It is said that Panama was discovered by Rodrigo de Bastidas about 1500 of our Common Era. The isthmus was explored by Columbus in 1502 and crossed by Balboa in 1513, with his discovery of the Pacific Ocean taking place on September 26 of that year.

During the sixteenth century, Spain conquered Panama and made it a colony. Roman Catholicism became the state religion. In the year 1718 Panama became a part of the viceroyalty of New Granada. Independence from Spain was declared in 1821 and union with Colombia effected. By means of the 1846 Bidlack Treaty, the United States won right of transport across the isthmus and it built a railroad from coast to coast. This facilitated travel from the east coast of the United States to California and its fabulous goldfields.

In 1903, when Colombia refused to permit the United States to dig a canal, Panama declared her independence. Then Panama gave the United States the right to dig the canal and to use in perpetuity (a point that since then has been disputed) a five-mile-wide (8-kilometer-wide) strip of land on each side of the waterway in order to maintain and protect the canal. The Panama Canal was completed in 1914 and, in 1920, formally became the “Funnel of World Commerce.” Achieved thereby, at a cost of some $366,000,000, was a “Land Divided​—a World United,” at least in a commercial sense.