Welcome
The St. Andrews Society of Panama and its members welcome all Scots and Scots descendents as well as those who enjoy or have an interest in Scotland and Scottish culture. Scottish country dancing is popular and is practiced regularly.
Events
St. Andrew’s
Panama Revival
The Panama St.
Andrews Society
would like to invite
all Scots, Scottish
descendants, as well
as people interested
in Scottish culture
& Scottish country
dancing to join us
at Rincon Aleman
Restaurant at 7pm on
the second Tuesday of
every month.
The Rincon Aleman
Restaurant is
located on Calle 51
(same street as Las Tinajas Restaurant).
For directions
contact us at:
info@standrewspanama.com
Links
http://st-andrew.org.uk/
This is the only official website of
The St Andrew
Society incorporating
The World Federation of Scottish
Societies and Individuals.
http://www.scotlandstartanday.com/
Our vision is to see Scotland at the
heart of a global Tartan Day
celebration bringing to the world’s
attention our creativity, our
innovation, our heritage and our
business success.
http://visitscotland.com/
Planning for travel to Scotland.
http://www.scotsman.com/
The daily newspaper
How Scottish Independece died in Panama
History
& Reference By Mike Power for The
First
Post.co.uk -
It was a ruinous central American
adventure that
forced the Scots to sign the Act of
Union, writes mike power. With the
Scottish National Party holding a
seven per cent lead over Labour
ahead of the May 3 parliamentary
elections, many Scots see the polls
as a chance to re-assert the
country's independence. The
elections will take place two days
after the 300th anniversary of the
Act of Union that politically united
Scotland and England. But few people
know that Scotland was forced by
economic necessity to sign that
Act following a ruinous attempt to
establish a trading colony at Darien
in the inhospitable jungles of
Panama.
The decision to set up a Scottish
colony in the
tropics was driven by domestic
economic crisis. At the end of the
17th Century, Scotland was weary
after years of war and famine, its
trade damaged by England's wars with
Europe.
William Paterson - founder of the
Bank of England - foresaw that
global trade from commodity-rich
countries across the isthmus of
Panama - the slender land bridge
that separates the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans - would grant global
economic dominance.
Facing English resistance, Paterson
raised £400,000 - everyone from
farmers, merchants and chambermaids
invested in the scheme - and half of
Scotland's liquidity flowed to the
tropics. Five ships set sail in July
1698 with more than 1,000 passengers
on board.
But Paterson (right) had never
visited Panama, and
knew nothing of the region's extreme
climate, rampant tropical disease
and cruel geography. So the unready
adventurers set off with
pathos-heavy trinkets, mirrors and
combs to trade with the indigenous
local Kuna tribe. The Kuna weren't
interested.
Short of food (poignant letters home
detail pleas for a "stone of cheese"
and a "case of brandy"), suffering
from tropical illnesses, drunken
shipwrecks, fires and under constant
attack by the Spanish, the few
surviving settlers abandoned the
colony just over a year after
arriving.
However, word of this did not reach
Scotland before a second expedition
departed with more than 1,000 people
aboard, arriving on St Andrew's Day
in 1699. Of the total 2,500 settlers
that set off, just a few hundred
survived.
The Scottish economy was ruined.
Seven years later, the Scots were
forced to beg help from the English.
It came at a price - the signing of
the Act of Union, effectively ending
Scotland's independence.
English meddling certainly played a
role in the
failure of the scheme, since
Westminster and the Crown forbade
any trade with the new outpost. But
this gloriously mad tale of bewigged
imperialist arrogance is a stark
warning on the dangers of standing
alone in a globalised world.
It might even give the more strident
voices calling for renewed Scottish
independence pause for thought.