Costa Rica

History

In 1502, on his fourth and last voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus made the first European landfall in the area. Settlement of Costa Rica started in 1522. For almost three centuries, Spain administered the district as part of the Captaincy General of Guatemala under a infantry governor. The Spanish optimistically called the homeland "Rich Coast." Finding little gold or other precious minerals in Costa Rica, although, the Spanish turned to agriculture. (www.tourism.co.cr)

The little landowners' relation scarcity, the need of a large indigenous work force, the population's ethnic and linguistic homogeneity, and Costa Rica's isolation from the Spanish colonial hubs in Mexico and the Andes all assisted to the development of an autonomous and individualistic agrarian society. An egalitarian custom furthermore arose. This custom endured the broadened class distinctions conveyed on by the 19th-century introduction of banana and coffee cultivation and consequent accumulations of localized wealth. (www.infoplease.com)

Costa Rica connected other Central American provinces in 1821 in a junction affirmation of self-reliance from Spain. Although the freshly unaligned provinces formed a Federation, boundary arguments smashed out amidst them, supplementing to the region's turbulent annals and conditions. Costa Rica's to the north Guanacaste Province was annexed from Nicaragua in one such local dispute. In 1838, long after the Central American Federation stopped to function in perform, Costa Rica formally removed and declared itself sovereign.

An era of tranquil democracy in Costa Rica started in 1899 with elections advised the first really free and dependable ones in the country's history. This started a tendency proceeded until today with only two lapses: in 1917-19, Federico Tinoco directed as a dictator, and, in 1948, Jose Figueres directed an equipped uprising in the awaken of a argued presidential election. (philip.greenspun.com)

With more than 2,000 dead, the 44-day municipal conflict producing from this uprising was the bloodiest happening in 20th-century Costa Rican annals, but the victorious junta made a draft a constitution guaranteeing free elections with universal suffrage and the abolition of the military. Figueres became a nationwide champion, triumphant the first election under the new constitution in 1953. Since then, Costa Rica has held 14 presidential elections, the newest in 2006.

 

Geography

Costa Rica's geography discloses a annals of cataclysm, with earthquakes, floods and volcanoes forming its present-day landscape.  A diversity of rising hills, dormant and hardworking craters, very dark and white sand sandy coastlines, hurrying streams and mighty waterfalls grace Costa Rica's 19,653 rectangle miles, an locality lesser than West Virginia.

From north-to-south and east-to-west, Costa Rica not ever assesses longer or broader than 200 miles. Though located just 10° north of the equator, Costa Rica is much more than a warm and sunny tropical paradise. Rolling hills and highland cloud timber plantations compare with 800 miles of Caribbean and Pacific shoreline, conceiving a homeland with four major geographical areas: the Tropical Lowlands (Caribbean and Pacific coasts), the Northern Central Plains, the Central Valley and the Northwest Peninsula.

Costa Rica's geography mostly comprises of seaboard simple vivisected by five towering hill ranges: the Central Mountain Range (Cordillera Central), ...