Panama City destroyed by fire - January 28, 1671

On this day in 1671, Panama City was destroyed by fire after Henry Morgan and a gang of buccaneers sacked the city. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hi again everyone, It's Eves and welcome to
This Day in History Class, a show where history waits
for no one. Today It's January. The day was January.

(00:30):
Welsh privateer Henry Morgan sacked Panama, a city in Spain's
American Empire, and fire broke out. The remains of that
original city are now known as Panama vie Ho and
are just outside the current capital of Panama City. From
the sixt to the nineteenth centuries, Panama was part of
the Spanish Empire. Panama City, originally the site of a

(00:52):
Native American fishing village, was founded in fifteen nineteen by
Spanish conquistador Pedro Adisabla. The city was prosperous. Gold and
silver were shipped from the Andean countries to Panama City,
and from Panama City it was carried across the Isthmus
and sent off to Spain. Panama City was also a

(01:13):
base for the Spanish to conquer the Inca Empire in Peru.
Because Panama was such a city of riches, it was
a target for pirate attacks. Privateer Henry Morgan was known
for sacking the city of Porto Bello on the Isthmus
of Panama and raiding Lake Madracaibo on the coast of Venezuela.
But in sixteen seventy he set out to capture Panama

(01:34):
with dozens of ships in a couple thousand buccaneers. They
defeated a large Spanish force who had marched out of
Panama City, and on January sixteen seventy one, Morgan's group
attacked the Spanish troops in the city and began pillaging it.
Fire soon broke out in Panama City. Though Morgan was
accused of having the city burned, he likely did not,

(01:56):
as he would not have wanted to destroy the city
he had captured. As the city burned, the pirates continued
searching for loot. After around four weeks of looting and
searching for Spanish fugitives, the pirates took the goods and
prisoners and had it for the Atlantic port of Chagas. There,
Morgan ordered the fort as San Lorenzo destroyed. He then

(02:17):
left the port with most of the loot while the
remaining pirates split up. Morgan returned to Jamaica, where he
had a plantation. With his rewards, he purchased more plantations.
In sixteen seventy, England and Spain had signed the Treaty
of Madrid, in which England agreed to suppress piracy in
exchange for Spanish recognition of his sovereignty in Jamaica and

(02:41):
freedom of movement for English ships. So the governor of Jamaica,
who had granted Morgan permission to attack the Spanish, was
called to England for his deed, and Morgan was arrested
and sent to London in sixteen seventy two to be
tried for piracy. But Morgan did not face any serious punishment,
and six four King Charles the Second knighted him and

(03:03):
sent him to serve as deputy governor in Jamaica. From
that point on he remained in politics. He died in
As for Panama City, the fire had destroyed its wooden buildings,
leaving some stone structures standing. After the attack, Panama City
was relocated just south of its founding place. The ruins

(03:24):
of the old city are now a tourist attraction. The
location of the rebuilt city is now known as Costco Viejo.
I'm eve Jeff Coote, and hopefully you know a little
more about history today than you did yesterday. If you
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(03:46):
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