Panama biography
Panama biography for kids
Panama biography summary...
The first human beings lived in Panama about 11,000 BC. By 2,500 BC they had learned to make pottery and later people from the region traded with others as far north as Mexico and as far south as Peru.
The first European to land in Panama was a Spaniard named Rodrigo Galvan de Bastidas in 1501. The first Spanish settlement in Panama was made in 1510. Then on 25 September 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean (which he called the South Sea and which he claimed for Spain).
Panama biography
Then in 1519, Pedro Arias de Avila founded Panama City.
Meanwhile, the indigenous people were decimated by European diseases, to which they had no resistance. The survivors were enslaved. The Spanish introduced a kind of feudal system in which the indigenous people were forced to work on estates.
When Pizarro conquered the Incas in 1533 Panama became a transit point for gold on its way from Peru to Spain. The precious metal was taken overland by mules from the Pacific Co