Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Of course, British privateering didn't cease with the destruction of Panamá. In 1739
the final nail in the coffin was hammered in when Admiral Edward Vernon destroyed the
fortress of Portobelo. Humiliated by their defeat and robbed of one of their greatest de-
fenses, the Spanish abandoned the Panamanian crossing in favor of sailing the long way
around Cape Horn to the western coast of South America.
SALVAGING SUNKEN GALLEONS
During the period of colonization between the 16th and 18th centuries, Spanish
galleons left home carrying goods to the colonies and returned loaded with gold
and silver mined in Colombia, Peru and Mexico. Many of these ships sank in the
Caribbean Sea, overcome by pirates or hurricanes. During these years, literally
thousands of ships - not only Spanish but also English, French, Dutch, pirate and
African slave ships - foundered in the green-blue waters of the Caribbean.
The frequency of shipwrecks spurred the Spaniards to organize operations to re-
cover sunken cargo. By the 17th century, Spain maintained salvage flotillas in the
ports of Portobelo, Havana and Veracruz. These fleets awaited news of shipwrecks
and then proceeded immediately to the wreck sites, where the Spaniards used
Caribbean and Bahamian divers, and later African slaves, to scour sunken vessels
and the seafloor around them. On many occasions great storms wiped out entire
fleets, resulting in a tremendous loss of lives and cargo.
The Empire Ends
Spain's costly Peninsular War with France from 1808 to 1814 - and the political turmoil,
unrest and power vacuums that the conflict caused - led Spain to lose all its colonial pos-
sessions in the first third of the 19th century.
Panama gained independence from Spanish rule in 1821, and immediately joined Gran
Colombia, a confederation of Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, a united
Latin American nation that had long been the dream of Simón Bolívar. However, internal
disputes lead to the formal abolishment of Gran Colombia in 1831, though fledgling
Panama retained its status as a province of Colombia.
Heat, starvation and botfly infestations were just some of the challenges faced in the US
Army's disastrous 1854 Darién expedition, chronicled by Todd Balf in
The Darkest
Jungle.
