n the
departments and the national Government plunged the country, in 1899,
into the worst civil war it had known for many a day. Paper money,
issued in unlimited amounts and given a forced circulation, made the
distress still more acute. Then came the hardest blow of all. Since
1830 Panama, as province or state, had tried many times to secede from
Colombia. In 1903 the opportunity it sought became altogether favorable.
The parent nation, just beginning to recover from the disasters of civil
strife, would probably be unable to prevent a new attempt at withdrawal.
The people of Panama, of course, knew how eager the United States was
to acquire the region of the proposed Canal Zone, since it had failed to
win it by negotiation with Colombia. Accordingly, if they were to
start a "revolution," they had reason to believe that it would not lack
support--or at least, connivance--from that quarter.

On the 3d of November the projected "revolution" occurred, on schedule
time, and the United States recognized the independence of the "Republic
of Panama" three days later! In return for a guarantee of independence,
however, the United States stipulated, in the convention concluded
on the 18th of November, that, besides authority to enforce sanitary
regulations in the Canal Zone, it should also have the right of
intervention to maintain order in the republic itself. More than
once, indeed, after Panama adopted its constitution in 1904, elections
threatened to become tumultuous; whereupon the United States saw to it
that they passed off quietly.

Having no wish to flout their huge neighbor to the northward, the
Hispanic nations at large hastened to acknowledge the independence of
the new republic, despite the indignation that prevailed in press and
public over what was regarded as an act of despoilment. In view of the
resentful attitude of Colombia and mindful also of the opinion of many
Americans that a gross injustice had been committed, the United States
eventually offered terms of settlement. It agreed to express regret for
the ill feeling between the two countries which had arisen out of the
Panama incident, provided that such expression were made mutual; and, as
a species of indemnity, it agreed to pay for canal rights to be acquired
in Colombian territory and for the lease of certain islands as naval
stations. But neither the terms nor the amount of the compensation
proved acceptable. Instead, Colombia urged that the whole ma