Historical Development Of Panama - Term Paper Example

Historical Development Of Panama Panama under Spain Spanish explorer Rodrigo de Bastidas was the first European to see the Isthmus of Panama in 1501 when he sailed from Cadiz a year earlier to search for gold. With Bastidas were Juan de la Cosa, considered one of the best mariners in his time, and the young Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, who was accepted in the voyage as an esquire. Sailing his ships, Santa Maria de Gracio and San Anton, Bastidas and company reached Panama by the last quarter of 1501 and traded pearls and gold with the friendly natives. Before the ships could be destroyed entirely by worms which were slowly eating the boards, the group left Panama and sailed for Jamaica. The following year, Christopher Columbus continued for his search of the passageway to the East Indies, sailed via Panama’s coast and founded Portobelo near Colon attempting to establish a colony in Rio de Belen but was forced to vacate the place after Indians attacked it (Schreck 2006 302; St. Louis & Doggett 2004 26). In 1510, another explorer Martin Fernandez de Encisco sailed for Panama upon hearing from de Balboa about the attractions of the Gulf of Darien where friendly natives, fertile land and water were abundant. De Encisco successfully established the first European colony between the borders of Colombia and Panama in an area he named Santa Maria de la Antigua del Darien, which became the center of exploration in the region (Gritzner & Swanson 36). De Balboa, who had previously settled in the Dominican Republic, moved to Darien in 1511 after he accumulated a huge amount of debts by boarding a boat bound for Panama as a stowaway. He established himself as the administrator of the Darien colony and in 1513 led an expedition to the other side of the isthmus when he learned from natives of the existence of another coast and another sea at the other side and of a rich civilization inhabiting there. He became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean upon crossing the mountain and named it Mar del Sur (or Sea of the South, as he reached it by crossing from the north of Panama to the South) founding it in the name of the Spain. Balboa’s exploits earned him many enemies and in 1519, he was accused of treachery and beheaded (Gritzner & Swanson 36; St. Louis & Doggett 26). Meanwhile, the Spanish king instituted Pedro Arias de Àvila as governor of Panama, which he had given the name Castilla del Oro to attract as many settlers as possible. De Àvila, remembered for beheading Balboa, was a cruel leader who ordered his soldiers to massacre Indians and raze down villages (St. Louis & Doggett 2004 26). Moreover, Indian population dwindled brought about by new diseases occasioned by the settlement of the Spanish colonizers, such as measles and smallpox, which were previously unknown to them. The Indians were forced to abandon their homes along the coast to the internal mountainous areas (Streissguth 2005 23). He ordered the transfer of the colony from the Darien area to a fishing village in the southern coast along the Pacific Ocean, which was given the name Panama, a term that literally means ‘plenty of fish,’ which eventually became Panama City. The move was considered wise because the living condition in the south coast was drier and healthier. In addition, the natives in the area were friendlier and did not use poisoned arrowheads as weapons and they lived in villages rather than in scattered houses. The colony became a vital settlement for the Spanish where further explorations in the region were based, including the occupation of Peru (St. Louis & Doggett 2004 26; Gritzner & Swanson 37), as well as a market for slaves, where Africans were brought in and sold to Europeans who shipped them out to plantations as slaves (Streissguth 2005 23). It was during this period that the Sendero Las Luces (or the Las Luces Trail) route was established that allowed the transport of goods from Peru to Panama and vice-versa. The route consisted of trips by foot and by boat from Venta de Cruces to Nombre de Dios. However, Nombre de Dios was destroyed in the 16th century by English pirates led by Sir Francis Drake. Spanish activities were then transferred to Portobelo. Another route was also established, which used the links between Panama and Nombre de Dios and also Portobelo. These series of trails were collectively called Camino Real or the King’s Highway and was used until the Americans came to Panama in early 20th century (Gritzner & Swanson 36-37). The Panama colony, which hoarded Incan gold, silver and other treasures from nearby regions to be transported to Spain, attracted many adventurists like pirates and the Spanish had to build large stone fortresses to keep them off the bay. These fortresses proved, however, to be inadequate to the invasion of the Welsh buccaneer Sir Henry Morgan in 1671. Morgan and his men successfully looted and ransacked the colony by conquering Fuerte San Lorenzo, sailing to Rio Chagres and finally crossing the isthmus. The colony Panama was razed down in the process as the Spanish settlers retreated but it was later rebuilt but from a few kilometers away from the original site. However, the destruction of Portobelo in 1739 by the English led by the British Admiral Edward Vernon forced the Spanish settlers to finally abandon Panama. As Spain transferred its trading and transporting activities in South American, Panama lost its importance and relegated to being a viceroy of Colombia (St. Louis & Doggett 2004 27). The decision to abandon was also spurred by the weaning of importance of the colony as a crossroad by Spain, as its routes proved to be more difficult and costlier because they entailed frequent loading and unloading albeit they were shorter comparatively (Gritzner & Swanson 36-37). Independence from Spain and into the Arms of Colombia The Spanish-English war of 1739 ended with a defeat for Spain and thereafter, many of its colonies initiated movements to liberate themselves from its clutches. Panama took slower to respond to events around it because of its relative remoteness. Thus, the revolutionary fever that swept through Spain’s former colonies such as Venezuela and Colombia, starting in 1808, did not move Panama until 1921 when Colombia gained its independence two years earlier. On November 28, 1821, Panama declared its independence and joined Colombia, then headed by the victorious Simon Bolivar, to form the Republic of Gran Colombia, which included Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia (Gritzner & Swanson 2008 39; Hassig & Quek 19-20). The grand coalition, however, was short-lived as Ecuador and Venezuela seceded after Bolivar died of tuberculosis in 1830, his dream of establishing a strong coalition that would defend each other from Spanish attacks never materializing. In 1826, for example, he called for a conference where Great Britain, the US and other countries to suggest a treaty that would legally direct countries included in the confederation to protect each other and settle disputes through peaceful negotiations. Although Colombia ratified it, the treaty was never enforced. Despite the disbandment of the confederation after Bolivar’s death, Panama was not able to wrest itself free from Colombia until the next century (Hassig & Quek 2007 20), becoming a province instead of Colombia, then named New Granada (Gritzner & Swanson 2008 39). The historic crossing of Balboa of the isthmus from north to south made the idea of a bridge and other infrastructure that would link the two oceans, i.e. the Caribbean Sea on the north and the Pacific Ocean on the south, attractive. Since the early 1800s, the US and France proposed the idea of constructing a railroad or cutting a canal from the north to the south of Panama to make travel by the waters easier. In 1835, this idea became a reality when President Andrew Jackson established a commission to study the proposal. The commission recommended the construction of a railroad, suggesting it as the most efficient means that would pave the way for travel from one ocean to the other. After negotiating with New Granada for about ten years, the US finally was granted the right to build a transoceanic railroad. The construction of the railroad eventually became a necessity to the US after gold was discovered in California and settlers started to travel westward in droves. Construction, however, became difficult because of Panama’s hot and humid climate which killed thousands of construction workers, 6,000 more or less, during the 5-year period that the railroad was built (Gritzner & Swanson 2008 39-40). In 1855, the railroad was completed and its success so resounding that it was the biggest revenue-earning property in the world within ten years of its completion, earning more than 7 million dollars in the first six years of operation. This was due to the need and the curiosity of the people to use the railroad, named Panama Railway. However, when the United States built its own transcontinental railroad within its own borders, the Panama Railways’ popularity and earning power began to decline (Hassig & Quek 2007 20-21). On the other hand, the French were also interested in building another kind of infrastructure that would make use of the narrow Panamanian body to get from one ocean to the other. In 1879, the French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps was granted a concession to build a canal in Panama. The work was started in 1881 but had was discontinued in 1889 because Lesseps company went bankrupt after his workers health suffered and after he refused to deviate from the original canal plan (Hassig & Quek 2007 21). The French sold the concession to the US but the Colombian government refused the US. Independence from Colombia Panama’s union with Colombia was tarnished by various conflicts stemming from Panamanian’s dissatisfaction with Colombian policies. Several attempts to break from its Colombian ties were unsuccessful but in 1903, Panama was up in arms anew with the Colombian unilateral decision to draft Panamanians to help in its civil war and to confiscate Panamanian properties to fund its fight against dissenters within Colombia. Jose Agustin Arango, a Panamanian revolutionary leader approached the US for support, knowing fully-well that it was desperate to build a canal across Panama but was earlier thwarted by Colombia. A treaty, called the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, was entered between the parties where the US was to gain control of the canal as well as 10 miles of the area around it as well as the right to get involved with the local politics for its efforts to support the Panamanian rebellion against Colombia. Panama was forced to swallow this high price for its independence and thus, on November 3, 1903 Bunau-Varilla declared a revolutionary junta and its independence from Colombia, an act that was immediately publicly recognized by the US (St. Louis & Doggett 28; Hassig & Quek 21; Gritzner & Swanson 2008 41-42). Panama as a US Protectorate As an independent nation, Panama can be characterized as politically turbulent. This largely stemmed from the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, which Panamanians perceived as unilaterally beneficial to the US. Panama officially became a US protectorate upon the drafting of its Constitution, one with similar features to the US Constitution, which included a clause that allowed the US to intervene into Panamanian domestic affairs to secure peace and order and protect Panama’s safety (Hassig & Quek 21). The work on the canal was continued, with the US at its helm, in 1904 and took 10 years to complete employing an approximate number of 75,000 workers. The workers used large steam shovels, mountains were bored through by taking out loads of dirt and rocks and rivers and lakes were dammed to prevent their waters from invading the canal route but it was diseases like yellow fever and malaria that the workers had to greatly contend which initially killed thousands of workers. William Gorgas, the head of the US medical corps, solved this by draining stagnant water areas, netting workers huts, and other sanitation measures that successfully lowered the mortality rates due to the diseases. In 1914, the canal was completed and the first ship to sail through it was the ship Ancon. It became soon a favorite passage for ships from all over the world (Streissguth 2005 28-29). In 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt, realizing the Panamanians’ resentment of the Americans due to the latter’s intervention in domestic politics in the 1910s and the 1920s, propose the principle of non-intervention in Panamanian politics to the US Congress. A treaty called the Hull-Alfaro Treaty was subsequently signed, which formally ended the protectorate and the US’ right to intervene in Panamanian politics. It did not, however, worked to surrender US rights over the Panama Canal (Hassig & Quek 24). The Republic of Panama In 1941, the new Panamanian president Arnulfo Arias Madrid caused the revision of the Panamanian Constitution, which increased presidential term from 4 to 6 years as well as allowed women to vote. Moreover, the new Constitution declared that the national language shall be used in advertisements, not English. It also banned immigration of blacks into the country and limited rights of blacks already within the country. Tensions between the USD and Panama grew when the US constructed hundreds of military bases around the Panama Canal to protect sea traffic in anticipation of World War II. Arias Madrid, which grew to be disliked by his own constituents, was ousted in a coup led by Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia, who was more pro-American, in 1941. In December of that year, the US and Panama joined the allies in their fight against Germany and the Axis Powers (Streissguth 2005 31-32). After the war, 10,000 Panamanians staged a revolt to protest their government’s decision to allow the US to extend more than a hundred bases for twenty more years. Hundred died as a consequence of the clash between the police and protestors and the US was forced to evacuate all the bases in Panama but reoccupied them again in 1955. After two more violent protests, the US was forced to fence the Canal area and in 1960 agreed to fly the Panama flag. The periodic riots compelled the Panamanian government to seek new treaties with the US but it was only during President Carter’s term that a new one was finally realized. In 1977, two treaties were signed: the first ceded US control of the Canal to Panama, and; the second obliged Panama to keep the Canal neutral and open to all vessels of all nations. Nevertheless, the treaties gave the US and Panama priority to it during wartime (Hassig & Quek 24-25). On the national front, Panama was ruled by two prominent military dictators in the persons of Omar Torrijos Herrera, Manuel Noriega. In 1968, the National Guard of Panama ousted Arnulfo Arias as president for fear that he will eliminate his political enemies. Arnulfo Arias was eventually superseded by Omar Torrijos, who ruled as a dictator from 1968 to 1981, when he died in a plane crash. Torrijos’ rule instituted widespread changes that were characterized as populist. His death, deeply mourned by supporters, was suspected to have been planned by Manuel Noriega. From 1983, Noriega, the new head of the National Guard after the death of Torrijos and who renamed it Panamanian National Guard, ruled as de facto head of Panama with powers over to pressure presidents to resign as he did in 1985 with President Barletta. In 1988, the US charged him with drug trafficking and Noriega responded by declaring himself head of Panama in 1989 after forcing President Delvalle to resign and canceling the Panamanian national elections. In December of that year, the US invaded Panama, captured Noriega and brought him to the US, where he was tried and convicted of drug trafficking and money laundering (Streissguth 2005 35). Works Cited Avery, Ralph Emmett. The Greatest Engineering Feat in the World at Panama. General Books, 2010. Gritzner, Charkes & Swanson, Linnea. Panama. Infobase Publishing, 2008. Hassig, Susan & Quek, Lynette. Panama, 2nd Edition. Marshall Cavendish, 2007. Otfinoski, Steven. Vasco Nuñez de Balboa: Explorer of the Pacific. Marshall Cavendish, 2004. Schreck, Kristina. Frommer's Panama. John Wiley and Sons, 2006. St. Louis, Regis & Doggett, Scott. Panama, 3rd Edition. Lonely Planet, 2004. Streissguth, Thomas. Panama in Pictures, 2nd Edition. Twenty-First Century Books, 2005. Read More