The history of Panama includes the history of the Isthmus of Panama prior to European colonization.
Before the arrival of Europeans, Panama was widely settled by peoples speaking Chibchan languages, Choco languages, and Cueva language. There is no accurate knowledge of the size of the Pre-Columbian indigenous population. Estimates range as high as two million people. They lived mainly by fishing, hunting, gathering edible plants and fruits, growing corn, squash, and root crops, and lived in wattle and daub houses with thatched roofs of palm leaves.
The first permanent European settlement on the Americas mainland, Santa María la Antigua del Darién, was founded in 1510. Vasco Núñez de Balboa and Martín Fernández de Enciso agreed on the site near the mouth of the Tarena River on the Atlantic. This was abandoned in 1519 and the settlement moved to Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Panamá (present day Panama City), the first European settlement on the shores of the Pacific.
Panama was part of the Spanish Empire for over 300 years (1513–1821) and its fate changed with its geopolitical importance to the Spanish crown. In the 16th and 17th centuries, at the height of the Empire, no other region would prove of more strategic and economic importance.
On November 10, 1821, in a special event called Grito de La Villa de Los Santos, the residents of the Azuero declared their separation from the Spanish Empire. As was often the case in the New World after independence, control remained with the remnants of colonial aristocracy. In Panama, this elite was a group of less than ten extended families. The derogatory term rabiblanco ("white tail") has been used for generations to refer to the usually White members of the elite families.
In 1852, the isthmus adopted trial by jury in criminal cases and—30 years after abolition—would finally declare and enforce an end to slavery.
Pre-Columbian history
The earliest artifacts discovered in Panama include Paleo-Indians projectile points. Later central Panama was home to some of the earliest pottery-making in the Americas, such as the Monagrillo cultures dating to about 2500–1700 BC. These evolved into significant populations that are best known through the noteworthy burials (dating to c. 500–900 AD) at the Monagrillo archaeological site, and the polychrome pottery of the Gran Coclé style. The monumental monolithic sculptures at the Barriles (Chiriquí) site are other important evidence of the ancient isthmian cultures.
Panama was widely settled by Chibchan languages, Choco languages, and Cueva language speakers, among whom the largest group were the Cueva (a possible lingua franca) speakers. There is no accurate knowledge of the size of the Pre-Columbian 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.Mena García, C. (2013). Los inicios de la esclavitud indígena en el Darién y la desaparición de los" Cuevas". In Dalla-Corte Caballero, Gabriela [et al.](coord.). América: poder, conflicto y política:[Asociación Española de Americanistas. Simposio (7. 2011. Barcelona)], págs. 1-20. Universidad de Murcia. In Spanish Archaeological finds, as well as testimonials by early European explorers, describe diverse native isthmian groups exhibiting cultural variety and already experienced in using regional trade routes. The indigenous people of Panama lived by hunting, gathering edible plants & fruits, growing corn, cacao, and root crops. They lived in small huts made of palm leaves over a rounded branch structure, with hammocks hung between the interior walls. There is evidence of coconuts reaching the Pacific coast of Panama from the Philippines in Precolumbian times.
Spanish colonial period
In 1501, Rodrigo de Bastidas was the first European to explore the Isthmus of Panama sailing along the eastern coast. A year later Christopher Columbus on his fourth voyage, sailing south and eastward from upper Central America, explored Bocas del Toro, Veragua, the Chagres River and Portobelo (Beautiful Port) which he named. Soon Spanish expeditions would converge upon Tierra Firma (also Tierra Firme, Spanish from the Latin terra firma, "dry land" or "mainland") which served in Spanish colonial times as the name for the Isthmus of Panama.
In 1509, authority was granted to Alonso de Ojeda and Diego de Nicuesa to colonize the territories between the west side of the Gulf of Urabá to Cabo Gracias a Dios in present-day Honduras. The idea was to create an early unitary administrative organization similar to what later became Nueva España (now Mexico). Tierra Firme later received control over other territories: the Isla de Santiago (now Jamaica) the Cayman Islands; Roncador, Quitasueño, and Providencia and other islands now under Colombian control.
Santa Maria la Antigua del Darién In September 1510, the first permanent European settlement on the Americas mainland, Santa María la Antigua del Darién, was founded. Vasco Núñez de Balboa and Martín Fernández de Enciso agreed on the site near the mouth of the Tarena River on the Atlantic, in modern Colombia. Balboa maneuvered and was appointed Mayor on the first official cabildo abierto (municipal council) held on the mainland. On August 28, 1513, the Santa María de La Antigua del Darién mission was erected with Fray Juan de Quevedo as the first Catholic Bishop in the continental Americas.
Balboa expedition
On September 25, 1513, the Balboa expedition verified claims by indigenous people that the Panama isthmus had another coast to the southwest along another ocean. Balboa was the first known European in the Americas to see the Pacific Ocean, which he named the South Sea.
The 'fantastic descriptions' of the isthmus by Balboa, as well as by Columbus and other explorers, impressed Ferdinand II of Aragon and Castilla, who named the territory Castilla Aurifica (or Castilla del Oro, Golden Castille). He assigned Pedro Arias Dávila (Pedrarias Davila) as Royal Governor. Pedrarias arrived in June 1514 with a 22 vessel, 1,500 men armada. Dávila was a veteran soldier who had served in the wars against the Moors at Granada and in North Africa.
Colonization On August 15, 1519, Pedrarias, having abandoned Santa María la Antigua del Darién, moved the capital of Castilla del Oro with all its organizational institutions to the Pacific Ocean's coast and founded Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Panamá (present day Panama City), the first European settlement on the shores of the Pacific.
From about 1520 the Genoese controlled the port of Panama, the first port on the Pacific, founded by the conquest of the Americas. The Genoese obtained a concession from the Spanish to exploit the port mainly for the slave trade of the new world on the Pacific, until the destruction of the primeval city in 1671. In the meantime in 1635 Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, the then governor of Panama, had recruited Genoese (Participants in the Crusades), Peruvians, and Panamanians, as soldiers to wage war against Muslims in the Philippines and to found the city of Zamboanga."SECOND BOOK OF THE SECOND PART OF THE CONQUESTS OF THE FILIPINAS ISLANDS, AND CHRONICLE OF THE RELIGIOUS OF OUR FATHER, ST. AUGUSTINE" (Zamboanga City History) "He (Governor Don Sebastían Hurtado de Corcuera) brought a great reënforcements of soldiers, many of them from Perú, as he made his voyage to Acapulco from that kingdom."
Governor Pedrarias sent Gil González Dávila to explore northward, and in 1524 Francisco Hernández de Córdoba to settle that region (present day Nicaragua). Pedrarias was a party to the agreement authorizing the expedition by conquistadors Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro that brought the European discovery and conquest of the Inca Empire (present day Peru).
In 1526, Pedrarias was superseded as Governor of Panama by Pedro de los Ríos, and retired to León in Nicaragua, where he was named its new governor on July 1, 1527. Here he died on March 6, 1531, aged 90 or 91.
Panama was part of the Spanish Empire for over 300 years (1513–1821) and its fate changed with the geopolitical importance of the isthmus to the Spanish crown. In the 16th and 17th centuries, at the height of the Empire, no other region would prove of more strategic and economic importance.
Governor Pedrarias began building intercontinental and trans-isthmian portage routes, such as the "Camino Real" and "Camino de Cruces", linking Panama City and the Pacific with Nombre de Dios (and later with "Portobelo") and the Atlantic, making possible the establishment of a trans-atlantic system of Treasure Fleets and trade. It is estimated that of all the gold entering Spain from the New World between 1531 and 1660, 60% had arrived at its destiny via the 'Treasure Fleet and Fairs' system from Nombre de Dios/Portobello.
Explorations and conquest expeditions launched from Panama claimed new lands and riches from Central and South America. Other explorations sought a natural waterway between the Atlantic and the South Sea with the hope of reaching the Molucas (Spice Islands—Maluku Islands) and Cathay (China). Eventually, the practicality of the Isthmus came about as it was the middle of two oceans. Latin-American traders often passed through Panama before proceeding to Cuba before sailing to Spain in the Spanish treasure fleet. It also served a similar purpose to those going to Asia, in which case, Panama was a supporting node in the Transpacific Manila galleons connecting Southeast Asia and Latin America via Spanish Philippines.Connecting China with the Pacific World By Angela Schottenhammer (2019) (Page 144-145) However, at 1579, the role of Panama was expanded as the royal monopoly Acapulco-Mexico had, with trade with Manila-Philippines, was removed and thus Panama, by decree, became another port that could trade directly with Asia and the Philippines.
Indigenous displacement and the African slave trade Among the most significantly affected Indigenous peoples were the Guna, Ngäbe, Buglé, Emberá, and Wounaan, whose populations collapsed under the encomienda system of forced labor and repeated military campaigns.Romoli, K. (1987). Los de la lengua de Cueva: Los grupos indígenas del istmo oriental en la época de la conquista española. Instituto Colombiano de Antropología, Bogotá.Mena García, C. (2013). Los inicios de la esclavitud indígena en el Darién y la desaparición de los "Cuevas." In G. Dalla-Corte Caballero et al. (Eds.), América: Poder, conflicto y política (pp. 1–20). Universidad de Murcia. The Guna largely retreated to the San Blas archipelago, while Emberá and Wounaan communities withdrew into the Darién region, where many maintained autonomous settlement patterns for centuries.Castillero Calvo, A. (1995). Conquista, evangelización y resistencia. Editorial Mariano Arosemena, INAC, Panama City.