Indigenous Peoples & Colonial Era
Panama's position as a land bridge between North and South America has made it a crossroads of cultures and species for millennia. Before European conquest, various indigenous peoples lived here — including the Guna, Emberá, Wounaan, Ngäbe-Buglé, and Naso. Many of these peoples exist to this day, preserving their traditions, languages, and self-governance — a remarkable example of cultural resilience in Latin America.
The Spaniards Arrive (1501)
Rodrigo de Bastidas was the first European to reach Panama's coast in 1501. In 1513, Vasco Núñez de Balboa became the first European to cross the isthmus and reach the Pacific — he called it "Mar del Sur" (South Sea). This discovery instantly made Panama the most strategically important point of the entire Spanish Empire: a bridge between two oceans.
Panamá Viejo & the Gold Path
In 1519, Pedro Arias Dávila founded the city of Panamá — the first permanent European settlement on the Pacific. Panama became the hub of gold trade: Inca gold from Peru was shipped to the Pacific coast, transported over the "Camino de Cruces" (Gold Path) through the jungle to the Caribbean port of Portobelo, and from there shipped to Spain with the Spanish silver fleet. Portobelo became the richest trading post in the New World.
This wealth attracted pirates: Henry Morgan, the most notorious privateer of his time, plundered and completely destroyed the city of Panamá in 1671. The Spaniards then built today's Casco Viejo on a more defensible peninsula — the historic center you visit today as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
