Costa Rican History 101

This article outlines early Costa Rican history from pre-Colombian times up to the 1940s (prior to the 1948 revolution).

Early History  Part I  -  Before Columbus to 1948

The pre-Columbian history of what is now Latin America is largely shrouded in mystery, little is known of the cultures of indigenous peoples during the conquest except for the Aztecs, Mayas and Incas. It is not even     certain that Christopher Columbus actually came to Costa Rica on his fourth voyage to the New World in 1502. The bay he named “Cariari” was never identified with certainty.  The early people of Costa Rica refined gold and crafted delicate jewelry from it, also carving jade and making pottery.

However, mainly due to grave robbers and illegal exploiters of ancient artifacts who have defiled important archaeological sites that could have helped piece together a coherent record.

According to local legend, Spanish explorer Gonzalez Davila named the country “Rich Coast” because of the quantity of gold ornaments worn by the natives. While there is some gold in some areas of Costa Rica, even with modern mining techniques large deposits have not been found. It is thought that native Costa Ricans may have traded for imported gold to use in the crafting of finished ornaments. Similarly, very little jade is found here so the ornaments archaeologists find were certainly mined elsewhere. Proof of trade and contact with other Central American cultures has been hard for archaeologists to confirm.

The Spanish who came to Costa Rica were primarily poor settlers, imagine that Juan Vasquez de Coronado, who was governor in 1562, worked is own land! It seems that the indigenous people of the Cartago area, where he established his capital, had fled into the remote, rugged Talamanca Mountains to escape European diseases. This factor accounts for the beginnings of a tradition emphasizing hard work as the path to success.

Lacking hoards of gold to loot, and the slave-cultivated cash crops that they could sell in Europe, the few who immigrated to Costa Rica were farmers, not Spanish aristocrats. The colonial capital in Guatemala was far away, so no resentment of a dominant territorial governor festered. It is not surprising that Costa Ricans developed differently from other Latin American nations. There is no tradition of a rigid class system or exploitive ruling class.

In fact, while many other countries in Latin America had bloody revolutions to obtain their liberty from Spain, Costa Rica was gifted her independence at a stroke of a pen, actually they were literally free before they knew it, when word finally spread here from Guatemala in 1821. They languished briefly under a confederation based in the old colonial capital of Guatemala before opting for full independence.

For nearly 300 years from the time of the first Spanish colonists, the economy was mainly a barter system, with little items being exported for gold or foreign coin. The first exports of coffee occurred from Puntarenas on the Pacific side in 1820. It wasn't until nearly the turn of the century that bananas were exported by the United Fruit Company from the Limon area.

This company imported black workers from the Caribbean islands, making up an English-speaking conclave basically ignored by the rest of the country. Other foreigners came to work on Minor Keith’s Atlantic railway, the first connection between the Caribbean coast and the more densely populated Central Valley where the capital, San Jose, had been created. Interestingly, from the 1930s to the 1948 civil war blacks were prohibited to ride the railway they had built into the capital, a segregation policy that liberal Costa Rica would like to forget ever existed.

A key event in Costa Rican history in the mid 1800's was the invasion of Costa Rica by William Walker, a Tennessee-born. soldier of fortune who dreamed of conquering Central America and turning it into a united pro-slavery country ruled by white English-speakers. This is a fascinating story, including such figures as Wall Street tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt.  (see Costa Rica in 1856: Defeating William Walker While Creating a National Identity ) or see a book referenced there - Scroggs, William O. Filibusters and Financiers: The story of William Walker and his Associates. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916.  For a wider view of Walker's exploits, have a look at this article ( Filibustering with William Walker )

By 1855, Walker had marched as far south as Nicaragua and had set his sights on Costa Rica. His troops advanced down the coast and took control of the Hacienda Santa Rosa in the Pacific Northwest corner of the Guanacaste province. The Costa Rican president Juan Rafael Mora had rallied the population in what was called the National Campaign. On March 20th of 1856 the rag-tag Costa Rica forces, directed by the president's brother José Joaquín Mora, and by General José María Cañas. (the airport highway is named in his honor). The Costa Rican forces forced Walker's men to leave the Santa Rosa Ranch and chased them out of the country as far as Rivas in Southern Nicaragua.

The country’s only war hero, Juan Santamaría, is remembered from the Battle of Rivas.  William Walker and his men had holed up in a large guest house called Mesón and from this position were able to hold the Costa Rican forces to a stand off.  On the 11th of April the general asked for volunteers to try to burn down the guest house and smoke out the “filibusteros”.  Several died in the attempt, but Santamaría was finally successful, although he died from wounds sustained in his valiant effort.  Walker himself escaped capture after he was driven from the Mesón, and while Costa Rican forces looked for him, they were stricken by a cholera epidemic. They returned to Costa Rica bringing the bug with them and eventually 10,000 Costa Ricans died in the ensuing epidemic.

Eventually Walker was driven from Nicaragua and met his demise in front of a firing squad in Honduras in 1860.

Costa Rica also “participated” in World War II, when it declared war on the Axis. An interesting factoid is that Costa Rica declared war on the Axis before the US Congress did, on December 8, 1941.

It turns out that news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor arrived while congress was in a special Sunday session, deliberating budget matters. With a speed that has never been seen since, it immediately declared war on Japan, Germany, and Italy.  To illustrate how unusual that is, congress UNDECLARED war 20 years after!  The Costa Rican did not affect the balance of the conflict though, the main effect was that it closed Caribbean ports to German commerce raiders, led to the confiscation of German-owned properties in the country and would have enabled British or U.S. warships to attack them in Costa Rican territorial waters.