The Panama Canal could well have been the Colombia Canal if things had worked out differently. At the beginning of the 20th century Panama was a part of the country of Colombia. In the late 19th century a French company formed by the man who built the Suez Canal gained permission from the government of Colombia to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama.

Map of Panama when it was part of the Gran Colombia, before its Independence in 1903

The effort failed due to tropical diseases, mudslides, and a fair amount of corruption on the part of insiders in the project. The USA then negotiated with Colombia in an attempt to gain the right to build and operate a canal across the Colombian department of Panama. Colombian politics and a realistic concern for US gunboat diplomacy led to the negotiations being stalled. Then matters took a different turn.

Panama did not start out as a department or province of Colombia. Panama was a colony of Spain going back to the time of the Spanish Conquest of most of Latin America. It was after the uprisings in Latin America in the early 1800’s that former Spanish colonies gained their independence.

In 1821 Panama joined Colombia which had already become independent. Panama then tried unsuccessfully to break away from Colombia for the next 82 years. In the fifty years up to 1900 Panama experienced forty governments, fifty riots, five attempts at succession from Colombia, and thirteen armed interventions by the USA. When Panamanians attempted again, in 1903, to succeed the USA sent marines and battleships. The USA got its rights to build and operate a canal across the narrowest part of the Americas by guaranteeing the sovereignty the new nation of Panama. Thus ships transit Panama’s Canal from Atlantic to Pacific and not the Colombia Canal!

For more information about the Panama Canal please contact one of Panama experts today.

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