Editing Panama City (section)

==History==
{{For timeline}}
{{More citations needed|section|date=April 2016}}
[[File:Captain Henry Morgan attacking Panama.jpg|thumb|Panama City being burned by pirate [[Henry Morgan]] in 1671. Illustration by [[Alexandre Exquemelin]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/buccaneersofamer00exquuoft/page/209/mode/1up?view=theater |page=209 |year=1686 |edition=1924 |author=[[Alexandre Exquemelin]] |title=The buccaneers of America : a true account of the most remarkable assaults committed of late years upon the coast of the West Indies by the buccaneers of Jamaica and Tortuga, both English and French, wherein are contained more especially the unparalleled exploits of Sir Henry Morgan, our English Jamaican hero, who sacked Porto Bello, burnt Panama City, etc. }}</ref>]]
[[File:Panama Catedral Metropolitana.jpg|thumb|upright|Colonial [[Metropolitan Cathedral of Panama City]]]]
[[File:Edward Gennys Fanshawe, From a back window in Panama, March 10th 1850.jpg|thumb|left|A view of Panama City, in 1850 by [[Edward Fanshawe]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-154581 |title='From a back window in Panama, March 10th 1850' |author=Fanshawe, Edward Gennys |date=1850 |website=[[Royal Museums Greenwich]] website |access-date=2 November 2023 |archive-date=2 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231102232542/https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-154581 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
[[File:Grand Hotel Panama 1875.png|thumb|Former Gran Hotel located in Panama City, illustration of 1875. Currently houses the [[Panama Canal Museum]].]]
[[File:La Plaza, Panamá, 1875.jpg|thumb|Plaza Mayor de Panamá in 1875, by [[Eadweard Muybridge]]. Now called the Plaza Independencia.]]
The city was founded on 15 August 1519, by [[Pedro Arias de Ávila]], also known as Pedrarias Dávila. Within a few years of its founding, the city became a launching point for the exploration and conquest of Peru and a transit point for gold and silver headed back to Spain through the Isthmus. The Genoese-Italians and the Spanish encountered coconuts from the Philippines which the Malayo-Polynesians brought before Spanish colonization.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Baudouin |first1=Luc |last2=Gunn |first2=Bee F. |last3=Olsen |first3=Kenneth M. |date=January 2014 |title=The presence of coconut in southern Panama in pre-Columbian times: clearing up the confusion |journal=Annals of Botany |volume=113 |issue=1 |pages=1–5 |doi=10.1093/aob/mct244 |pmc=3864718 |pmid=24227445 }}</ref> In 1520, [[Genoa|Genoese]] merchants controlled the port and the commerce of the region, mainly for the slave trade, thanks to a concession given by the Spaniards, who had the [[Republic of Genoa]] as its main banking base.<ref>{{Cite web |title=I Genovesi d'Oltremare i primi coloni moderni |url=http://www.giustiniani.info/oltremare.html |access-date=18 November 2020 |website=www.giustiniani.info |archive-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200223140429/http://www.giustiniani.info/oltremare.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=15. Casa de los Genoveses - Patronato Panamá Viejo |url=http://www.patronatopanamaviejo.org/ppv2014/es/el-sitio-arqueologico/los-monumentos/mapa-de-monumentos/15-casa-de-los-genoveses |access-date=18 November 2020 |website=www.patronatopanamaviejo.org |archive-date=11 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911025455/http://www.patronatopanamaviejo.org/ppv2014/es/el-sitio-arqueologico/los-monumentos/mapa-de-monumentos/15-casa-de-los-genoveses |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1671 [[Henry Morgan]] with a band of 1,400 men [[Henry Morgan's Panama expedition|attacked and looted the city]], which was subsequently destroyed by fire. The ruins of the old city still remain and are a popular tourist attraction known as [[Panamá Viejo]] (Old Panama). The city was rebuilt in 1673 in a new location approximately {{convert|5|mi|km|0}} southwest of the original city. This location is now known as the [[Casco Viejo, Panama|Casco Viejo]] (Old Quarter) of the city. Panama City is the fourth earliest-founded of the modern-day capital cities in the Americas.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

One year before the start of the [[California Gold Rush]], the [[Panama Railroad Company]] was formed, but the railroad did not begin full operation until 1855. Between 1848 and 1869, the year the first transcontinental railroad was completed in the United States, about 375,000 people crossed the isthmus from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and 225,000 in the opposite direction. This traffic greatly increased the prosperity of the city during that period.

After declaring independence from Colombia on 3 November 1903, Philippe Bunau-Varilla (a French engineer) was named Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. Bunau-Varilla negotiated the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903, which provided the United States with a 10-mile-wide strip of land for the canal, a one-time $10 million payment to Panama, and an annual annuity of $250,000. The United States also agreed to guarantee the independence of Panama. Completed in 1914, the Panama Canal symbolized U.S. technological prowess and economic power. Although U.S. control of the canal eventually became an irritant to U.S.-Panamanian relations, at the time it was heralded as a major foreign policy achievement.<ref>{{cite web |title=Building the Panama Canal 1903-1904 |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/panama-canal |website=Office of the Historian |access-date=14 February 2022 |archive-date=17 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717191156/https://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/panama-canal |url-status=live }}</ref>

The construction of the Panama Canal was of great benefit to the infrastructure and economy. Of particular note are the improvements in health and sanitation brought about by the American presence in the Canal Zone. [[William Gorgas]], the chief sanitary officer for the canal construction, had a particularly large impact. He hypothesized that diseases were spread by the abundance of mosquitos native to the area, and ordered the fumigation of homes and the cleansing of water. This led to yellow fever being eradicated by November 1905, as well malaria rates falling dramatically.<ref name=":0" /> However, most of the laborers for the construction of the canal were brought in from the Caribbean, which created unprecedented racial and social tensions in the city.

During World War II, construction of military bases and the presence of larger numbers of U.S. military and civilian personnel brought about unprecedented levels of prosperity to the city. Panamanians had limited access, or no access at all, to many areas in the Canal Zone neighboring the Panama city metropolitan area. Some of these areas were military bases accessible only to United States personnel. Some tensions arose between the people of Panama and the U.S. citizens living in the Panama Canal Zone. This erupted in the 9 January 1964, events, known as [[Martyrs' Day (Panama)|Martyrs' Day]].

In the late 1970s through the 1980s the city of Panama became an international banking center, bringing a lot of undesirable attention as an international money-laundering locale. In 1989 after nearly a year of tension between the United States and Panama, President [[George H. W. Bush]] ordered the [[invasion of Panama]] to depose General [[Manuel Noriega]], the country's de facto dictator. As a result, a portion of the [[El Chorrillo]] neighborhood, which consisted mostly of old wood-framed buildings dating back to the 1900s (though still a large slum area), was destroyed by fire. In 1999, the United States officially transferred full control of the Panama Canal to the Republic of Panama, which remains in control today.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=Panama Canal |url=http://www.history.com/topics/panama-canal |website=History |access-date=13 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112174525/http://www.history.com/topics/panama-canal |archive-date=12 November 2016 }}</ref>

The city of Panama is still a banking center, although with very visible controls in the flow of cash. Shipping is handled through port facilities in the area of Balboa operated by the [[Hutchison Whampoa]] Company of Hong Kong and through several ports on the Caribbean side of the isthmus. Balboa, which is located within the greater Panama metropolitan area, was formerly part of the Panama Canal Zone, and the administration of the former Panama Canal Zone was headquartered there.

{{wide image|Southbound on the Panama Canal approaching the Centennial Bridge.jpg|800px|The Panama Canal is one of the main attractions to the Panama City area. The Centennial Bridge spans the area near Gold Hill on the left and Contractor Hill on the right. This is the site of the highest elevation of the Panama Canal construction.}}