ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

The separation of Panama from Colombia was an event that occurred

on November 3, 1903, after the

Thousand Days War, and that triggered the proclamation of the Republic of Panama. For Panamanian historiography, the proclamation of the Republic of Panama was the result of a nationalist and autonomist process that was built since the late eighteenth century, and that concluded with the separation of Panama and Colombia. On the other hand, for Colombian

historiography, the secession of Panama constitutes an attack on the politicalterritorial integrity of Colombia, which was devised by the United States in association with the liberal Isthmian

oligarchy of the time.

Declared independence from Spain, on November 28, 1821, the rulers of Panama made the decision to voluntarily join Gran Colombia, an extinct state made up in most of its territory by present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Panama. With the

understanding that autonomy of economic and administrative

management would be preserved.

In 1826, the year in which the Anfictiónico Congress was held in the capital of Isthmian, Panama rejected the Bolivarian constitution, but this did not

prevent the first attempt at separation from Gran Colombia in that year.

Because the Colombian congress ignored requests for commercial franchises for the isthmus, which

thwarted Panamanian aspirations, a separatist movement emerged to turn Panama into a Hanseatic country under

the protection of the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Herran–Hay treaty was attacked in the Senate by former President Miguel Antonio Caro, Marroquín's main opponent. Caro convinced congress that the Herrán-Hay was harmful to the interests and sovereignty of Colombia, which voted overwhelmingly against the treaty on August 18, which caused a worldwide scandal. The directors of the Panama railroad company bought several Panamanian leaders and

General Esteban Huertas, head of the

Colombian Guard. The Government of

Marroquín ignored the rumors of separation to such an extent that on November 3, 1903, Pablo Arosemena

dispatched to Marroquín a telegram from Panama City giving a part of normalcy on the isthmus.