History

**La Chronicles de Costa Rica !**

Costa Ricawas described by being the point where the two cultural traditions came collectively. This completed our country the crossroads of culture and trade, which make clear the great cultural variety and fortune to be established in such a little territorial room. Another ofCosta Rica's characteristics is the relatively small size of its infrastructures. This is due to the fact that the territory did not belong directly to any of the major kingdoms. One could say that it was an unconquered land, as far as the great indigenous kingdoms are concerned. Its population was distributed in small hamlets or tribes, while the region of Meso-American influence was a bit more stratified with well-established settlements and with important population concentrations more than a few hundreds.
 * Time Lines

The Caribs were progressively wiped out by the after-effects of the Spanish Costa Rican conquest The Spanish were continuously harassed by the native Caribs and by pirates and buccaneers who attacked the Spanish galleons which were carrying riches back to Spain || **1823** ||= Central America gains independence from Spain
 * = **September 18, 1502** ||= Christopher Columbus discovered Costa Rica and names it ||
 * = **1561** ||= Spain's Juan de Cavallon leads the first successful Costa Rican colonizers
 * = **1776** ||= Spain encompassed all of its territories in South- ||
 * = **1808** ||= Coffee is introduced into Costa Rica from Cuba ||
 * **1810** || Overthrow of the king of Spain by Napoleon ||
 * = **1821**

Costa Rica joined the United Provinces of Central America ||

Central America gained independence from Spain on September 15, 1821. The news reached Costa Rica a month after the event. The question of whether Costa Rica should join newly independent Mexico or join a new confederation of Central American states resulted in a bitter quarrel between the leaders of San Jose and their counterparts in Cartago and Heredia. A brief civil war in 1823 was won by San Jose and Costa Rica joined the confederation.

Juan Mora Fernandez was elected the country's first head of state in 1824. His progressive administration expanded public education and encouraged the cultivation of coffee with la Juan Mora Fernandez was elected the country's first head of state in 1824. His progressive administration expanded public education and encouraged the cultivation of coffee with land grants for growers. This quickly led to the establishment of a new Costa Rican elite, the coffee barons, who quickly put their power to use by overthrowing the first Costa Rican president, Jos‚ Maria Castro. His progressive, liberal leadership helped Costa Rica to develop independently of its neighboring countries, a trend that would forever set it apart from other developing nations in the area. Fernández fortified the burgeoning country's infrastructure: he built roads, established schools, and distributed land grants to anyone willing to plant coffee, the most profitable export crop at that time.

**Costa Ricas Neighbors** In a region that has been plagued by long and turbulent civil wars, the peaceful and reformist outcome of Costa Rica's Civil War differs greatly from its neighbors. Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua all suffered extremely long and painful dictatorships The Civil War of Costa Rica. The Costa Rican revolution lasted for five weeks with sporadic fighting in which the National Liberation Army, led by Jose Maria Don Pepe Figueres Ferrer, proved victorious over the badly organized and poorly directed Costa Rican army. In fact much of the defense of the government was provided by armed Communist party members. However, the government was reluctant to give them enough material support to be truly effective, and on April 19, the illegitimate government of Teodoro Picado decided to surrender to Figueres Costa Rica, Since Independence & Baker. The country's forty-day Civil War in 1948 resulted in an affirmation rather than a negation of democracy. Democracy is not only the type of government of Costa Rica, but it also the source of tremendous pride in a country that brags about having more teachers than policeman and not having a standing army since it was abolished in 1948.

<span style="background-color: #800000; color: #ffffff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Costa Rica's Natives

Most Indian groups were ruled by a cacique, who occasionally governed over various tribes, called senorios or lordships. The conquest was facilitated not only by the lack of empires, but also by the lack of gold mines. The Spanish didn't make many strong efforts to colonize the country, and their success was due mostly to the small Indian population and to its further decrease, due to European diseases. Few of the native Indians survived European contact; the indigenous population today is less than 1% of the population.

<span style="background-color: #800000; color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: tahoma,geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-align: left;">Costa Rica Today !

After the Civil War of 1948, the 1950's and 1960's were characterized by a sound political strategy by the Costa Rican citizens. The voters alternated electing candidates of the PLN or of the Social Christian parties, which were the two main groups that had been born from the Civil War. During these years, the welfare system and the public school institutions expanded greatly. By 1978, Costa Rica boasted impressive social data: life expectancy had reached 70 years, infant mortality was 20/1000, the literacy rate was 90%, the welfare system covered three quarters of salaried workers and unemployment was at a low 5%. This economic and social stability caused a demographic increase between 1953 and 1973.