Panama Congress of 1826

Panama Congress of 1826, a gathering called by Simón Bolívar, president of Gran Colombia, in response to the concern that the Holy Alliance (France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia) was encouraging Spain to reclaim its lost possessions in the Americas. In the 1820s the young nations of the Americas had only recently achieved independence. To provide for common security, the congress was held in Panama in June and July 1826. The participants were Gran Colombia, Central America, and Mexico. Great Britain and the Netherlands sent observers. Of the two U.S. delegates sent, one died en route and the other arrived too late. The congress delegates agreed on the need for united defense against reconquest, the utility of an inter-American forum for arbitration of disputes, and the elimination of the slave trade. To this end the members of the conference signed the Treaty of Perpetual Union, League, and Confederation, which was eventually ratified only by Gran Colombia.

Although the Panama Congress of 1826 did not result in a permanent system of cooperation or a sense of American unity, it did serve as a model for future inter-American efforts toward cooperation.

See alsoBolívar, Simón .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

John J. Johnson, Simón Bolívar and Spanish American Independence, 1783–1830 (1968).

Antonio Peña y Reyes, El Congreso de Panamá y algunos otros proyectos de unión hispano-americana, 2d ed. (1971).

Jesús María Yepes, Del Congreso de Panamá a la Conferencia de Caracas, 1826–1954 (1976).

Additional Bibliography

Ortega Díaz, Pedro. El Congreso de Panamá: Y La unidad latinoamericana. Caracas, Venezuela: Ministro de Comunicación e Información, 2006.

                                         James Patrick Kiernan