not useful to the native people. These colonists gave up after six months. They unknowingly passed another 1,600 reinforcements at sea. The Spanish reacted by blocking the sea. The English surrendered and left in April 1700. Many lives were lost, mostly from hunger and disease.
The 1700s
In Spain, Bourbon kings replaced the Habsburgs in 1700. They brought some freedom to trade. But these changes came too late for Panama. Spain's desperate efforts to keep its trade monopoly had hurt itself. Cheaper goods from England, France, and the Netherlands were welcomed by colonial officials and traders. Dealing in contraband (illegal goods) grew, hurting official trade. Fewer merchants came to the Portobelo feria because foreign suppliers offered cheaper goods at any port. The situation worsened. Only five of the usual yearly fleets were sent to Latin America between 1715 and 1736. This increased illegal trade.
Panama temporarily lost its independent audiencia from 1718 to 1722. It became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru. This was likely due to powerful Peruvian merchants. They disliked the corrupt Panamanian officials and their failure to stop pirates. Panama's weakness was also shown when it could not defend itself against an invasion by the Miskito Indians from Nicaragua. Another native uprising in the Río Tuira valley made white settlers leave the Darién.
The final blow to Panama's control of the trade route came before the mid-1700s. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 gave Britain the right to supply enslaved Africans to Spanish colonies. Britain could also send one ship a year to Portobelo. This slave trade agreement satisfied both countries. But the trade in goods did not. Smuggling by British ships continued. A well-organized illegal trade from Jamaica, with help from Panamanian merchants, almost destroyed legal trade. By 1739, Panama's importance to Spain had greatly declined. Spain again took away Panama's self-rule. It made Panama part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (which included today's Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama).
In the same year, the War of Jenkins' Ear broke out between Britain and Spain. A British force attacked and destroyed Portobelo. Panamanian historians say this attack made Spain move its trade away from the Isthmus. Spain had already loosened its trade rules earlier in the century. This allowed merchants in Latin American colonies to push for direct trade with Spain and between colonies. After 1740, Pacific coast ports could trade directly by ships sailing around Cape Horn. The Portobelo feria never happened again.
Relaxing trade laws helped both Spanish America and Spain. But Panama's economy suffered greatly. Trade had been Panama's main source of wealth for so long. There was no reason to develop other ways to make money. After its audiencia was removed in 1751, Panama became a quiet, isolated area. It was part of New Granada and barely produced enough food for itself.
In 1793, near the end of Spanish rule, the first census of Panama was taken. It was incomplete and likely missed most native and cimarrón people. It also did not count soldiers and priests. The census recorded 71,888 inhabitants. Of these, 7,857 lived in Panama City. Other main towns had populations from 2,000 to just over 5,000.
Society in the colony was very strict. The best jobs went to peninsulares, people born in Spain. Criollos, people of Spanish descent born in the colonies, held lesser government and trade jobs. Mestizos, usually children of Spanish fathers and native mothers, worked in farming, retail, and services. African and native enslaved people were at the bottom. Native people who escaped enslavement tried to avoid Spanish society completely.
The church had a special place in society. Priests went on every expedition and advised leaders. The first bishop on the mainland came with Pedrarias. The bishop's power, given by the king, made him like a vice-governor. The bishopric moved from Darién to Panama City in 1521. The church and government were closer in the colony than in Spain. Both the Roman Catholic Church and religious orders gained great wealth from taxes and land.
Independence from Spain
Panama was isolated by sea, which the Spanish controlled. So, Panama stayed out of the early efforts of other Spanish colonies to break away from Spain. However, revolutionaries from other colonies used Panama's important location in their plans. General Francisco de Miranda of Venezuela, who started revolutionary activities in 1797, offered Britain a canal deal for help. Thomas Jefferson also showed interest in a canal. But the United States' focus on its own growth prevented serious consideration.
Patriots from Cartagena tried to take Portobelo in 1814 and again in 1819. A naval force from newly free Chile captured Taboga Island in the Bay of Panama. Panama's first step to independence from Spain happened peacefully. When Simón Bolívar won the Battle of Boyacá on August 7, 1819, New Granada was liberated. The Spanish viceroy fled Colombia to Panama. He ruled harshly until he died in 1821. His replacement in Panama was a liberal leader. He allowed a free press and patriotic groups. He raised local troops and soon sailed for Ecuador. He left a Panamanian, Colonel José de Fábrega, as acting governor.
Panama City immediately planned to declare independence. But the city of Los Santos acted first. It declared freedom from Spain on November 10, 1821. This led to a meeting in Panama City on November 28. This date is celebrated as Panama's official independence day.
