Costa Rica: History, Politics, Population, and Geography

Created: 12/18/2021, 1:14 PM

Scarlet macaws in a tree in Alajuela Province, Costa Rica © Jon G. Fuller / IMAGO

Costa Rica: Info about the history, demography, geography, politics and economy of the state in Central America.

San José - The name of the Central American state Costa Rica stands for “rich coast” in Spanish and suggests its lush flora and fauna.

The Latin American country is bordered by two oceans and traversed by rain and cloud forests as well as mountain ranges with numerous volcanoes.

Costa Rica: The oldest evidence of human settlement in Central America

The first traces of settlement by indigenous peoples in Costa Rica date back to around 10,000 years before the Christian era.

This is indicated by finds on the banks of the Reventazón River, which, according to the radiocarbon method, are 12,200 years old.

They come from 66 human settlements from the Paleo-Indian period and represent the oldest evidence of human settlement in Central America to date.

In addition to building remains, stone streets and petroglyphs, pottery, stone tools and other artifacts were found.

Most of them have been given to the National Museum of Costa Rica in the capital, San José.

The history of Costa Rica before the arrival of the Spaniards

Before the Spanish colonized Costa Rica, the Central American country was populated by indigenous tribes. The Corobici were at home in the central mountain regions, the Chorotega on the Nicoya Peninsula in the west, and the Chibchas, Borucas and Caribs in the east. Cultural influences came from the Aztec and Nahua peoples of Mexico in the north and from the Incas of Peru in the south.

In what is now the province of Cartago, on the slopes of the Turrialba volcano, the Guayabo National Monument is the largest archaeological site in Costa Rica.

The remains of a pre-Columbian city, which existed between 1000 BC, extend over an area of ​​217 hectares.

BC and AD 1400 had their heyday.

So far, the first parts have been exposed;

In addition to aqueducts, dams, cisterns and cobbled streets, rock carvings, pottery and metalwork made of gold came to light.

The history of Costa Rica from 1502 to independence

The arrival of the Spaniards at the beginning of the 16th century marked a turning point in Costa Rican history.

Below is an overview of the most important milestones:

• In 1502, on September 18, a hurricane struck Christopher Columbus on the Atlantic coast in the east of the country.

  He was warmly received and spent 17 days near Limón.

• In 1506 the governor Diego de Nicuesa was sent on behalf of the Spanish king to colonize this region.

  The attempt failed because his ship sank off Panama.

• In 1522 Gil Gonzalez Davila set out from Panama and failed in an attempt to establish permanent colonies.

• In 1524 Francisco Hernández de Córdoba founded the first settlement on the Pacific coast.

  It existed for about three years.

• In 1560, Spanish conquistadors began systematic colonizations.

  They founded Cartago in 1562, which was the capital until 1823.

  Since many indigenous people fell victim to imported diseases and the administrative center of Guatemala was far away, development was slow.

• In 1809 Costa Rica became a Spanish province.

• In 1821, Costa Rica declared independence from Spain on September 15 and joined the Mexican Empire.

• From 1823 to 1838 Costa Rica was a member of the Central American Confederation.

• From 1824 to 1833, Juan Mora Fernández was the first elected head of state in Costa Rica.

  He established a legal system and reformed the education system.

  His land reform for coffee growing helped the coffee barons to rise in 1838.

In 1838 the country again declared its independence from the Confederation and the dictator Braulio Carrillo came to power for four years.

Costa Rica: The Demographics of the Central American State

Costa Rica covers an area of ​​51,100 square kilometers and has an estimated population of five million, of which around 60 percent live in cities.

As of 2019, the population density was 98 inhabitants per square kilometer.

With San José, Cartago, Alajuela and Heredia, the most important cities in Costa Rica are located in the Central Valley, which is also the main settlement area.

According to estimates, the population development shows an annual growth of one percent.

The prosperity indicator - also HDI (Human Development Index) - is 0.82.

It is based on life expectancy, length of education and gross national income per capita.

The latter stood at $ 12,244 per inhabitant in 2019.

These are colloquially called ticas and ticos and are 94 percent made up of mestizos and whites.

The population of blacks is three, of Indians, Chinese and others one percent each.

This makes Costa Rica the Central American state with the lowest proportion of purely indigenous population.

Costa Rica: The Geography of the Central American State

Costa Rica lies on the Central American Mainland Bridge that connects North and South America.

The country extends over an area of ​​51,000 square kilometers between Nicaragua in the north and Panama in the south.

The Caribbean Sea runs along the 212 kilometer long east coast;

in the west, the Pacific borders the 1,022 kilometers of coastline.

At the same time, the Talamanca mountain range extends inland.

The longest and highest mountain range in Costa Rica is part of the UNESCO World Heritage with the La Amistad National Park.

It begins in the province of Cartago in the north and extends to Panama for a length of 700 kilometers.

With the 3,820 meter high Cerro Chirripó, the mountain range offers the highest peak in Costa Rica.

Topographically, Costa Rica is divided into five regions:

• in the northwest the dry province of Guanacaste

• the Talamanca mountain range as part of the Cordilleras

• the Central Valley

• in the east the Caribbean coast with the alluvial plain

• to the west the central Pacific coast

Costa Rica is one of the countries with the highest volcanic density in the world.

Of more than 60 volcanoes, many are already extinct, others are asleep, five are active: the Arenal, the Irazú, the Poás, the Rincón de la Vieja and the Turrialba.

State of Costa Rica: The policy at a glance

The state and form of government in Costa Rica is that of a presidential republic;

Carlos Alvarado Quesada has held the post of Head of State and Government since April 1, 2018.

He belongs to the Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC), a center-left party.

The official language in Costa Rica is Spanish, the currency of the Central American state of the Colón (CRC).

A stable democracy for seven decades, Costa Rica is considered the most progressive and safest country in Latin America.

It abolished its army in 1949 in order to invest the freed resources in education and health programs.

In 1983 it declared its "permanent and active unarmed neutrality" in the face of the unrest and civil war in other Latin American countries.

Nature, forest and climate protection play an important role in the politics of Costa Rica.

Almost a third of the land area is under nature protection;

the country covers its electricity needs from renewable energies.

It also promotes ecotourism and aims to be the first country in the world to achieve a balanced CO2 balance.

State of Costa Rica: The Essential Factors of the Economy

Tourism plays an important role in the economy of Costa Rica, with an emphasis on ecotourism. To promote this, the Camino de Costa Rica was created, a 280-kilometer hiking trail that runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. The second most important source of foreign currency is the high-tech sector in the form of a semiconductor plant of the US semiconductor manufacturer Intel Corporation.

Most of the industrial plants are located in the big cities like San José in the Central Valley.

Banana plantations extend on the Caribbean coast around the port city of Limón, on the Pacific around Golfito.

As of 2017/18, Costa Rica was ranked 47th out of 137 countries according to the Global Competitiveness Index for competitiveness.

According to the Index of Economic Freedom, Costa Rica ranked 68th out of 180 countries in 2020.

This is directly related to the CAFTA free trade agreement that was concluded with the USA in 2007.