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"Another day in paradise"

Early History:
There was a time, long before Columbus, and before even the Mastodon and the dinosaurs, when the Himalayas were just beginning to reach lofty heights. In those times the Pacific flowed freely into the Atlantic at what was the most southerly part of North America, and most northerly part of South America. From this area, currents flowed up the Atlantic coast of North America, around Newfoundland, and through the Northwest Passage to return to the Pacific by way of the Aleutians, between Siberia and Alaska. This current swept the cold from the North Pole, and kept the ice from forming into the giant ice flows we have today.

Deep in the sea, at the point the Pacific current flowed into the Atlantic, there began a rumbling and heaving of the earth. The tectonic plates in the east and the tectonic plates in west began releasing pent up forces in the form of earth quakes, volcanoes and lava flows. This continues today, and is called the Ring of fire, but in no place has this activity had a greater impact than in Costa Rica.

About the time of the Wooly Mammoth and the Saber Tooth Tiger, the tranquil journey of the Pacific Current was interrupted by the violent forces beneath the sea as Central America took its place as the youngest continental land on the globe. North America and South America were no longer isolated from each other. This geological event had a profound impact on the world at that time. The North Pole and all surrounding land cooled to the point that all water passages were blocked by thick packed ice, and it became a tundra, void of all plant life except for hardy lichen. Animals that had never encountered one another began crossing from one continent to the other, forming new species in the processes. In particular, the geological event had a profound impact on Costa Rica, which became home to some of the most diverse plant and animal populations on the planet.

Pre Columbian:
It is thought that the ice in the north formed a bridge providing a means for man to access to the "New World". These nomadic people eventually spread throughout the Americas and settled in many areas. Today they are known as Eskimo, Navaho, Iroquois, Black Foot, Apache, Mohawk, Mayan, and Incan, to name a few. The first signs of these original settlers who began to appear in Costa Rica, seemed to have arrived some 40,000 years ago.

No indigenous people of Costa Rica are known by name today. They are only known by the more modern names of the region in which their artifacts are found. They were hunter gatherers moving south and settling in small chiefdoms, developing diverse languages, and cultures.

Around 4000 - 1000 BC, the earliest crop cultivating settlements were established. On September 8th, 1502, Christopher Columbus arrived on the Atlantic Coast of Costa Rica, between Uvita Island and what is now the Port of Limon, establishing the first contact with these native peoples and initiating the civilization that we know today. By this time, five major cultural groups of natives dominated: the Carib, the Boruca, the Nahua, the Corobici, and the Chorotega. These people were actively trading artifacts fashioned of stone, jade and gold and communicating with each other.

How Costa Rica Got Its Name: Taking note of the golden mirrors that the American Indians of Costa Rica wore about their necks, and being impressed with their many stories of gold that lay to the south, Columbus named the area from Honduras to Panama Veragua "the Rich Coast" (Costa Rica).

In time, this "Rich Cost" proved to be one of the poorest of Spain's American colonies. All that the land offered Spain was impassable mountains, impenetrable forest, raging rivers, unbearable heat, floods, disease, and swamps. The settlers that came to Costa Rica would soon find themselves living as did the "savages", reduced to eking out a bare subsistence by use of native methods of cultivating indigenous crops.

Between Conquest and Independence: By 1560, the conquest of Costa Rica had ended and the majority of the indigenous people had been wiped out by war and disease. Those remaining either submitted to the Spanish or fled. In the aftermath, Costa Rican society developed much differently than other Spanish conquered territories, evolving their own culture and customs. As it was a three month trip from Guatemala by horse, Costa Rica was isolated. Costa Rica's political climate was unique as well, due to its relatively benevolent conqueror. Economically, cocoa became the currency, barter was common, and life existed in a grim state of impoverishment. Spain had taken all that it valued and had lost interest in the region while other riches remained to be discovered.

Juan Vasquez de Coronado, sometimes referred to as the 'Grand Father of Costa Rica' and regarded by some as the true conqueror of Costa Rica, had a different attitude toward the local people. He was more friendly and respectful than other Spanish conquerors, asking for labor and tribute rather than demanding it. Although Coronado's soldiers were more aggressive than other soldiers and the indigenous people often suffered at their hands, Coronado's himself employed tactics that encouraged the establishment of a permanent community that would flourish and grow. Most importantly, the indigenous people had land rights, and labor was seen as a tax. This system, similar to that of Europe, was much kinder than out right slavery, which was common throughout other Spanish-conquered territories.

While the riches Spain coveted were eventually exhausted, land was rich and fertile, water was plentiful, and the climate was gentle. What a person needed to live was there for the taking, It was said that even the governor and his aristocratic associates toiled, even soiling their hands to be able to harvest the riches from the land. Very slowly, business and commerce began to grow.

The first goods to be exported from Costa Rica were mules. Later came cocoa, then tobacco (of questionable quality, but taxed for the Crown). Groups of indigenous people, many of whom were refuges from the Conquest and living in the interior regions, were relatively undisturbed by the outside turmoil. However, they too began to feel the ever increasing pressures of colonization. These pressures came in the form of raids and reprisals, attacks and counter attacks, with cruelties and revenge common on both sides. This warfare escalated until hundreds of indigenous people were relocated to the Central Valley by the Indian Resettlement Policies of 1747.

The isolation and poverty had proved beneficial to the inhabitance of Costa Rica. Spain paid little attention to Costa Rica and left it to concentrating on subsistence and survival, largely unaffected by the currents of thought that led to Central Americas struggle for independence from Spain. Guatemala and Nicaragua, after years of conflict, were finally granted independence directly from Spain. Costa Rica however, being relatively isolated, simply received a letter stating that Guatemala City had declared independence for Costa Rica from the Spanish Empire on October 13, 1821. The letter itself arrived nearly a month after the declaration. Costa Rica had been given its independence without firing a shot.

Independence - Now what?
Although Costa Rica was one of the least influenced by the Spanish conquests and Crown of all the territories, the Catholic Church, the Colonial bureaucracy, and dominance of the monopolistic Guatemalan traders began a lengthy debate between four small communities in the Central Valley over what to do next.

Using the Spanish Constitution of 1812 as a template, the leaders from the four communities drafted their first constitution. Before its adoption, however, there were other community leaders with different backgrounds and loyalties who began to question if little Costa Rica should remain independent. Some wanted to have Costa Rica join with Mexico, and others wanted Costa Rica to become part of Columbia. The question of joining with Mexico was settled by a skirmish in which 20 were injured, and the Constitutionalist declared victory. They need not have bothered because Augustine I of Mexico had fallen several days earlier along with dreams of empire.

Costa Rica, largely a nation of family farmers that lacked both an elite class and well-defined social order, was ambivalent about the becoming part of Columbia and "United States of Central America". As a sovereign federal state, the country elected its first Head of State, Juan Mora Fernandez, who was an elementary school teacher. His successor would be another elementary school teacher, who subsequently resigned after humiliating attacks by the newly establish press.

The cultivation of coffee was just beginning to bring on the first modest signs of prosperity and along with it prostitution, gambling, and the theft reached levels that had been unknown before. Coffee led the way to new found wealth, and provided the means to settle the country's debt to British Banks, which other countries in the region carried well into the 20th Century.

There were several attempts by would-be leaders to wrest control of Costa Rica from the people. One of these was William Walker. Walker, like the others who unsuccessfully attempted to take over the country, paid for the attempt with his life. A young drummer boy named Juan Santamaria died setting fire to a wooden fort Walker was held up in. Juan later became Costa Rica's national hero and symbol of national freedom; Walker would eventually be hunted down and executed by firing squad.

Perhaps in no better way does Costa Rica show its quiet, liberal ways than through the acts of Jose (Don Pepe) Figueres, victorious in the Civil War of 1948. After seizing power Figueres described four main objectives of what he called his Second Republic. These objectives were highly resented by the affluent and perceived to be in the atmosphere of mistrust and disharmony that fostered the civil war. Still, in 1949 a new constitution was accepted by the Constitutional Congress, and it reflected many of the goals of the Second Republic. It solidified hard won social reforms and added new social guarantees. It established the principle of public regulation of private property and enterprise, and empowered the state to take actions assuring the widest distribution of wealth possible. In addition to this, citizenship was extended to everyone born in Costa Rica, which was possibly the finest social guarantee imaginable. The new constitution also abolished the military.