Panama History: The Conquest, The Spanish Colony, The War Years, The Society and Its Environment, Ethnic Groups, The Economy, Government

Panama history and early settlement, Panama Society and Its Environment, Panama Ethnic Groups, Panama Migration, Panama Education, Panama Health and Welfare, Panama Foreign Economic Relations, Panama Government, Panama tourism, Panama people. Estimates vary greatly of the number of Indians who inhabited the isthmus when the Spanish explorers arrived. By some accounts, the population was considerably greater than that of contemporary Panama. Some Panamanian historians have suggested that there might have been a population of 500,000 Indians from some sixty "tribes," but other researchers have concluded that the Cuna alone numbered some 750,000. Besides the Cuna, which constituted by far the largest group in the area, two other major groups, the Guaym and the Choc , have been identified by ethnologists. The Guaym , of the highlands near the Costa Rican border, are believed to be related to Indians of the Nahuatlan and Mayan nations of Mexico and Central America. The Choc on the Pacific side of Dari n Province appear to be related to the Chibcha of Colombia