Panama Breaks from Colombia with American Backing

On November 3, 1903, the Municipal Council of Panama City convened to formally proclaim the creation of an independent Republic of Panama, breaking away from Colombia. Remote from the central government in Bogotá and separated by dense terrain, the isthmus had experienced repeated unrest and administrative reclassifications since joining Gran Colombia in 1821. Political alienation sharpened during the devastating civil war known as the Thousand Days' War, which ended in late 1902. When the Colombian Congress rejected the Hay-Herrán Treaty in August 1903, which would have granted the United States authority to construct a trans-isthmian canal, local leaders resolved to take unilateral control of negotiations.

Panamanian organizers, among them Dr. Manuel Amador Guerrero, coordinated with Philippe Bunau-Varilla, a French engineer who headed the New French Canal Company and was determined to salvage its stake in the canal. Bunau-Varilla supplied Amador with money, a draft declaration of independence, military plans and a flag, and he held meetings with Secretary of State John Hay and President Theodore Roosevelt. He assured Amador that the United States would recognize the new republic. Assured of unofficial American support, Amador returned south, while Roosevelt deployed the warship USS Nashville toward the isthmus.