Week 14: Tumultous Times in 18th Century Panama

The 18^th century found Spanish Panama in several tenuous situations. The transformation of one of the central regions to Spain in the 16^th century had turned over the next two hundred years into a liability for the crown. Problems included the marauding of the Caribbean coastal port towns by English and French pirates, notably by Henry Morgan, and internal problems with mestizos and indigenous Indians.

The pirating led to immigrating Iberians’ avoidance of settling in the harsh natural environment of Panama, which saw the decline in the isthmus of Spanish importance. Once a prominent place of gold mines and also the facilitation of the majority of silver trade to Spain, Panama became victim to marginalization that favored more expeditious trans-Atlantic routes along with a depletion of natural resources to favor Spanish attention. Bourbon reforms hurt the area even more with restricting the stipend flow of capital supporting the ruling class and secular clergy there. In this mélange of declension, conditions for internal tensions, strife, and rebellion were ripe for the picking.

One interesting facet of Spanish Panama history is the putative Indian uprising that transpired in the Eastern region known as the Darien. On a small level, the nuances of this rebellion is exemplary of the Empire’s struggle with its continued protracted conquest, and also western acculturation of the indigenous natives and their ancestors. It shows as well the problems the Spanish themselves had with grasping the reality of the situation and the imagined order they hoped to be in place there. The Darien region was mostly frontier, with small towns that did have churches and alcaldes overseeing them. Reducciones were also dotted over the eastern frontier, marking the Spanish attempt at disrupting any local efforts to antagonistically organizing themselves.

This Tule uprising took place in 1727-1728 and according to who is telling the story, was provoked by either or both or neither Spanish or local mestizo Indians. The Spanish were the maestros de campos of the region, a family clan named Carrisoli who for several generations facilitated peace and stability over the Darien. The Indians were, either a certain Luis Garcia, disgruntled over reformation efforts and went rogue, or Malpela and Bartolo de Maje, who murdered two Carrisoli brothers in retaliation for murdering two tribal elders. The bigger picture here is the phantom hold of the eastern region of Panama that the Spanish had.

After the uprising through the eastern Darien region into administrative chaos with Indian hostilities rampant, ensuing Spanish efforts were of a conciliatory nature. Conciliatory and one might add a consolidative nature, as the next generation sought to incorporate all of the sprawling region’s Indians into one mass Darien tribe. Scholars tend to view this effort more as a fantastical one, echoing the myth of conquest. Power plays between Indian caciques and Spanish provisional offices continued their tenuous interplay through the late 18^th century.

Gallup-Diaz, Ignacio. "The Spanish Attempt to Tribalize the Darien, 1735-50." Ethnohistory 49 no. 2 (2002): 281-317.

Gallup-Diaz, Ignacio. ""Haven't We Come to Kill the Spaniards?" The Tule Upheaval in Eastern Panama, 1727-1728." Colonial Latin American Review 10 no. 2 (2001): 251-271.