Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Democratic Change (CD), Martinelli was a pro-business choice who has proved even
more ambitious in political and development plans than the public had first expected.
The Path Between the Seas,
by acclaimed historian David McCullough, makes vivid the
elephantine undertaking of creating the Panama Canal.
The future of Panama remains uncertain. After the world economic crisis, high infla-
tion kept international investors at bay. But signs of returning prosperity may herald a
comeback of the gold-rush aplomb that had Panama with the highest growth rate in the
Americas before the election of Martinelli. As his government winds down and Panama
looks toward 2014 elections, the future is anyone's guess.
TIMELINE
11,000 BC
The first humans occupy what is now Panama, and their populations quickly flourish thanks to
the rich resources found along both the Pacific and Atlantic coastlines.
2500 BC
Panama is home to some of the first pottery-making villages in the Americas including the Mo-
nagrillo culture, which existed between 2500 to 1700 BC.
100 BC
Panama becomes part of an extensive trade network of gold and other goods that involves
many disparate civilizations and extends from Mesoamerica to the Andes.
AD 1501
Spaniard Rodrigo de Bastidas becomes the first European to see Panama; Christopher Colum-
bus came one year later and explored Bocas, coastal Veraguas and Portobelo.
1506
Christopher Colombus dies and Diego Nicuesa is appointed to settle the territory known as Ver-
aguas.
1513
