Patriotic Symbols:
Condensed Description:
Costa Rica, located in Central America, is small geographically but extremely wealthy in cultural and natural diversity; their biggest treasure is the natural environment. Its land borders Nicaragua to the North and Panama to the South while surrounded by both the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. This geographic diversity is what gives Costa Rica a plethora of climates, terrains, and culture. While Spanish is their native language, English is becoming second nature due to their continuous social development.
Along with Costa Rica’s beautiful natural environment, it has a distinguishable past.
During the Pre-Columbian period the country had very few inhabited settlements and the magnificent buildings and structures that now exist were not constructed by them like in Peru and Mexico. At the time the country served as a cultural bridge between the north and south of the continent which enabled them to create works of art out of silver, gold, and clay pottery. It is known that the largest religious center was in what is now the community of Guayabo in Turrialba. Photographs taken by satellites show proof that there were several trails that connected throughout the entire country.
We now move into the Conquest and Colonial Period. At this time no more than 100,000 people were distributed throughout the entire country when “discovered” and the population drastically diminished thereafter due to disease that was imported from Europe. Because there were few people to work, limited mineral resources, rough and uneven terrain, the Conquistadores faced a tremendous hardship while trying to colonize.
Costa Rica’s political history is what sets this country apart from surrounding Central American countries. After gaining independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821 there was a short lived union with the Mexican Empire and later became a state in the United Provinces of Central America, as known as the Central America Federation, which was in 1823. During this year the capital moved from Cartago to San Jose and Juan Mora Fernandez was elected the first Head of State. In 1828 Costa Rica separated from the Central America Federation and became an independent state. 20 years later the state was declared as a sovereign nation; the Republic of Costa Rica.
Just a few years later Costa Rica faced its greatest political threat when a southerner from the United States rose to power in Nicaragua which was supported by a group of Nicaraguan rebels and wealthy businessmen and politicians in the US. This was a failed attempt to make the country a slave state. Although they did not have an organized army, their weapons were modern which allowed them to form a small military force.
During the 20th century there were a few breaches in the constitutional order. Also during this time, in 1948, Costa Rica became the first country in the world to abolish their army as a strategy for conflict resolution.
Now that we have been through the “condensed version” of history and the country’s physical and chemical makeup, I will go on to say that within Costa Rica’s 51,000 square kilometers, you will always find a special place to discover. No other country in the world has dedicated so much to preserving its territory to the protection of the environment.
Stay tuned to some great posts that will be specific to the cities of Costa Rica, attractions, expeditions, wildlife, food and their diversified cultures.
In the mean time if you would like to check out our featured Costa Rica value-priced feature-filled packages, you can visit our Costa Rica page on our website.
