Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Birth of a Nation
Panama's future forever changed from the moment that the world's major powers learned
the isthmus of Panama was the narrowest point between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
In 1846 Colombia signed a treaty permitting the US to construct a railway across the
isthmus, though it also granted them free transit and the right to protect the railway with
military force. At the height of the California gold rush in 1849, tens of thousands of
people traveled from the east coast of the US to the west coast via Panama in order to
avoid hostile Native Americans living in the central states. Colombia and Panama grew
wealthy from the railway, and the first talks of an inter-oceanic canal across Central
America began to surface.
The idea of a canal across the isthmus was first raised in 1524 when King Charles V of
Spain ordered that a survey be undertaken to determine the feasibility of constructing
such a waterway. In 1878, however, it was the French who received a contract from Co-
lombia to build a canal. Still basking in the warm glory of the recently constructed Suez
Canal in Egypt, French builder Ferdinand-Marie de Lesseps brought his crew to Panama
in 1881. However, Lesseps severely underestimated the task at hand, and over 22,000
workers died from yellow fever and malaria in less than a decade. By 1889, insurmount-
able construction problems and financial mismanagement had driven the company bank-
rupt.
The US saw the French failure as a lucrative business opportunity that was ripe for the
taking. Although they had previously been scouting locations for a canal in Nicaragua,
the US pressured the French to sell them their concessions. In 1903 Lesseps' chief engin-
eer, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, agreed to the sale, though the Colombian government
promptly refused.
In what would be the first of a series of American interventions in Panama, Bunau-
Varilla approached the US government to back Panama if it declared its independence
from Colombia. On November 3, 1903, a revolutionary junta declared Panama independ-
ent, and the US government immediately recognized the sovereignty of the country. Al-
though Colombia sent troops by sea to try to regain control of the province, US battle-
ships prevented them from reaching land. Colombia did not recognize Panama as a legit-
imately separate nation until 1921, when the US paid Colombia US$25 million in 'com-
pensation.'
Spanish readers and history buffs should pick up
El Caballo de Oro,
by Juan David Mor-
gan, a novel about the building of the Panama Railroad in the quest for California gold.
