Panama Under Colombia

In 1821 Panama won its independence from Spain, and joined the new republic of Greater Colombia. Except for a period in 1840–41, when a revolution led by Tomás Herrera made Panama independent for 13 months, it remained part of Colombia until 1903.

The California gold rush in 1849 made Panama prosperous again as a major crossing point from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the United States and Great Britain began considering possible canal routes. In 1855 a United States firm completed a railway across the isthmus. The line flourished until the United States itself was spanned by railway in 1869.

In 1880 the De Lesseps Company, the French firm that had built the Suez Canal, began constructing a canal across Panama, but went bankrupt before completing it. The United States made arrangements to proceed with the canal, but Colombia refused permission. Encouraged by the United States, in 1903 Panama declared its independence from Colombia. A treaty was signed leasing to the United States a strip of land, called the Panama Canal Zone, on either side of the proposed canal's route, and also authorizing intervention in the domestic affairs of Panama by the United States, which guaranteed the new nation's independence. The canal was constructed by the United States and opened in 1914.