Prior to the Conquest of Central America, Mexico, and Peru, great civilizations in the Americas had developed high cultural values. The Aztec, Toltec and Maya civilizations to the west and north of Panama influenced cultural development in Panama itself. The Aztecs from Mexico sent traders to the Isthmus and some of them settled in Almirante Bay when Montezuma fell. To the east and south civilizations of Caribs, Chibchas, Chimú, Nasca, Tiahuanaco, Chavin or Inca also exercised great influence in spite of the impassable jungle between the Isthmus and the Andes coast.

The passage of these original Americans left their traces in pottery, physical features, religion, social structure and politics. This help us to discover the profile of the Panamanians, which is the sum of many peoples, from whom we have inherited physical and cultural characteristics: these people who also took part of our mixture to other latitudes.

The Isthmus produced civilizations of outstanding achievements, not ranking however with the Aztec, Maya or Inca. However, there is evidence that their religious perspective was of a higher order as they did not have the human sacrifices common in Mexico. These civilizations are known as the Chiriquí and Coclé from the present provinces in which they were centered - the Coclé being adjacent to the the present canal, and the Chiriqui to the west. Many of the tribal chiefs of these civilizations still have towns and rivers on the Isthmus named for them such as Chamé, from where we obtained sand for the Pacific Locks, Chirú, Penonomé, Olá, Natá, Parita, etc. The story of the foraging expeditions through the region of the present Canal and into the territory of these various chiefs by the early Spaniards, some led by Pizarro himself, is one of extermination and cruelty incited by the lust of gold.

After years of isolation because of the immense ocean, sails were hoisted and three caravels defied and crossed this wall of water, which then became an enormous bridge inviting the interchange of civilizations that had been accumulating incalculable beauty and invaluable experiences – their union gave rise to new races and new cultures. Moreover, the shape of this enormous continent, which was to amaze and dazzle the old continent, was determined.

The first European (Spaniard) to set foot on Panamanian soil was Rodrigo de Bastidas on 1501, but it was Christopher Columbus who understood the importance of the Isthmus. While sailing along Bocas del Toro coasts during his fourth voyage in October and November 1502, some Indians told Columbus there were immense sea and gold mines in Veraguas, a journey of only a few days overland.

On his last voyage, Columbus visited the coasts of Panama and founded the first Spanish settlement, which was named Santa María de Belén, on Terra Firme. It is now a small town situated on the north coast, at the mouth of the Belén river. The population knows about the origin of the name, but no trace of Spanish colonization can be found here.

Vasco Núñez de Balboa first settled in Hispanola (present day Dominican Republic and Haiti), resolute, brave and ambitious, he stowed away on one of the ships leaving Santo Domingo to Panama in 1510, to escape his creditors there. In the lands of Comagre, he heard of the existence of a sea and a powerful, rich country with a lot of gold. Balboa began his adventurous life as member of Bastidas' crew.

There were, at that time, about 800 Spaniards living on the Isthmus, whose numbers were soon down to 60 due to the perils of jungle life. Antigua del Darién, the first city to be duly constituted by the Spanish crown, deposed the crown's representative and elected Balboa and Martin Zamudio as co-mayors.

Hearing rumors from Indians, whom Balboa had befriended, about a great sea a few days travel away… Balboa became impassioned with the desire to find this great sea. Legend has it that Vasco Núñez de Balboa fell in love with Anayansi, a beautiful indigenous girl. A brave conquistador, the thick jungle in the province of Darién (which is still a challenge to those who dare to penetrate it) did not deter him. On Sept. 1, 1513 Balboa set out on his quest to discover this great sea, taking with him 190 Spaniards (one of whom was Francisco Pizarro, who was to later conquer the Inca Empire in Peru), a pack of dogs and 1,000 Indian slaves. It took 25 days of hacking their way through the dense jungles of Panama before they gazed upon the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean.

 On the September 25, 1513, clad in full armor, Balboa waded into the water and claimed the sea and all the shores on which it washed for his God and his king, and called it the South Sea. With this discovery he proved that this was a new continent and not a part of Asia, as had originally been thought.

In January 1514, Balboa returned to Antigua to find his enemies had denounced him in the Spanish court, and King Ferdinand had appointed a new governor for the Colony. The new governor was Pedro Arias de Avila, who became known throughout Panama as "Pedrarias the Cruel". In 1517, Pedrarias charged Balboa with treason. Balboa was arrested and executed in "Acla" (an old Spanish settlement on the north of Panama, almost to the Colombian border). Balboa's tombstone is located in Havana, Cuba.

The first City of Panama was founded in a native village by Gaspar de Espinosa, chief alcalde of Darien, acting under the orders of Pedrarias, formally established the new city on August 15, 1519 (six years after Balboa discovered the ocean) being the first city built in the Pacific side.  Pedrarias issued a proclamation promising to defend the capital for Dona Juana, the Queen, and Don Carlos, her son.  It was two years after the founding of the city, however, that Don Carlos, by that time Charles V of Spain, sent a Royal Letters Patent creating the city of Panama by royal decree, recognized it as the site of the Spanish government in the province of Panama and gave a Coat-of Arms.  Castilla de Oro now had its capital city and became the port to the South Sea and the arrival point of all the expeditions crossing the isthmus. Panama became the central, strategic point for the expansion of the Spanish Crown. From here set out expeditions to South and Central America led by daring adventures feverishly searching for risks and riches.

The silent Camino de Cruces keeps the secrets of other times. The isthmus was opened up, trails were made, routes were searched for and a path was trodden. It was called Camino de Cruces (The Way of the Crosses), as those who went along it were struck down by the rigors of the jungle and the tropical heat. Then another route was established and was called Camino Real (The Royal Way). Men and mules went down this way gathering gold and new experiences, to the admiration of our original ancestors. The isthmus was the crucial crossing point. 

The Spanish ships docked at Portobelo, situated in a beautiful, sheltered bay. Its fairs made of it an emporium, where the ladies wore their astuteness and bravery. All this helped to weave dreams of riches, which increased the excessive ambition to obtain those immense veins of gold which the imagination of the conquistadors turned into legendary figures, such as the Treasure of Dabaibe, and places where this valuable metal ran down the mountainsides like water.

All this turned the city into a commercial center, and Camino Real was a silent witness of the incessant movement from one coast to the other. The city of Panama also grew and was really tempting for pirates and corsairs, who hurried to participate in the distribution of such enormous wealth. With unusual fierceness they attacked the ships laden with gold ingots and the villages and roads through which the coveted metal was carried. Other European powers used pirates and corsairs to sabotage the great Spanish conquests and to take part in the distribution of the new lands.

Panama and Portobelo became the favorite targets, and so the greater their fame the greater the threat of their destruction. And what was greatly feared finally happened. One fateful day, the English pirate Henry Morgan in 1671 arrived in the kingdom of the Pacific as it was called, and he and his men, with no regard for their own safety, ferociously attacked the city, and destroyed. Only the golden altar was saved; it can still be seen in San José’s Church in the present City of Panama. Still standing, and giving evidence to those times, are the ruins of what was at the time the most beautiful city on the coast of the majestic South Sea: Old Panama city. Portobelo also fell before the attack from the pirate Vernon; silence began to fill its streets and the population was left with only the memory of the times when people crowded into its squares and into the markets of the majestic Customs House, where all the treasures which were later to be sent to Spain were kept. Also standing, as if to protect past glories, are the fortifications commissioned by the king to the engineer Antonelli-San Felipe de Sotomayor, Santiago de la Gloria and San Jerónimo Castles.

After that, the city was rebuilt in January 21, 1673 by governor Antonio Fernández de Córdoba y Mendoza, in the place where still stands, called Casco Viejo. Many factors such as the climate, the elimination of the Portobelo markets, the rebellion of the slaves and the natives, and the change in the routes followed by the ships, which now directed their bows towards Cape Horn, determined that this new city should reach neither the fame nor the development expected of it. Panama gradually fell silently, grieving for its past and patiently waiting for men to one more make use of its strategic position, setting off and arriving laden with money, hopes and plans.

(Cortesy of: (1)"Our faith Moved Mountains" by Richard H. Whitehead, Newcomen Adderess delivered March 17, 1943 at the Union League Club, New York city. Limited edition by Princeton University Press. (2) "Panamá, its roots, its history and its present" by Noris P. de Sanjur, 2^nd Edition, March 2000 published by Distribuidora Lewis. (3) "Getting to know Panama", Michéle Labrut, 2000, Focus Pub.)