Editing History of Panama (section)

==Spanish colonial period==
{{Further|Spanish colonization of the Americas}}
In 1501, [[Rodrigo de Bastidas]] was the first European to explore the [[Isthmus of Panama]] sailing along the eastern coast. A year later [[Christopher Columbus]] on his [[Fourth voyage of Columbus|fourth voyage]], sailing south and eastward from upper Central America, explored [[Bocas del Toro Province|Bocas del Toro]], [[Veragua]], the [[Chagres River]] and Portobelo (Beautiful Port) which he named. Soon Spanish expeditions would converge upon ''Tierra Firma'' (also Tierra Firme, Spanish from the Latin terra firma, "dry land" or "mainland") which served in Spanish colonial times as the name for the Isthmus of Panama.

In 1509, authority was granted to Alonso de Ojeda and Diego de Nicuesa to colonize the territories between the west side of the Gulf of Urabá to Cabo Gracias a Dios in present-day Honduras. The idea was to create an early unitary administrative organization similar to what later became Nueva España (now Mexico). Tierra Firme later received control over other territories: the Isla de Santiago (now Jamaica) the Cayman Islands; Roncador, Quitasueño, and Providencia and other islands now under Colombian control.

===Santa Maria la Antigua del Darién===
In September 1510, the first permanent European settlement, ''[[Santa María la Antigua del Darién]]'' on the Americas mainland was founded. [[Vasco Núñez de Balboa]] and [[Martín Fernández de Enciso]] agreed on the site near the mouth of the Tarena River on the Atlantic, in modern Colombia.  Balboa maneuvered and was appointed Mayor on the first official ''cabildo abierto'' (municipal council) held on the mainland. On August 28, 1513, the Santa María de La Antigua del Darién mission was erected with Fray Juan de Quevedo as the first Catholic Bishop in the continental Americas.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Narrative_of_the_Proceedings_of_Pedrarias_Davila/Introduction|title=Narrative of the Proceedings of Pedrarias Davila|first=Pascual de|last=Andagoya|chapter=Introduction|publisher=The Hakluyt Society|access-date=21 June 2019|via=Wikisource|archive-date=January 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113025017/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Narrative_of_the_Proceedings_of_Pedrarias_Davila/Introduction|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Balboa expedition===
[[Image:Balboa Voyage 1513.PNG|thumb|upright=1.5|right|[[Vasco Núñez de Balboa]]'s 1513 expedition route to the South Sea-Pacific Ocean]]
[[Image:Balboa südsee.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|right|[[Vasco Núñez de Balboa]] claiming possession of the [[Pacific Ocean|South Sea]].]]
On September 25, 1513, the [[Vasco Núñez de Balboa#European discovery of the Pacific Ocean|Balboa expedition]] verified claims by indigenous people that the Panama isthmus had another coast to the southwest along another ocean. Balboa was the first known European in the Americas to see the Pacific Ocean, which he named the South Sea.<ref>{{cite web |title=Vasco Núñez de Balboa |date=August 14, 2023 |url=https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/vasco-nunez-de-balboa |access-date=August 14, 2022 |archive-date=August 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814115713/https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/vasco-nunez-de-balboa |url-status=live }}</ref>

The 'fantastic descriptions' of the isthmus by Balboa, as well as by Columbus and other explorers, impressed [[Ferdinand II of Aragon]] and Castilla, who named the territory ''Castilla Aurifica'' (or ''Castilla del Oro'',  Golden Castille). He assigned [[Pedro Arias Dávila]] (Pedrarias Davila) as Royal Governor. Pedrarias arrived in June 1514 with a 22 vessel, 1,500 men armada. Dávila was a veteran soldier who had served in the wars against the Moors at [[Granada]] and in North Africa.

===Colonization===
On August 15, 1519, Pedrarias, having abandoned ''Santa María la Antigua del Darién'', moved the capital of ''Castilla del Oro'' with all its organizational institutions to the Pacific Ocean's coast and founded Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Panamá (present day [[Panama City]]), the first European settlement on the shores of the Pacific.

From about 1520 the Genoese controlled the port of [[Panama]], the first port on the Pacific, founded by the conquest of the Americas. The [[Republic of Genoa|Genoese obtained a concession from the Spanish to exploit the port mainly]] for the slave trade of the new world on the Pacific, until the destruction of the primeval city in 1671.<ref>{{Cite web |title=I Genovesi d'Oltremare i primi coloni moderni |website=www.giustiniani.info |url=http://www.giustiniani.info/oltremare.html |access-date=2020-08-05 |archive-date=2020-02-23 |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 |website=www.patronatopanamaviejo.org |access-date=2020-08-05 |archive-date=2017-09-11 |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 }}</ref> In the meantime in 1635 Don [[Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera]], the then governor of Panama, had recruited Genoese (Participants in the Crusades), Peruvians, and Panamanians, as soldiers to wage war against Muslims in the Philippines and to found the city [[Zamboanga City|of Zamboanga]].<ref>[http://www.zamboanga.com/html/history_1634_moro_attacks.htm "SECOND BOOK OF THE SECOND PART OF THE CONQUESTS OF THE FILIPINAS ISLANDS, AND CHRONICLE OF THE RELIGIOUS OF OUR FATHER, ST. AUGUSTINE"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508103044/https://www.zamboanga.com/html/history_1634_moro_attacks.htm |date=May 8, 2021 }} (Zamboanga City History)
"He (Governor Don Sebastían Hurtado de Corcuera) brought a great reënforcements of soldiers, many of them from Perú, as he made his voyage to Acapulco from that kingdom."</ref>

Governor Pedrarias sent Gil González Dávila to explore northward, and in 1524 [[Francisco Hernández de Córdoba (founder of Nicaragua)|Francisco Hernández de Córdoba]] to settle that region (present day [[Nicaragua]]). Pedrarias was a party to the agreement authorizing the expedition by [[conquistador]]s [[Francisco Pizarro]] and [[Diego de Almagro]] that brought the European discovery and [[Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire|conquest of the Inca Empire]] (present day [[Peru]]).

In 1526, Pedrarias was superseded as Governor of Panama by Pedro de los Ríos, and retired to León in Nicaragua, where he was named its new governor on July 1, 1527. Here he died on March 6, 1531, aged 90 or 91.

Panama was part of the [[Spanish Empire]] for over 300 years (1513–1821) and its fate changed with the geopolitical importance of the isthmus to the Spanish crown. In the 16th and 17th centuries, at the height of the Empire, no other region would prove of more strategic and economic importance.

Governor Pedrarias began building intercontinental and trans-isthmian portage routes, such as the "Camino Real" and "Camino de Cruces", linking Panama City and the Pacific with Nombre de Dios (and later with "Portobelo") and the Atlantic, making possible the establishment of a trans-atlantic system of Treasure Fleets and trade. It is estimated that of all the gold entering Spain from the New World between 1531 and 1660, 60% had arrived at its destiny via the 'Treasure Fleet and Fairs' system from Nombre de Dios/Portobello.

Explorations and conquest expeditions launched from Panama claimed new lands and riches from Central and South America. Other explorations sought a natural waterway between the Atlantic and the South Sea with the hope of reaching the Molucas (Spice Islands—[[Maluku Islands]]) and [[Cathay]] (China). Eventually, the practicality of the Isthmus came about as it was the middle of two oceans. Latin-American traders often passed through Panama before proceeding to Cuba before sailing to Spain in the [[Spanish treasure fleet]]. It also served a similar purpose to those going to Asia, in which case, Panama was a supporting node in the Transpacific [[Manila galleon]]s connecting Southeast Asia and Latin America via Spanish Philippines.<ref>[https://www.academia.edu/44625493/Connecting_China_with_the_Pacific_World Connecting China with the Pacific World By Angela Schottenhammer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210527045556/https://www.academia.edu/44625493/Connecting_China_with_the_Pacific_World |date=May 27, 2021 }}(2019) (Page 144-145)</ref> However, at 1579, the role of Panama was expanded as the royal monopoly Acapulco-Mexico had, with trade with Manila-Philippines, was removed and thus Panama, by decree, became another port that could trade directly with Asia and the Philippines.<ref name="Fisher1997">{{cite book|author=John Robert Fisher|title=The Economic Aspects of Spanish Imperialism in America, 1492-1810|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MRI-LiWuJh4C&pg=PA65|year=1997|publisher=Liverpool University Press|isbn=978-0-85323-552-1|pages=65–66}}</ref>

===Real Audiencia of Panama===
{{Further|Real Audiencia of Panama}}
[[Image:New Caledonia in Darien.jpg|thumb|right|Map of "New Caledonia" colony, west of the [[Gulf of Darién]] in the Bay of Caledonia, in modern Colombia]]

In 1538, the [[Real Audiencia of Panama]], was established, initially with jurisdiction from Nicaragua to Cape Horn. A [[Real Audiencia]] (royal audiency) was a judicial district that functioned as an [[appellate court]]. Each audiencia had ''oidores'' (a hearer, a judge).

Strategically located on the Pacific coast, Panama City was relatively free of the permanent menace of pirates that roamed the Atlantic coast for over one and a half centuries, until it was [[Henry Morgan's Panama expedition|destroyed by a devastating fire]], when the privateer [[Henry Morgan]] sacked it on January 28, 1671. It was rebuilt and formally established on January 21, 1673, in a peninsula located 8&nbsp;km from the original settlement. The ruins of the original city are a tourist attraction known as "old Panama".

In 1698, a Scottish colony called "New Caledonia" was founded west of the [[Gulf of Darién]] in the Bay of Caledonia, under the [[Darien scheme]]. The scheme failed for a number of reasons, and the ensuing Scottish debt contributed to the 1707 [[Acts of Union 1707|Acts of Union]] that joined the previously separate [[sovereign state|state]]s of the [[Kingdom of England]] and the [[Kingdom of Scotland]] – into the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]]".<ref>[[Act of Union 1707]]: Article I of the Treaty of Union</ref>

When Panama was colonized, the indigenous peoples who survived many diseases, massacres and enslavement of the Spanish conquest ultimately fled into the forest and nearby islands. Indian slaves were replaced by imported enslaved Africans.

Panama developed a distinctive sense of autonomy and regional or national identity well before the rest of the colonies. This was due to its prosperity during the first two centuries (1540–1740) while contributing to colonial growth; the placing of extensive regional judicial authority (Real Audiencia) within its jurisdiction; and the pivotal role it played at the height of the Spanish Empire—the first modern global empire.

In 1744, Bishop Francisco Javier de Luna Victoria y Castro established the College of San Ignacio de Loyola, and on June 3, 1749, founded La Real y Pontificia Universidad de San Javier. However, by this time, Panama's importance and influence had become insignificant as Spain's power dwindled in Europe and advances in navigation technique increasingly permitted to round Cape Horn in order to reach the Pacific. While the Panama route was short, it was also labor-intensive and expensive because of the loading and unloading and laden-down trek required to get from the one coast to the other. The Panama route was also vulnerable to attack from pirates (mostly Dutch and English) and from ''cimarrons'', escaped former slaves who lived in communes or palenques around the Camino Real in Panama's Interior, and on some of the islands off Panama's Pacific coast. During the latter 18th and early 19th centuries, migrations to the countryside decreased Panama City's population and the isthmus' economy shifted from the tertiary to the primary sector.

Attempts by other Europeans to take its Caribbean territory prompted Spain to found the [[Viceroyalty of New Granada]] (northern South America) in 1713. The Isthmus of Panama was placed under its jurisdiction. But the remoteness of New Granada's capital [[Bogotá|Santa Fe de Bogotá]] proved to be a great obstacle. The authority of the new Viceroyalty was contested by the seniority, closer proximity, previous ties to the [[Viceroyalty of Peru]] in Lima and even Panama's own initiative. This uneasy relationship between Panama and Bogotá would persist for a century.