Panama: A Regional and Country Analysis While Panama is known mostly for it's famous canal, the country's natural attractions offer an irresistible lure to far-sighted travelers.

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Panama: A Regional and Country Analysis

Global Business Strategies

January 8, 2004

Panama: Regional and Country Analysis

While Panama is known mostly for it's famous canal, the country's natural attractions offer an irresistible lure to far-sighted travelers. It is a proud nation that offers astounding wildlife adventures, that respects its seven indigenous peoples and that celebrates its Spanish heritage with frequent and colorful festivals. The country's name means 'abundance of fish'. Tourists marvel in the delight of traveling to Panama and are anxious to snorkel in the Caribbean Sea and swim in the Pacific Ocean, all in one vacation. Panama, however, has seen it's time to tribulation. From the beginning, being inhabited by the cultures of Cuevas and Cocle', to the current population of Spanish, Panama has grown and evolved to find its fit in today's ever changing global society. For the purpose of this paper, we will focus on the globalization of Panama.

We will review the history of Panama as it related to current economic political and cultural relationships, specifically with the United States.

The Cuevas and Cocle' were the earliest known inhabitants of Panama. By the 16th century, when the Spanish arrived, these two cultures were decimated by disease. After forays along Panama's Caribbean shore, a Spanish settlement established residency on this Caribbean coast in 1510. Panama's pacific coast later became the springboard for invasions of Peru, and the wealth generated by these incursions was carried over land from the Pacific port of Panama. (Lonely Planet, 2001)

Panama went into decline, and became a province of Colombia when the South American nation received its independence in 1821. In 1846, Colombia signed a treaty permitting the USA to construct a railway across the isthmus and to defend it with military force. The idea of a canal across the...