Editing Organization of American States (section)

===19th century===
[[File:"International Union of American Republics" logo in 1909 - from publication Cacao (1909) (IA cacao00inte) (page 1 crop).jpg|thumb|The International Union of American Republics' logo in 1909<ref>{{Citation|last1=catalog|first1=International bureau of the American republics, Washington, D. C. [from old |title=Cacao |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cacao_(IA_cacao00inte).pdf |access-date=13 October 2021 |last2=Book|first2=Start this}}</ref>]]
[[File:Pan American between 1910 and 1920 (cropped).jpg|alt=|thumb|The [[Pan American Union Building]] in 1910, shortly after its construction in [[Washington, D. C.]]]]
The notion of an international union in the American continent was first put forward during the liberation of America by [[José de San Martín]] and [[Simón Bolívar]]<ref>{{cite web |title = Panama: A Country Study |location = Washington |publisher = GPO for the Library of Congress |year = 1987 |url = http://countrystudies.us/panama/4.htm }}</ref> who, at the 1826 [[Congress of Panama]], still being part of [[Colombia]], proposed creating a league of American republics, with a common military, a mutual defense pact, and a supranational parliamentary assembly. The meeting was attended by representatives of [[Gran Colombia]], comprising the present-day countries of [[Colombia]], [[Ecuador]], [[Panama]], and [[Venezuela]], [[Argentina]], [[Peru]], [[Bolivia]], the [[United Provinces of Central America]], and [[Mexico]] but the grandly titled "Treaty of Union, League, and Perpetual Confederation" was ultimately ratified only by Gran Colombia. Bolívar's dream soon floundered with civil war in Gran Colombia, the disintegration of Central America, and the emergence of [[Nationalism|national]] rather than New World outlooks in the newly independent American republics. Bolívar's dream of inter-American unity was meant to unify Hispanic American nations against external powers.

The pursuit of regional solidarity and cooperation again came to the forefront in 1889–1890, at the First [[International Conference of American States]]. Gathered together in Washington, D.C., 18 nations resolved to found the International Union of American Republics, served by a permanent secretariat called the Commercial Bureau of the American Republics (renamed the International Commercial Bureau at the Second International Conference in 1901–1902). These two bodies, in existence as of 14 April 1890, represent the point of inception to which the OAS and its [[Secretary (title)|General Secretariat]] trace their origins.