Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who had been aboard de Bastidas's ship in 1501, made a hard-fought and tortuous trek from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 1513 and was able to verify what indigenous people had reported; that the isthmus had another coast and that there was another ocean. Balboa would call it the South Sea though it was later renamed the Pacific.
Panama's history has been marked by the relationship of the isthmus to the emergence of a world economy. Balboa's verification that there was another ocean that could be reached by crossing the isthmus helped encourage Panama's use by colonial Spain as a crossroads and marketplace for seized Peruvian treasures, Spanish goods, contraband (goods and trade not approved by the Spanish crown) supplies, people, conscripted and enslaved labor, all of which were distributed throughout the Spanish colonial territories. The success of the Spanish was in stark contrast to the devastation of indigenous peoples. By the late 17th century, Cueva culture had all but disappeared. Mining techniques included the looting of Indian cemeteries for the pre-Colombian gold treasures they contained. Gold and silver were brought by ship from South America, hauled across the isthmus, and loaded aboard ships for Spain. The route starting at Panamá la Vieja became known as the Camino Real, or Royal Road, although was more commonly known as Camino de Cruces (Road of the Crosses) because of the frequency of gravesites along the way.
Panama was the site of the ill-fated Darien scheme, which set up a Scottish trading colony in the region in 1698. This failed for a number of reasons, and the resulting economic depression and financial losses heavily influenced the union of Scotland with England in 1707. |
