Separation of Panama from Colombia

After it achieved independence from Spain on November 28, 1821, Panama became a part of the Republic of Gran Colombia which consisted of today's Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and most of Ecuador.

The political struggle between federalists and centralists that followed independence from Spain resulted in a shifting administrative and jurisdictional status for Panama. Under centralism Panama was established as the Department of the Isthmus and during federalism as the Sovereign State of Panama. In 1886, it became the Panama Department of Colombia.

An 1846 treaty between Colombia and the United States, the Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty,^[1] pledged the United States to maintain "neutrality" in Panama in exchange for transit rights in the isthmus on behalf of Colombia.^[1] In March 1885 Colombia thinned its military presence in Panama, sending troops stationed there to fight rebels in other provinces.^[1] These favourable conditions prompted an insurgency in Panama.^[1] The United States Navy was sent there to keep order, in spite of invoking its obligations according to the treaty of 1846.^[1]

The Thousand Days' War (1899–1902) was one of the many armed struggles between the Liberal and Conservative Parties which devastated Colombia, including Panama, during the 19th century. This new civil war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Wisconsin. However, the Liberal leader Victoriano Lorenzo refused to accept the terms of the agreement and was executed on May 15, 1903.

On July 25, 1903, the headquarters of the Panamanian newspaper El Lápiz were raided on the orders of the military commander for Panama, General José Vásquez Cobo, brother of the then Colombian Minister of War, as a retaliation for the publication of a detailed article narrating the execution and protests in Panama. This event damaged the trust of Panamanian liberals in the Conservative government based in Bogotá, and they later joined the separatist movement.

In 1903, the United States and Colombia signed the Hay–Herrán Treaty to finalize the construction of the Panama Canal but the process^{[clarification needed]} could not be completed because the Congress of Colombia rejected the measure (which the Colombian government had proposed) on August 12, 1903. The United States then moved to support the separatist movement in Panama to gain control over the remnants of the French attempt at building a canal.^{[citation needed]}

Panamanian politician José Domingo De Obaldía was selected for the Governor of the Isthmus of Panama office that he had previously held, and was supported by separatist movements. Another Panamanian politician named José Agustín Arango began to plan the revolution and separation. The separatists wanted to negotiate the construction of the Panama Canal directly with the United States due to the negativity of the Colombian government.

The separatist network was formed by Arango, Dr. Manuel Amador Guerrero, General Nicanor de Obarrio, Ricardo Arias, Federico Boyd, Carlos Constantino Arosemena, Tomás Arias, Manuel Espinosa Batista and others. Amador Guerrero was in charge of going to the United States to get support for the separatist plan; he also gained the support of important Panamanian liberal leaders and of another military commander, Esteban Huertas.

With strong support, the separatist movement set November 1903 as the time for the separation. However, rumors in Colombia spread but the information managed by the government of Colombia indicated that Nicaragua was planning to invade a region of northern Panama known as the Calovébora. The Government deployed troops from the Tiradores Battalion from Barranquilla, and instructed the commander to take over the functions of the Governor of Panama José Domingo de Obaldía and General Esteban Huertas, whom the government did not trust.

The Tiradores Battalion was led by Generals Juan Tovar and Ramón Amaya and arrived in the Panamanian city of Colón the morning of November 3, 1903. It suffered delays on its way to Panama City caused by the complicity of the Panama Railway authorities who sympathized with the separatist movement. On arrival in Panama City, the troops were put under the command of Col. Eliseo Torres. General Huertas, commander of the Colombia Battalion in Panama, ordered the arrest of Tovar and his other officials.

The Colombian gunboat Bogotá fired shells upon Panama City the night of November 3, causing injuries and mortally wounding Mr. Wong Kong Yee of Hong Sang, China. He was the only casualty of independence.^[2]

With intentions of building the Panama Canal, the US intervened in this revolt at this time. The addition of the Roosevelt Corollary allowed this intervention. The Roosevelt Corollary was an addition to the Monroe Doctrine that stated the United States had the right to intervene in Latin American domestic affairs, giving them policing power. With this radical addition to the Monroe Doctrine, the United States’ assistance in Panama’s independence was credible. The Roosevelt Corollary provided a solution to their issue of gaining the right to the land of the future Panama Canal. In the midst of the Panama and Colombia conflict, the United States dispatched warships on the coasts of Colombia, primarily the dispatch of USS Nashville by commander John Hubbard. The warship was successful in preventing Colombian troops at Colon. This military move alone sped up the establishment of the Republic of Panama as Colombia agreed to negotiate. The United States had strategic aid to Panama, with the intention of gaining the 10- mile strip of land from Panama.

With the suppression of the Colombian troops, the Revolutionary Junta declared the secession of the Isthmus and later its independence, with the declaration of the Republic of Panama. A naval squadron in the Bay of Panama was captured without resistance.

Demetrio H. Brid, president of the Municipal Council of Panama, became the de facto President of Panama and on November 4, 1903 appointed a Provisional Government Junta, which governed the country until February 1904 and the Constituent National Convention. The convention elected Manuel Amador Guerrero as first constitutional president. News of the separation of Panama from Colombia reached Bogotá only on November 6, 1903 due to a problem with the submarine cables.

 

On November 13, 1903, the United States formally recognized the Republic of Panama (after recognizing it unofficially on November 6 and 7). On November 18, 1903, the United States Secretary of State John Hay and Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla signed the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty. No Panamanians signed the treaty, although Bunau-Varilla was present as the diplomatic representative of Panama (a role he had purchased through financial assistance to the rebels), even though he had not lived in Panama for seventeen years prior to independence, and never returned afterwards.^[3] The treaty was later approved by the Panamanian government and the Senate of the United States.

The ambassador of Colombia in Ecuador Emiliano Isaza was informed of the situation in Panama but did not inform his government to prevent a revolt in Bogotá. The government of Colombia then sent a diplomatic mission to Panama in an effort to make them reconsider by suggesting an approval by the senate of Colombia if they reconsidered the Hay–Herrán Treaty instead of the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty and also proposed making Panama City the capital of Colombia.^{[4][dubious – discuss]}

The mission met aboard the ship USS Mayflower with the Panamanian delegation formed by Constantino Arosemena, Tomás Arias and Eusebio A. Morales, which rejected all proposals. Colombia then sent a delegation of prominent politicians and political figures; General Rafael Reyes, Pedro Nel Ospina, Jorge Holguín and Lucas Caballero who met with the same representative for Panama and Carlos Antonio Mendoza, Nicanor de Obarrio y Antonio Zubieta, without reaching any consensus.

Panama's independence alarmed Chilean authorities about a growing influence of the United States. This made Chile put great efforts to deny a United States purchase of the Galápagos Islands or the establishment of a United States Guantanamo-like naval base there. Chilean diplomacy was backed by Germany and Britain on this issue.^[5]

No.	Country	Date of recognition
1	United States	6 November 1903[6]
2	France	14 November 1903[7]
3	Qing Empire	26 November 1903[7]
4	Austria–Hungary	27 November 1903[7]
5	Germany	30 November 1903[7]
6	Denmark	3 December 1903[7]
7	Russia	6 December 1903[7]
8	Norway	7 December 1903[7]
9	Sweden	7 December 1903[7]
10	Belgium	8 December 1903[7]
11	Nicaragua	15 December 1903[7]
12	Peru	19 December 1903[7]
13	Cuba	23 December 1903[7]
14	Italy	24 December 1903[7]
16	United Kingdom	26 December 1903[8]
17	Japan	28 December 1903[7]
18	Switzerland	28 December 1903[7]
19	Costa Rica	28 December 1903[7]
20	Guatemala	15 January 1904[7]
21	Korea	24 January 1904[7]
22	Venezuela	3 February 1904[7][9]
23	Netherlands	6 February 1904[7]
24	Persia	February 1904[7]
25	Chile	1 March 1904[7][10]
26	Mexico	1 March 1904[7][11]
27	Brazil	2 March 1904[7][12]
28	Argentina	3 March 1904[8]
29	Siam	4 March 1904[8]
30	Honduras	March 1904[7]
31	El Salvador	March 1904[7]
32	Spain	10 May 1904[7][10]
33	Holy See	May 1904[7]
34	Portugal	21 May 1904[7][10]
35	Serbia	June 1904[7]
36	Paraguay	July 1904[7]
37	Romania	July 1904[7]
38	Greece	1904[7]
39	Uruguay	1904[7]
40	Ecuador	21 September 1904[8]
41	Colombia	7 January 1909[13]

• Colombia–Panama relations
• Postage stamps and postal history of the Canal Zone
• United States involvement in regime change
• Latin America–United States relations

• Collin, Richard H. Theodore Roosevelt's Caribbean: The Panama Canal, the Monroe Doctrine & the Latin American Context (1990), 598pp.
• Graham, Terence. The Interests of Civilization: Reaction in the United States Against the Seizure of the Panama Canal Zone, 1903-1904 (Lund studies in international history, 1985).
• Mellander, Gustavo A., Mellander, Nelly, Charles Edward Magoon: The Panama Years. Río Piedras, Puerto Rico: Editorial Plaza Mayor. ISBN 1-56328-155-4. OCLC 42970390, 1999)
• Mellander, Gustavo A., The United States in Panamanian Politics: The Intriguing Formative Years." Danville, Ill.: Interstate Publishers. OCLC 138568, 1971)
• Nikol, John, and Francis X. Holbrook, "Naval Operations in the Panama Revolution, 1903," American Neptune, 37 (1977), 253–261.
• Lafeber, Walter. The Panama Canal: The Crisis in Historical Perspective (3rd ed. 1990).
• Turk, Richard . "The United States Navy and the 'Taking of Panama, 1901-1903, Military Affairs 38 (1974), 92-96.

• (in Spanish) Luis Angel Arango Library - Separation of Panama
• (in Spanish) Demetrio H. Brid Presidente de facto de la República - 1903