Panama City history

Poor old Panama has been owned by one person or another for a very long time, and has only relatively recently gained its independence. It was originally explored by Columbus in 1502 as part of the Spanish conquest and colonisation of the Americas, but Panama City itself was founded by Pedro Arias de Avila in 1519, on the site that is now known as Panama Viejo.

Panama City was the starting point of the expedition that ended up conquering the Inca Empire. It had its share of drama, too: it was burned to the ground in 1671 by the pirate Henry Morgan (who surely had no idea he would achieve immortality not through that, by through a bottle of rum), and was relocated and rebuilt in what is currently the beautiful colonial Casco Viejo.

Three hundred years later, everything changed. Central America revolted against the Spanish rule, Panama joined the already independent Colombia, and then spent the next 80-odd years trying to break away from them. The period between 1850 to 1900 was a time of serious unrest for the Panamanians: the administration changed almost every year, there were riots galore and the US stuck its oar in a dozen times in an attempt to sort things out. Panama gained and officially declared its tentative independence in1903 – with the US’s backing.

The Panama Canal brought fame and wealth to the country – but the US paid Panama for rights to the Canal Zone and influence in the running of country, which took another nearly 100 years to shake off. In 1999, the US formally handed control of the Canal Zone over to Panama.

The next stage for Panama is the expansion of the Canal, a huge project which is due to be completed in 2015, bringing more wealth to the country.