“An Overview of Costa Rica’s History, and How it has Contributed to the Uniqueness of the Country”
Costa Rica is different from its neighboring countries in Central America. In a region that has been characterized by civil unrest, dictatorships, war, and poverty, Costa Rica appears as an oasis of peace and prosperity. In fact, it has gone without a standing army for over fifty years. Since the civil war of 1948, political power in Costa Rica has peacefully changed hands every four years through a democratic process that adheres strictly to a constitution (The World Factbook, 2000). “In terms of the Human Development Index (HDI), in 1996 Costa Rica ranked 31st in the world, which placed it in the ranks of the developed industrial countries”, while other Central American countries ranked 112th –117th (Wilson 1998). Compared to the other Central American countries, it has the lowest infant mortality rate, the highest life expectancy, the safest drinking water, the lowest human poverty index, and the lowest illiteracy rates. It is clear why Costa Rica has been referred to as “la Suiza centroamericana” or the Switzerland of Central America (Wilson, 1998). So what is behind these unique qualities of Costa Rica? There are many ways to approach this question. One can approach this question from cultural and social perspectives (Helmuth, 2000), geographical perspectives, economic perspectives, and historical perspectives. In this paper, the history of Costa Rica is examined in order to find some historical reasons behind the country’s unique qualities.
When Columbus fist stepped foot on the shore of current day Puerto Limn, he found a land that was inhabited by several poorly organized, autonomous tribes (the Corobics, Nahuatl, and the most numerous Chorotegas) (Baker, 2000). Although human inhabitation can be traced back at least 10,000 years, the highly civilized cultures of Mesoamerica and the Andes were not widely diffused in this area. The people of the region were already unique and separated from influence of their neighbors by the high mountains and swampy lowlands of the area. Since these cultures were not highly organized, they left behind a very sparse legacy of material culture, but there are interesting works of pottery and metalwork that have been excavated. Even before the imposition of western culture on the Americas, Costa Rica was made up of a unique population.
Costa Rica also had a unique colonial experience as well. In most of Central and South America, the Spanish and Portuguese invaded and established a strong military and political presence relatively quickly. Costa Rica on the other hand, did not turn out to be the bounty of wealth that is suggested by its name, the “rich coast”. Diego de Nicuesa was fist sent in 1506 by Ferdinand of Spain to colonize and govern the Atlantic coast. His people were slain by indigenous tribes that used guerrilla warfare and who willingly burnt their own crops to deny the conquistadors food. Gil Gonzalez Davila tried next in 1522 with some initial success in finding gold, which gave the country its name, but his group ultimately suffered sickness and starvation. A few other settlements were attempted following these failures, and they too were ultimately unsuccessful. For the next four decades, Costa Rica was virtually left alone. Pizarro conquered Peru in 1532, and an abundance of silver was found in Mexico, which took interest away from southern Central America. It was not until 1562 that Juan Vasquez de Coronado started a lasting European settlement in Costa Rica called Cartago. Cartago was different from other settlements in the New World, because there was very little native work force, and there were not enough resources to develop a slave market (Wilson, 1998). So the settlers, including Coronado, had to work the land themselves. “Spain closed the Costa Rican ports in 1655 in response to piracy, thereby cutting off seaborne sources of legal trade” (Baker, 2000). This slowed development further, and Cartago was no more than a small village an entire century after its establishment, with only a few adobe houses and one church, which were all destroyed by a volcano in 1723.
In the 18th century however, towns began to develop as people began to settle around churches. Wheat and tobacco was exported to help involve Costa Rica in the colonial economy, and encourage settlement, however, Costa Rican society developed in a unique way. Intermixing with the natives was not common in Costa Rica, as it was in most other Spanish settlements, and therefore a well defined class system based on race was not developed. The Costa Ricans had not had the benefit of slave labor, nor had they been subject to a strong ruling class. This leveling of the playing field spawned a “rural democracy” (Baker, 2000). Since the people of this area were far removed from the mainstream of Spanish culture, they became very individualistic and egalitarian.
Independence from Spain came to Central America on September 15, 1821, although it had very little immediate effect on Costa Rica. Costa Rica was already fairly distant from Spanish influence during the colonial era, and the news of independence did not even reach the country until a full month after the event took place. After independence was announced, the real power of the country rested in the hands of the separate towns of the area. Four cities emerged as independent political leaders, similar to the city-states of ancient Greece. The “conservative and aristocratic leaders of Cartago and Heredia soon found themselves at odds with the more progressive republican leaders of San Jos and Alajuela” (Baker, 2000). The republican leaders of San Jos came away victorious in the civil war of 1823, and from this moment on, liberalism had the upper hand in Costa Rica. Colonial institutions were weak in Costa Rica, so the country was able to modernize its economy without the baggage of the old world weighing it down. While conservative groups tied to the church fought civil wars against anticlerical liberals in other Central American countries, Costa Rica was able to “propel itself out of poverty and lay the foundations of democracy” (Baker, 2000). Costa Rica turned to social reform when its neighbors turned to repression, and the value placed on social reform has been important from the time of its independence, until the present.
The mid-eighteen hundreds were marked by the rule of an aristocracy dominated by coffee barons. Although the liberal qualities of the country were seen in the sponsoring of the freedom of press and education, the era was marred by power struggles between the coffee elite. It was not until April of 1870, when General Toms Guardia overthrew the government, that the Costa Rican tradition of progressive thinking and public services was put back into place. Guardia used the wealth that coffee produced to finance roads and public building, and to create a railway that could transport coffee from the central valley to the Atlantic coast. He also made primary education for both sexes obligatory and completely funded by the government. Under this administration the “aristocrats gradually came to understand that liberal, orderly, and stable regimes profited their business interests while the instability inherent in reliance on militarism was damaging to it” (Baker, 2000). Guardia’s administration moved the country toward democracy, and further promoted the progressive qualities that, to this day, set Costa Rica apart from its neighbors.
The shift to democracy was first witnessed in the election called by President Bernardo Soto in 1889. This election is commonly referred to as the first “honest” election. A well functioning electoral system was apparent when Soto, the man who called for the election, lost. When Soto decided not to recognize the new president, the Costa Ricans marched in the streets and protested until Soto stepped down. During the next two generations dictatorships at times replaced democratic administrations, but peace prevailed as the army stayed in its barracks. Alfredo Gonzales Flores became president in 1914, and he initiated a progressive taxing system based on income. This angered the elites, and Flores was ousted and replaced by an iron fisted dictator Tinoco. This type of rule lost support from the U.S. business, but more importantly, Costa Ricans had come to “accept liberty as their due” and they were no longer tolerant of oligarchic restrictions (Baker, 2000).
The support of progressive politics and liberalism united and stabilized the country until the depression of the 1920s and ‘30s. This period of malnutrition, unemployment, and poor working conditions led to calls for reform. The decade that followed is characterized by large-scale reform that shook up the system and led to the civil war of 1948, the major turning point in Costa Rican history. This age of reform was spawned by President Rafael Angel Caldern, who issued a series of farsighted reforms which included: a land reform that gave the landless title to the land that they cultivated, a guaranteed minimum wage, paid vacations, unemployment compensation, progressive taxation, and worker’s rights (Baker, 2000). Calderon was loved by the urban poor and leftists, but despised by the elite. However, World War II slowed the economy when the government was in need of much funding for these reforms. This led to frustration with Caldern’s administration, and the formation of a new party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The SDP allied itself with the traditional oligarchic elite, and the country was split, and tensions mounted. These tensions soon transformed into an all out civil war. During this civil war, a new player came on the scene—Figueres Ferrer otherwise known as “Don Pepe”.
This 42 year-old coffee farmer, engineer, economist, and philosopher stepped into the civil war and quickly took power with the support of the Guatemalan and Cuban government. Ferrer made sweeping reforms which shaped the Costa Rican government as we know it today. He “banned the Communist Party, introduced suffrage for women and full citizenship for blacks, revised the Constitution to outlaw a standing army (including his own), established a presidential term limit”, created an independent Electoral Tribunal to oversee future elections, and nationalized the banks and insurance companies (Baker, 2000). These reforms created social and economic progress, and Ferrer died a national hero in 1990.
Since these Socialist reforms following the civil war of 1948, Costa Rica has become even more recognizable in Central America. It has become a welfare state, with 90% of the population being employed by the government as of 1981 (Wilson, 1998). The absence of a standing army further distinguishes it from the rest of the world, and puts it in sharp contrast with the militaristic regimes of other Central American countries (Bird, 1984). The Costa Rican government has had to deal with conflict diplomatically, rather than with a strong military presence, and so far it has been successful (the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize went to Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez for his peace efforts in Central America). Its unique policies have not come without some unique problems however. In the 1980’s it found itself burdened with the world’s largest per-capita debt, and it became a base for Sandinistas and then for contra activities (Bird, 1984).
Presently Costa Rica remains quite distinct from its neighbors. The quality of life is the highest in Central America, and the absence of a standing army puts it on a diplomatic position reserved solely for itself in the Western hemisphere. As we have seen, this individuality did not come out of nowhere. There were several historic factors which have laid the foundation for such a distinctive political and social milieu. From Pre-Columbian times, through the colonial era, and through the emergence of a democratic nation, Costa Rica has followed its own lead and done things a little differently from the others.
Reference List
Baker, Christopher. Costa Rica, History, 2000.
Http://www.photo.net/cr/moon/history.html
Bird, Leonard A. Costa Rica: The Unarmed Democracy. London: Sheppard Press,
1984.
Helmuth, Chalene. Culture and Customs of Costa Rica. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood
Press, 2000.
Wilson, Bruce M. Costa Rica: Politics, Economics, and Democracy. Boulder-London:
Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998.
CIA—The World Factbook 2000—Costa Rica.
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/cs.html
For Further Info on this Topic, Check out this WWW Site: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/cs.html.
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