Panama

Panama stands on the Pacific shore of the narrow isthmus joining North and South America. Its harbor and the routes across the isthmus made it a meeting place for people and goods traveling between the Pacific and Caribbean. Indigenous communities inhabited the site long before Spanish settlers established their town there.

Founded by Pedrarias Dávila in 1519, Panama became a base for expeditions down the Pacific coast and a crucial link in Spain’s American trade. Goods and treasure from South America crossed the isthmus toward Caribbean ports, while imported merchandise traveled in the opposite direction. Its wealth also attracted attack. In 1671 Henry Morgan’s force captured the city, which was destroyed by fire; two years later its inhabitants established a new city on a peninsula southwest of the old site. The ruins of the first settlement remained beside the bay.