HISTORY OF COSTA RICA

Costa Rica is one of the smallest countries of not only in Central America but also in the whole world. This beautiful and breath taking country has been referred to as the “jewel of the Caribbean”. Sometimes Costa Rica is bestowed with the phrase “Switzerland of the Americas” mainly due to its natural beauty. The county is surrounded by Nicaragua, Panama, the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The country on the side of the Caribbean Sea has a rich cultural diversity, and on the Pacific Coast side one can find numerous national parks and wildlife reserves. The capital of the country is San Jose and the official language is Spanish.

In the Pre-Columbian period the native people of Costa Rica formed a part of the region situated between the Mesoamerican and Andean cultural regions. This has recently been reorganized to include the influence of the Isthmo-Columbian area.

Costa Rica boasts of a history that is very rich culturally as well as otherwise. As its history dates back a long time. Costa Rica is the historic point where the native cultures of Mesoamerica and South America merge. At the surge of Spanish colonialism, this region was soon invaded by the Spanish invaders in the sixteenth century. Due to this region the culture of Costa Rica has greater Spanish influence and insignificant amount of the native cultures.

Due to communication difficulty of this region with Guatemala, the center of Spanish power in Central America, Costa Rica was fortunate enough to enjoy at least partial isolation from the Spanish Monarchy. However, this also had a negative effect on the country. Costa Rica failed to take a share in the affluence of the colonies. This was a major factor behind the poverty of this country.

As a result of torture and also due to various kinds of diseases the native population declined. This led to the lack of availability of deficient number of slaves for labor. As a result of this most of the Costa Ricans were forced to work themselves on the land owned by them. This was another reason for Costa Rica’s impoverishment.

All these circumstances prepared the platform for the growth of an egalitarian society which is much more advanced than the other countries in Central America.

Costa Rica became a member of the Federal Republic of Central America. However, this was only for a short period of time. The main reason behind this was the lack of willingness on the part of Costa Rica to join as a province in the Central American Government. This was mainly due to the fact that the local residents were more aligned towards the government in the city of Guatemala which was the result of the colonial rule. This decision of Costa Rica ultimately led to the break up of nascent federation into autonomous states.

During the nineteenth century Jamaican workers came to this region for constructing the railways. Many of them settle here and are the forefathers of most of the Africans of the Caribbean Costa Rica.

In the nineteenth century it was coffee which changed the fortune of Costa Rica. Attracted by coffee, foreign capital and investors found their way to Costa Rica and improved the transportation network.

The population of this country is already diverse and rich in nature. In addition, this ethnic diversity was further increased by the sudden influx of Chinese and Italians in this area.

So in contemporary times, the country of Costa Rica is one of the most culturally and historically rich country throughout the Central America. At present Costa Rica is a democratic republican country.