The History of the Panama Canal goes back almost to the earliest explorers of the Americas. The narrow land bridge between North and South America offers a unique opportunity to create a water passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This potential was recognised by the earliest colonists of Central America, and schemes for such a canal were floated several times in the subsequent years.
By the late-1800s, technological advances and commercial pressure advanced to the point where construction started in earnest. An initial attempt by France to build a sea-level canal failed, but only after a great amount of excavation was carried out. This was of use to the effort by the United States which finally resulted in the present Panama Canal in 1914. Along the way, the nation of Panama was created by division from Colombia after the Thousand Days Civil War.