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scientists consider one of the most important geologic events in 60 million years.
Prehistoric hunter-gatherers migrating from North to South America were the first to explore the isthmus.They were followed by the Spanish explorer Rodrigo de Galván Bastidas in 1501 and by Christopher Columbus the following year. Subsequently, Spanish settlers began migrating to the isthmus, which remained in Spanish hands until 1821, when the colony broke from Spain and joined Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela in the Republic of Gran Colombia. When the latter dissolved in 1830, Panama remained part of Colombia.
A political earthquake
In 1903, with support from the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia and signed a treaty with the United States allowing construction of a canal and establishing U.S. sovereignty over the Panama Canal Zone, a strip of land on either side of the waterway. The canal was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914. In 1977, amidst growing discontent from Panamanians over their inability to control and derive maximum benefit from their own territory, U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed an agreement with the Commander of Panama’s National Guard, General Omar Torrijos, who also served as head of state,
“I long to see this country grow equally, fairly ... an honest government working for the people, not people working for the political class.” — President Juan Carlos Varela
to transfer the canal from U.S. to Panamanian control by the end of the century. Certain portions of the Panama Canal Zone and increasing operational responsibility for the canal passed to Panama over the decades until 1999, when the Panama Canal itself, the remainder of the Canal Zone, and U.S. military bases were handed over to complete the transition.
Panama’s subsequent stewardship of the canal has been outstanding, particularly given the ambitious expansion plan sanctioned by voters in October 2006 to double its capacity by 2016 at a cost of more than $5 billion. Obviously, security of the canal is paramount not just to Panama but to the entire region, as the economic benefit of the canal ripples far beyond Panama’s
PANAMA
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