ck Mallarino Treaty, granting the U.S. rights to build railroads through Panama, and—most significantly—the power to militarily intervene against revolt to guarantee New Granadine control of the isthmus. The world's first transcontinental railroad, the Panama Railway, was completed in 1855 across the Isthmus from Aspinwall/Colón to Panama City.
From 1850 until 1903, the United States used troops to suppress separatist uprisings and quell social disturbances on many occasions, creating a long-term animosity among the Panamanian people against the US military and resentment against Bogotá. The Bidlack-Mallarino Treaty would usher in a new era of U.S. intervention which would linger on into the new millennium. The first of many such conflicts was known as the Watermelon War of 1856, where U.S. soldiers mistreated locals, causing large-scale race riots that U.S. Marines eventually put down.
On November 3, 1903, Panama declared its independence from Colombia. The U.S. Battleship Nashville prevented the Colombian military from sailing to Panama. An invasion through the dense Panamanian jungle was impossible. The President of the Municipal Council, Demetrio H. Brid, highest authority at the time, became its de facto President, appointing a Provisional Government on November 4, to run the affairs of the new republic. The United States, as the first country to recognize the new Republic of Panama, sent troops to protect its economic interests. The 1904 Constituent Assembly elected Dr. Manuel Amador Guerrero, a prominent member of the Conservative political party, as the first constitutional President of the Republic of Panama.
From 1903 until 1968, Panama was a republic dominated by a commercially-oriented oligarchy. During the 1950s, the Panamanian military began to challenge the oligarchy's political hegemony. The January 9, 1964 Martyrs' Day riots escalated tensions between the country and the U.S. government over its long-term occupation of the Canal Zone. Twenty rioters were killed, and 500 other Panamanians were wounded.
In October 1968, Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid, elected president for the third time and twice ousted by the Panamanian military, was again ousted (for the third time) as president by the corrupt National Guard after only 10 days in office. A military junta government was established, and the commander of the National Guard, Brig. Gen. Omar Torrijos, emerged as the principal power in Panamanian political life. Torrijos' regime was harsh and corrupt, and had to confront the mistrust of the people and guerrillas backing the populist Arnulfo Arias. However, he was a charismatic leader whose populist domestic programs and nationalist foreign policy appealed to the rural and urban constituencies largely ignored by the oligarchy.
Enthused by the success of the Suez Canal, the French, under Ferdinand de Lesseps, began construction on the Panama Canal, a sea-level canal, on January 1, 1880. In 1893, after a great deal of work, the French scheme was abandoned due to disease and the sheer difficulty of building a sea-level canal, as well as lack of French field experience. Although no detailed records were kept, as many as 22,000 workers are estimated to have died during the main period of French construction, which was a leading factor in the project's abandonment, besides the financial scandal that broke out in Paris from fraudulent funding of the canal project by unscrupulous financiers.
In 1904, the United States began work on the project after having bought the French equipment and excavations. President Theodore Roosevelt negotiated control of the Panama Canal Zone after having helped Panama to declare independence from Colombia.
A significant investment was made in eliminating disease from the area, particularly yellow fever and malaria, the causes of which had recently been discovered. With the diseases under control, and after significant work on preparing the infrastructure, construction of an elevated canal with locks began in earnest. The canal was formally opened on August 15, 1914, with the transit of the ca