Costa Rica History

Pre-Conquest

Of all the Central American countries, Costa Rica is the one which has been most influenced by the Spanish conquest, and there are relatively few signs of pre-Colombian cultures. The well-known Mexican and northern Central American civilizations, such as the Aztecs, Olmecs and Mayas, did not reach as far south as Costa Rica. Those peoples who did exist in Costa Rica were few in number and relatively poorly organized. They offered little resistance to the Spanish, left us little in the way of ancient archeological monuments, and had no written language. Many indigenous populations were wiped out by diseases after the arrival of the Europeans. This is not to say that Costa Rica's pre-Columbian peoples were uncivilized. A visit to San José's Museo de Jade (Jade Museum) or Museo de Oro Pre-Columbiano (Pre-Columbian Gold Museum) will awe the visitor. The Museo Jade has the world's largest collection of pre-Columbian jade- and most of it comes from the Costa Rican area. The Museo de Oro has approximately 2000 pieces on display. Unfortunately, not a great deal is known about the cultures which produced these treasures.

Areas of Archaeological

Interest The Greater Nicoya Area has recently been the focus of archaeological study. This area, still note-worthy today for its pottery, has left workers with a wealth of ceramics, stonework and jade which have provided excellent insights into the pre-Columbian peoples who lived here. Although it is almost certain that people living in Central America prior ro 20,000 B.C., the first definite evidence (in the form of ceramics) is dated to about 2,000 B.C., which corresponds to what is called Period III by archaeologists. Period IV (from 1,000 B.C. to 500 A.D.) was characterized by the establishment of villages and of social hierarchies, and development of jade production. Ceramics and jade from Mayan areas indicate the influence of other peoples through trade.

Skill in making pottery improved during Period V (500 A.D. to 1000 A.D.), and by Period VI (1000 A.D. to 1520 A.D.), society had developed into a number of settlements, some with populations of about 20,000 and ruled over by a chief. Most of these were quickly destroyed by the conquest and its aftermath. Today, the few remaining Indian groups are often known by the name of their last chief, as noted by the Spanish chroniclers. Particularly important in the Greater Nicoya area are the Chorotegas. The Nicoya Area had a dry and wet season. This led to a greater development in ceramics than on the Caribbean side, where water was rarely difficult to obtain and rarely had to be stored or transported long distances. In addition, the many bays and sage anchorages of the Península de Nicoya area led to trading in that area. Thus it is not surprising that the Greater Nicoya area has left archeologists with more artifacts than has the Caribbean coast. Monumento Nacional Guayabo The major archaeological site in Costa Rica is the Monumento Nacional Guayabo, which is about 85 kms east of the capital of San José. Guayabo is currently under investigation and is thought to have been inhabited from about 500 B.C. to 1400 A.D. Streets, aqueducts and causeways may have been seen, though most of the buildings have collapsed and have not been yet restored. Gold and stone artifacts have been discovered there. Archaeologists believe Guayabo was an important religious and cultural center, although minor compared to Aztec Inca or Maya

Diquis Spheres

But of all the existing remnants of pre-Columbian culture, none are more mysterious than the stone spheres of the Diquis region. This region covers the southern half of Costa Rica. Dotted throughout the area are perfectly shaped spheres of granite, some as large as a tall person and others as small as a grapefruit. They can be seen in the Museo Nacional and various parks and gardens in San José, as well as throughout the Diquis region. Some have been found, undisturbed for centuries, on the Isla del Caño, 20 kms west of the southern Pacific coast. Who carved these enigmatic orbs? What was their purpose? How did they get to Isla del Caño? No one has the answers to these questions. The puzzling granite spheres of southern Costa Rica serve to underscore how little we know and understand the pre-Columbian cultures of the region.

Spanish Conquestempire at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards, the conquest of Costa Rica is euphemistically called a ‘settlement' by some writers. In reality, the Spanish arrival was accompanied by diseases to which the Indians had no resistance, and they died of sickness as much as by the sword. Although the Indians did try to fight the Spanish, the small numbers of natives were unable to stop the ever larger groups of Spaniards who arrived every few years attempting to colonize the land.

Christopher Columbus:

The first arrival was Christopher Columbus himself, who landed near present day Puerto Limón on September 18th, 1502 during his fourth (and last) voyage to the Americas. He was treated well by the coastal Indians in his stay and he noted some of the natives wore gold decorations. Because of this, the area was dubbed ‘costa rica' (the rich coast) by the Spaniards who imagined that there must be a rich empire lying further inland. Spanish king Ferdinand appointed Diego de Nicuesa governor of the region and sent him to colonize it in 1506. This time the Indians did not provide a friendly welcome- perhaps they gad become aware of the deadly diseases which accompanied the Europeans. The colonizers were hampered by the jungle, tropical diseases and the small bands of Indians who used guerilla tactics to fight off the invaders. About half the colonizers died and the rest returned home, unsuccessful.

Gil González Dávila:

Further expeditions followed. The most successful, from the Spaniards' point of view, was the 1522 expedition to the Golfo de Nicoya area led by Gil González Dávila. Although the expedition claimed to have converted tens of thousands of Indians to Catholicism and returned home with a hoard of gold and other treasures, it was unable to form a permanent colony and many expedition members died of hunger and disease. By the 1560's, the Spanish had unsuccessfully attempted colonization several more times. By this time, the Indian resistance, such as it was, had been worn down. Many Indians had died or were dying of disease and others had simply moved on to more inhospitable terrain.

Juan Vázquez de Coronado and the First Colony In 1562

Juan Vázquez de Coronado arrived as governor and decided that the best place to found a colony was in the central highlands. This was an unusual move because the Spanish were a seafaring people and had naturally tried to colonize the coastal areas where they could build ports and maintain a contact with Spain. This proved problematical because the coastal areas were more prone to disease. When Coronado founded Cartago in 1563, his followers found a healthy climate and fertile volcanic soil and thus the colony survived. Cartago was quite different from Spanish colonies in other parts of the New World. There were few Indians and so the Spanish did not have a huge workforce available, nor were they able to intermarry with the Indians to form the mestizo culture prevalent in many parts of Latin America. The imagined riches of Costa Rica turned out to be very little and were soon plundered. The small highland colony soon became removed from the mainstream of Spanish influence. For the next century and a half, the colony remained a forgotten backwater, isolated from the coast and major trading routes. It survived only by dint of hard work and the generosity and friendliness which have become the hallmarks of the contemporary Costa Rican character.

The Establishment of Other Cities

Eventually, in the 1700's, the colony began to spread and change. Settlements became established throughout the fertile plains of the central highlands (now known as meseta central- Central Valley). Heredia was founded in 1717, San José in 1737, and Alajuela in 1782, although at the time of their founding, the cities had different names. Much of Cartago was destroyed in an eruption of Volcán Irazú in 1723, but the survivors rebuilt the town. This expansion reflected slow growth from within Costa Rica, but the colony remained one of the poorest and most isolated in the Spanish empire.

Independence

Central America became independent from Spain on September 15, 1821, although Costa Rica was not aware of this situation until at least a month later. It briefly became part of the Mexican empire, then a state within the Central American United Provinces. The first elected head of state was Juan Mora Fernández, who governed from 1824 to 1833. During his time in office, coffee (introduced in 1808 from Cuba) began to be exported in modest amounts.

Exportation of Coffee

The rest of the 19th century saw a steady increase in coffee exports and this turned Costa Rica from an extremely poor and struggling country to a more successful and worldly one. Inevitably, some of the coffee growers became relatively rich and class structure began to emerge. In 1849, a successful coffee grower, Juan Rafael Mora, became president and governed for 10 years.

The Intent to Conquer Central America

Mora's presidency is remembered both for economic and cultural growth, and for a somewhat bizarre military incident which has earned a place in every Costa Rican child's history books. In June 1855, the US filibuster William Walker arrived in Nicaragua with the aim of conquering Central America and converting it into slaving territory, then using the slaves to build a Nicaraguan canal to join the Atlantic with the Pacific. Walker defeated the Nicaraguans and marched for Costa Rica, which he entered more or less unopposed, reaching a hacienda at Santa Rosa (now a national park in north-west Costa Rica).

A Costa Rican Hero

Costa Rica had no army, and so Mora organized 9000 civilians to gather what arms they could and march north in February 1856. In a short but determined battle, the Costa Ricans defeated Walker who retreated to Rival in Nicaragua, followed by the victorious Costa Ricans. Walker and his soldiers made a stand in a wooden fort, and Juan Santamaría, a drummer boy from Alajuela, volunteered to torch the building, thus forcing Walker to flee. Santamaría was killed in this action and is now remembered as one of Costa Rica's favorite national heroes. Despite his defeat, Walker returned unsuccessfully to Central America several more times before finally being shot in Honduras in 1860. Meanwhile, Mora lost favor of his country- he and his army were thought to have brought back cholera which caused a massive epidemic in Costa Rica. He was deposed in 1859, led a coup in 1860, failed, and was executed in the same year as Walker.

Democracy

The next three decades were characterized by power struggles among members of the coffee-growing elite. In 1869, a free and compulsory elementary education system was established- though, inevitably, families in more remote areas were not able to send children to schools. In 1889, the first democratic elections were held, with the poor campesinos (small farmers) as well as the rich coffee growers able to vote, although women and Blacks had not yet received that right.

Power Struggle

Democracy has been a hall mark of Costa Rican politics since then, and there have been few lapses. One was between 1917 and 1919 when the Minister of War, Frederico Tinoco, overthrew the democratically elected president and formed a dictatorship. This ended in Tinoco's exile after opposition from both the rest of Costa Rica and the US government. In 1940, Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia became president. His presidency was marked by reforms which were supported by the poor and criticized by the rich. These reforms included workers' rights to organize, minimum wages and social security. To further widen his power base, Calderón allied himself, strangely, with both the Catholic Church and the communist party to form a Christian Socialist group. The further alienated him from the conservatives, the intellectuals and the upper classes. Calderón was succeeded in 1944 by the Christian Socialist Teodoro Picado who was a supporter of Calderón's policies, but the conservative opposition claimed the elections were a fraud. In 1948, Calderón again ran for presidency against Otilio Ulate. The election was won by Ulate but Calderón claimed fraud because some of the ballots had been destroyed. Picado's government did not recognize Ulate's visotry and the tense situation escalated into civil war.

Civil War

Calderón and Picado were opposed by José (Don Pepe) Figueres Ferrer. After several weeks of civil warfare, over 2000 people had been killed, and Figueres emerged victorious. He took over an interim government and in 1949, handed over the presidency to Otilio Ulate.

The Constitution

That year marked the formation of the Costa Rican constitution, which is still in effect. Women and Black people received the vote, presidents were not allowed to run for successive terms, and a neutral electoral tribunal was established to guarantee free and fair elections. All citizens over the age of 18 are required to vote in elections held every four years. But the constitutional dissolution of the armed forces is the act which has had the most long-lasting impact on the nation. Today, almost half a century later, Costa Rica is known as ‘the country which doesn't have an army.