War in pre-Columbian Costa Rica was almost continuous, especially in the
Guanacaste and
Nicoya region where rival groups fought to obtain captives for human
sacrifice. Throughout pre-Columbian Costa Rica, there were wars to capture women
and youths for slaves; to obtain the heads of enemies; and to obtain access to
new land. Funerals and burials of high-ranking people were elaborate affairs.
Spiritual Life
There is little known of pre-Columbian spiritual life. There is speculation,
as a result of images and figures in pottery and on stone. Many phallic images
appear and this suggests that fertility was important to pre-Columbians. There
were medicine men, shaman, who possessed a vast knowledge of flora and the
forest and dealt with supernatural matters.
By the time Columbus arrived, there were five major indigenous tribes living
in Costa Rica. There were only a few hundred thousand indigenous people and they
did not survive long after the arrival of the Spanish. Some fled, while many
others perished from the deadly diseases such as smallpox brought by the
Spaniards.
By the late 1560s, the end to the conquest in Costa Rica had been marked.
With the indigenous population gone, the Spanish could arrive to inhabit the
land. The Spanish brought African slaves to work the land. Seventy thousand of
their descendants live in Costa Rica today. Only one percent of Costa's Rica's
three million people are of indigenous heritage. An overwhelming 98% of the
country is white, and those of Spanish descent call themselves Ticos.
Minor Provincial Outpost
Costa Rica was a tough and unpopular place to settle with few valuable or
easily exploitable resources. The Spanish were more interested in developing
holdings in Mexico and Peru, where vast amounts of silver and gold existed. The
early settlers who came to Costa Rica did not establish a colonial city until
1562, when Juan Vasquez de Coronado founded Cartago.
When Mexico rebelled against Spain in 1821, Costa Rica benefited
inadvertently and learned of its liberation a month after the fact. A faction in
Costa Rica wanted to become part of Mexico and this sparked a civil war in Costa
Rica between four neighboring cities. After the republican cities of
San Jose and Alajuela defeated the
pro-Mexican Heredia and Cartago, sovereignty was established.
Nation Building
The first head of state was Juan Mora Fernandez who was elected in 1824. Best
remembered for his land reforms, Fernandez created an elite class of powerful
coffee barons. The barons later overthrew the nation's first president, José
Maria Castro, who was succeeded by Juan Rafael Mora. It was under Mora's
leadership that Costa Rican volunteers managed to defeat the North American
William Walker who came to conquer Costa Rica in 1858.
Military rule was a part of Costa Rican history, but it has not been marked
by the violent extremism that occurred in other Central American countries. In
1870, when General Tomas Guardia seized control of the government, he made some
of the country's most progressive reforms in education, military policy and
taxation.
Coffee & Bananas
During the 1800s, Costa Rica cultivated and exported coffee and a boom began.
Over 90% of all exports and 80% of foreign-currency earnings were from coffee.
Coffee produced wealth and became a powerful resource in Costa Rica. Costa Rican
coffee barons were related to the colony's founder, Juan Vasquez, and the
economic interests of the coffee elite became a priority in Costa Rican
politics.
A railway was built to move coffee to world markets from the central
highlands to the coast. Because food was needed to feed the laborers, bananas
were planted along the rail line. Needing to recoup the investment, contractor
Minor Keith, exported bananas to the USA and this created a banana empire.
The United Fruit Company, a joint venture between an American company and
Minor Keith, became the largest employer in Costa Rica and transformed Costa
Rica's ethnic complexion. Brining in laborers from Jamaica, the competition for
work became fierce between Ticos and the new migrants. In 1934, there were a
series of bloody strikes against the company. After the strikes, the Costa Rican
government segregated and discriminated against blacks. Blacks were forbidden
from moving to the Pacific coast when the banana jobs and cocao plantations
relocated there.
World War II
From 1939-45, Costa Rica declared war on the Axis and deported Italian and
German residents. By 1948, the Costa Rican civil war erupted. The civil war was
the result of the then-president, Rafael Angel Calderon, refusing to step down
after losing the presidential election. A Costa Rican exile named Jose Maria
(Don Pepe) Figueres defeated Calderon in one month. He later became one of Costa
Rica's most influential leaders, as head of the Founding Junta of the Second
Republic of Costa Rica.
Unarmed Democracy
Figueres made reforms in policy and civil rights. Women and blacks gained the
vote, the communist party was banned, banks were nationalized, the army was
abolished, and presidential term limits established. Figueres was immensely
popular, creating a political legacy where Costa Rica's liberal democratic
values making it one of the most liberal in Central America.
CIA Operatives in Costa Rica's North
In 1979, The Sandinistas in Nicaragua overthrew the Somoza dictatorship and
the war in Nicaragua impacted Costa Rica significantly. Costa Rica became a
fallback area for guerilla groups and anti-Sandinistas, including CIA operatives
and U.S. military advisors. Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Nicaragua
sought refuge in Costa Rica. This ongoing conflict and a slump in coffee and
banana markets led to an economic recession in Costa Rica.
In 1987, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize for his work in ending the Nicaraguan civil war. Arias was elected
in 1986 promising that he would put an end to the conflict. He was able to get
all five Central American presidents to sign his peace plan, and Nicaragua is
now experiencing relative stability.
By 1994, Costa Rica was dogged by political scandals including the bankruptcy
and closure of the Banco Anglo-Cosarricense, the nation's oldest bank. In the
late 1990s, the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) encouraged foreign
investment and privatization of state companies in Costa Rica. But, the
government was accused of not being transparent and nationwide protests happened
in 2000 when PUSC tried to privatize the government-run electricity and
telecommunications company — ICE.
In 2002, Abel Pacheco of PUSC won a first-ever run-off vote in Costa Rica
but was finally replaced in 2006 by Oscar Arias Sanchez who won a unprecedented
second term as president. Arias narrowly defeated Otton Solis, a newcomer, who
encouraged citizenship participation and wanted to get rid of government
corruption.
