South & Central America
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There are a few records of Costa Rica’s very early history, but little was ever written and the historians’ knowledge is very sketchy. It is with Christopher Columbus’s visit in 1502 when he docked near the Caribbean coast around Puerto Limon for almost three weeks that the country’s history starts to be better recorded. In 1506 King Ferdinand of Spain appointed a governor to go and colonize the region and despite the jungle, tropical diseases and skirmishes with the indigenous Indian population, over a period of many years and many expeditions, the Spanish eventually took control of the region and were very influential within it for the next 500 years.
Over the next two or three hundred years the colonization of the fertile central valley proved successful, whilst the coastal regions remained more difficult due to disease and the lack of gold provided little incentive. It was in the 18th Century that the principal cities of San Jose, Cartago, Heredia and Alajuela were founded and despite the destructive eruption of Volcano Irazu, these became the main populations centres (still true to this day) of the region.
Up until the early 19th Century this Central American area was made up of loosely affiliated provincial federations, but in 1823 Costa Rica joined the Central American Federation and shortly afterwards the country’s modern borders were finally established. In 1824 the first head of state, Juan Mora Fernandez, was sworn in and he encouraged the development of the country’s infrastructure and agricultural production, in particular coffee, which slowly transformed Costa Rica into the region’s wealthiest nation.
Democracy slowly took hold over the next 100 years or so and finally in 1949 indigenous people and also women were also allowed the vote. It was also a very significant year in that the armed forces were abolished and the country has remained an extremely peaceful nation as a result, much to the envy of many of its neighbours. The country has invested in its people and infrastructure rather than its forces and consequently has a high literacy rate, a richly developed cultural environment for all the arts and generally a very contented population.
