Open a Panama Bank Account

In the 16th century, the Spanish Empire conquered the native tribes of Panama. Rodrigo de Bastidas, sailing westward from Venezuela in 1501 in search of gold, was the first European to explore Panama. Subsequently Panama was under Spanish rule for 300 years. In 1671, the privateer Henry Morgan, licensed by the English government, sacked and burned the city of Panama. In 1744, Bishop Francisco Javier de Luna Victoria DeCastro established the College of San Ignacio de Loyola and on June 3, 1749 founded La Real y Pontificia Universidad de San Javier. By this time, however, Panama’s importance and influence had become insignificant as Spain’s power dwindled in Europe and advances in navigation technique increasingly permitted to round Cape Horn in order to reach the Pacific. In the first eighty years following independence from Spain, Panama was a department of Colombia, since voluntarily becoming part of it at the end of 1821. The people of the isthmus made several attempts to secede and came close to success in 1831, and again during the Thousand Days’ War of 1899–1902. When the Senate of Colombia rejected the Hay–Herrán Treaty, the United States decided to support the Panamanian independence movement. In November 1903 Panama proclaimed its independence. Today, Panama is regarded as the financial centre of Latin America and one of the major financial centres of the world.