Page 296 - The Rough Guide to Panama (Travel Guide)

294 CONTEXTS History
Independence from Spain
By the turn of the nineteenth century independence movements in South America,
headed by Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín, were gathering pace. Though the
isthmus initially remained fairly detached from the process, it was not devoid of
nationalist sentiment. On November 10, 1821, the tiny town of La Villa de Los Santos
unilaterally declared that it would no longer be governed by Spain, in what was known
as the Primer Grito de la Independencia (First Cry for Independence); the rest of the
country followed suit, declaring independence on November 30. It retained the name
of Panama, as a department of what historians have subsequently termed “Gran
Colombia”; with the secession of Ecuador and Venezuela it quickly became Nueva
Granada. Almost immediately conflicts emerged between the merchants of Panama
City, eager to trade freely with the world, and the distant, protectionist governments in
Bogotá, leading to numerous, if half-hearted, attempts at separation. As the century
wore on, US influence asserted itself, most notably in the 1846 Mallarino-Bidlack
Treaty, which granted the US government rights to build a railroad across the isthmus
and, significantly, accorded them power to intervene militarily to suppress any
secessionist uprisings against the New Granadan government – a theoretically mutually
beneficial accord that was to seriously backfire on Bogotá.
The discovery of gold in California in 1849 sparked an explosion in traffic across the
isthmus. Travel from the US east coast to California via Panama – by boat, overland on
foot, and then by boat again – was far less arduous than the trek across North America,
and thousands of “Forty-niners” passed through on their way to the goldfields. In 1850
a US company began the construction of a railroad across Panama. Carving a route
through the inhospitable swamps and rainforests proved immensely difficult –
thousands of the mostly Chinese and West Indian migrant workers died in the process –
but when the railroad was completed in 1855, the Panama Railroad Company proved
an instant financial success, earning $7 million in profit in the first six years, despite
having cost $8 million to construct. The railroad also marked the beginning of a new

THE WATERMELON WAR
the completion of the Panama Railroad left many Panamanian labourers, including the new
immigrant workforce, unemployed and resentful of their well-paid Us counterparts, some of
whom showed scant respect for their hosts or local customs. on April 15, 1856, tensions spilled
over. An intoxicated (white) American named Jack oliver, who had been killing time in the bars
waiting for the boat, grabbed a slice of watermelon from a local (black) stallholder and
refused to pay. When the trader drew a knife, oliver’s mate tossed a dime at him, further
enraging the merchant, and as he advanced on oliver, the latter drew a gun. An attempt to
disarm the American resulted in a bystander getting shot, prompting a full-scale anti-Us riot.
Many Americans holed up in the railway depot and gunfire was exchanged with the crowd,
which was attempting to batter down the door. rather than control the situation, the police
joined in the affray, which continued until a trainload of the vigilante Isthmus Guard arrived
to disperse the mob. While the number of casualties in the so-called “Watermelon War” –
seventeen dead and 29 wounded, predominantly American – was not disputed, blame for the
violence was. Amid claims and counterclaims of racism, the Us government dispatched two
warships to Panama and occupied the railway station – albeit only for three days – but their
demand for total control of the railroad was refused.

1746 1821 1830
Spain reroutes the treasure Panama declares independence from Panama becomes a province of
fleet around Cape Horn, Spain, and joins the confederacy of Colombia after the dissolution
resulting in economic decline. Gran Colombia (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, of Gran Colombia.
Venezuela, Colombia and Panama).

290-319_Panama_3_Contexts.indd 294 30/06/17 11:52 am