In 1821, during the independence movements that swept Latin America, Panama became a part of the independent nation of New Granada (the combined states of Panama and Colombia).

The independence movement of New Granada was led Simon Bolivar (1783 – 1830), who dreamed of uniting the independent nations of Spanish America.  This revolutionary from South America was known as “the Liberator.”  Fighting against colonial Spain, he successfully led wars for the independence of Bolivia, Colombia (including present-day Panama), Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

Like other leaders of Latin American independence movements, he was powerfully influenced by the ideals of the Enlightenment, and the success of the United States’ independence from England.  Beginning in 1810, Simón Bolivar fought for the independence of his homeland, Venezuela.  Having formed a republican government, he was elected president by the independent Venezuelan congress.

Crossing the lofty Andean passes later that year, he and his army of llaneros (plainsmen) were victorious over Spanish forces in Colombia, thus securing the independence of the region in 1821.  Due to Bolivar’s efforts, Ecuador was liberated from Spain’s colonial grip in 1822.

Simón Bolivar united these three nations under the single government of Greater Colombia.  By 1824 – 25, his armies completed the liberation of Spanish South America, and Bolivar set up the government of Peru.

Once free from Spanish colonial domination, the province of Alto Peru was named Bolivia in his honor.  His vision of a united Spanish America remained unfulfilled, however, and in an effort to prevent political fragmentation throughout the region, he became dictator in 1828. Nevertheless, he was unable to halt the secession of Ecuador and Venezuela from the union of Greater Colombia.

In late 1828, he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt, and resigned as president in 1830.  “The Liberator” died of tuberculosis later in 1830.

Returning to the discussion of Panama:

Like other expansionist nations, the United States has long held an intense interest in Panama.  The U.S. attraction to the narrow strip of land grew especially during the 1840s, as Americans were traveling by sea to Oregon.  By 1849/ 1850, the California Gold Rush was in full swing, and the gold fields could be reached by one of three methods; overland and two by sea.  The sea routes were expensive, and since the ocean route around Cape Horn could require a voyage of four to eight months, and the overland route was difficult and time consuming, the Isthmus of Panama became the favored course of travel, requiring a relatively short trip from an East Coast U.S. port.  By crossing overland at Panama, voyagers could then pick up a ship traveling north on the Pacific side.

Steamships ran from Boston and New York City, through the Caribbean to the port of Chagres in Panama.  From Chagres, people traveled up the Chagres River on a two-day trip through steamy, mountainous jungles until they reached Panama City on the Pacific coast.  There, people had to wait until a ship was available to pick them up.  During the California Gold Rush, hundreds of the gold rushers died of yellow fever during the Panama part of the journey to San Francisco.  Most ships were outfitted to carry about 250 passengers, but during the gold rush. It was common for these vessels to take on as many as 450 or more people.  Of the 100,000 or so forty-niners, about 25,000 took the trip from the east coast of the United States, “around the horn” or through the Isthmus of Panama.  The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was a steamship line that ran regularly between Panama City and San Francisco.

To facilitate the trip across the isthmus, the Panama Railroad was built between 1848 and 1855, by W. H. Aspinal, an American, using United States dollars invested for the purpose.  It was that time that the issue of a canal became paramount.  The idea for a canal was suggested back during the Spanish Colonial period, and the United States became interested in building a canal beginning in the eighteenth century.

During the 1840s there was also interest in building a canal through Nicaragua, and the rivalry that ensued between Nicaragua and New Granada was finally settled by the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (April 19, 1850, and named after U.S. Secretary of State John M. Clayton and British “plenipotentiary” (diplomatic agent) Sir Henry Bulwer).  Secretary Clayton was in the Franklin Pierce Presidential administration – additionally, President Pierce appointed Nathaniel Hawthorne to a diplomatic post in Liverpool, England.

Regarding a trans-isthmus canal, the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty stated:

“. . .that neither [nation] . . .will ever obtain or maintain for itself any exclusive control over the said ship canal. . . that neither will ever erect or maintain any fortifications commanding the same . . .or occupy, or fortify, or colonize or assume, or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito Coast, or any part of Central America.”

Later U.S. Secretaries of State attempted unsuccessfully to amend the treaty, in order to pursue the construction of an isthmian canal.  Between 1899 and 1901, President McKinley’s Secretary of State John Hay (1838 – 1905) secured a series of treaties with Great Britain.  Known as the Hay-Pauncefote Treaties (also named after the British ambassador to the United States, Lord Julian Pauncefote of Preston (1828 – 1902), who also was a key figure in the settling of the "Venezuela Boundary Dispute").   The Hay-Pauncefote Treaties modified (in 1901) the issues surrounding the construction of an isthmian canal in a way favorable to the United States.

Earlier, in 1881, a French company was granted concessions to build a sea-level canal through Panama, but its efforts failed, finally becoming bankrupt in 1889.  The United States long-favored a Nicaraguan route for the canal, but an American associated with the French effort succeeded in getting the Panama route approved under the McKinley and Roosevelt presidential administrations, and secured the rights for an American company to build it.   Secretary Hay failed in an attempt to gain the required narrow strip of land from the Colombian government, in the Hat-Herrán Treaty (January, 1903), named also for Colombian foreign minister Tomás Herrán.  The U.S. Congress approved the treaty straight away, but the Colombian Congress refused to ratify it, in an effort to raise the price from the U.S. offer of $10 million (with an additional $1/4 million annuity to begin in nine years).  Colombia’s congress also rejected the treaty because of “Yankee Imperialism,” and the U.S.'s intrusion upon its national sovereignty.

In its drive to possess land for the construction of a canal, the United States supported an armed insurrection, led by the French engineer Philippe Jean Bunau-Varilla (1859 – 1940).  Bunau-Varilla conspired with Panamanian insurrectionists, who successfully pulled off a revolution resulting in the independence of Panama in 1903, and the United States gaining rights to the Panama Canal Zone (between Colón and Panama City).  The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty (November 17, 1903) granted the United States exclusive control “in perpetuity” over the Panama Canal.  Panama was received the same amount of money and annuities that were previously offered to Colombia.  By a treaty in 1921, Colombia received $25 million in settlement from the United States for the loss of Panama, and recognized its independence.

The Panama Canal was built between 1904 and 1914 (it formally opened on August 15, 1914, and was dedicated formally on July 12, 1920).  Its total cost was $336,650,000.00.  This artificial waterway runs for forty miles south to southeast from Limón Bay, at Colón on the Atlantic side, to “Panama at Balboa” on the Pacific side.  Via Gatun Lake, it “crosses the Continental Divide through Gaillard (formerly Culebra) Cut, rising on the east, and descending on the western slopes of the divide through a series of locks.

The product of an ill-conceived U.S. plan, the puppet government of the independent Panama was beset early on with internal problems.  The treaty between the U.S. and Panama allowed for U.S. intervention into Panama’s affairs, and thus, American troops invaded the nation in 1908, 1912, and 1918.

In 1931, a medical doctor name Arnulfo Arias (1901-88), led a military coup to overthrow Panamanian President Florencio Harmodio Arosemena.  In 1939, under FDR’s “Good Neighbor Policy,” the Canal annuity paid to Panama was increased to $434 million (retroactive to 1934).  Panama’s status in relation to the U.S. changed from a protectorate to that of an ally. Active in the new government, Arias became President in 1940.  A fascist (and admirer of Hitler), he proclaimed his allegiance to the Axis Powers in World War II.  The United States thus backed a successful coup against him in 1941 (because of the Good Neighbor Policy, the U.S. was not able to intervene in Panamanian affairs).

With the support of extreme nationalists and Communists, Arias returned to the presidency in 1949, but when he “suspended” the Constitution of 1912 and assembled his own secret police, his opposition succeeded in his removal from office in May 1951.  José Antonio Remón became president in 1952, but was assassinated in 1955.  In 1955 the Canal annuity was raised to nearly $2 million.  Political and student unrest about the U.S. control of the Canal Zone (and other issues) plagued subsequent presidential administrations through the late 1960s.

Arias made another unsuccessful attempt to become President in 1964.  By the 1960s, there were increasing attempts to gain Panamanian control over the canal.  Amid increasing anti-American unrest, Arias was elected President four years later, in 1968.  He took office in October, and set himself at the task of controlling the congress, supreme court, and national guard.  Once again, his opponents (officers of the national guard) ousted him from office only eleven days after he entered it.  Thus, General Omar Torrijos Herrera “emerged” as the dominant political figure in Panama.

In 1977, during the presidential administration of Jimmy Carter, a new treaty was negotiated between the United States and Panama.  The name of the Canal Zone was changed to the “Canal Area,” under joint U.S./ Panamanian control, with it converting completely to Panama in the year 2000.  A separate treaty in 1979 guarantees the neutrality of the Canal Area.

General Torrijos fomented great public building projects, but in doing so, the Panamanian economy became burdened with heavy debt.  Torrijos was responsible for the final treaties with the United States that granted control of the canal and the return of control of the Canal Zone to Panama at the end of the 20th century.  He died in a plane crash in 1981.

Upon the death of General Torrijos, Colonel Manuel Antonio Norriega Moreno gained political power, and by 1983, he led the nation by controlling the national guard.  Meanwhile Arnulfo Arias made a final unsuccessful attempt to become President in 1984.  All elections in Panama were rigged by the man in charge, Colonel Norriega, and though other men held the title of President, it was he who ruled Panama.

In 1987, a former Panamanian Defense Force officer publicly accused Norriega of election rigging, drug trafficking (connected to Colombia), and murder.  The United States then enforced trade sanctions which ruined the Panamanian economy.  In the elections of 1989, Guillermo Endara won, but was unable to take office when Panama’s congress named Norriega President on December 15, 1989, and declared war against the United States.  A U.S. marine was killed that same day.  The U.S. immediately invaded Panama with more than 25,000 troops in “Operation Just Cause.”  Manuel Norriega surrendered to U.S. forces on January 3, 1990, and was taken to the United States, where he was tried and convicted for drug trafficking.  The democratically elected Guillermo Endara assumed office during the U.S. invasion of Panama.