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HISTORY |
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Archeologists know almost nothing about the various people who
inhabited Costa Rica until about 1000 BC, though it is known that the
area was a corridor for merchants and trading expeditions between the
Mesoamerican empires to the north and the Andean empires to the south.
Excavations of pottery, jade and trade goods and accounts of cultural
traditions have shown that the pre-Columbian peoples of Costa Rica
adopted liberally from both areas.
When the Spaniards arrived in Costa Rica in the early sixteenth century
it was inhabited by as many as 27 different groups or clans. Most clans
were assigned names by the invaders, which they took from the cacique (chief)
with whom they dealt. Many of these groups had affinities with their
neighbours in Nicaragua to the north and Panamá to the south.
The arrival of the Spanish
On September 18, 1502, on his fourth and last voyage to the Americas,
Columbus sighted Costa Rica, and four years later King Ferdinand of
Spain despatched Diego de Nicuesa to govern what would become Costa
Rica. From the start his...
On September 18, 1502, on his fourth and last voyage to the Americas,
Columbus sighted Costa Rica, and four years later King Ferdinand of
Spain despatched Diego de Nicuesa to govern what would become Costa
Rica. From the start his mission was beset by hardship, beginning when
their ship ran aground on the coast of Panamá. Forced as a result to
walk up the Caribbean shore, the expedition met native people who,
unlike those who had welcomed Columbus tentatively but politely with
their shows of gold, instead burned their crops rather than submit to
the authority of the Spanish. This, together with the impenetrable
jungles - and the creatures who lived in them - and tropical diseases,
forced the expedition to turn back.
Next came Gil González in 1521-22, who sailed from Panamá, where Spanish
settlements had already been established, up the Pacific coast, which
offered safer anchorages. The indigenous peoples, meanwhile, began a
campaign of resistance that was to last nearly thirty years, employing
guerrilla tactics, full-scale flight, infanticide, attacks on colonist
settlements and burning their own villages. There were massacres,
defeats and submissions on both sides, but by 1540 Costa Rica was
officially a Royal Province of Spain, and a decade later the Conquest
was more or less complete.
Early settlers
It seems more appropriate to discuss Costa Rica's lack of colonial
experience, rather than a bona fide colonization. In 1562, Juan Vásquez
de Coronado became the second governor of Costa Rica. Coronado has
always been portrayed as...
It seems more appropriate to discuss Costa Rica's lack of colonial
experience, rather than a bona fide colonization. In 1562, Juan Vásquez
de Coronado became the second governor of Costa Rica. Coronado has
always been portrayed as the good guy, reputed for his favourable, if
not benevolent, treatment of the indigenous peoples he encountered in
his migration from the Pacific coast to the Valle Central. It was under
his administration that the first settlement of any size or importance
was established, and Cartago , in the heart of the Valle Central, became
capital. During the next century settlers confined themselves more or
less to the centre of the country. The Caribbean coast was the haunt of
buccaneers - mainly English - who put ashore and wintered here after
plundering the lucrative Spanish Main; the Pacific coast saw its share
of pirate activity too, most famously when Sir Francis Drake put ashore
briefly in the modern-day Bahía Drake in 1579.
This first epoch of the colony is remembered as one of unremitting
poverty . Within a decade of its invasion Costa Rica was notorious and
widely disparaged throughout the Spanish Empire for its lack of gold.
The land of the Valle Central was fertile, but there was uncertainty as
to which crops to grow. Coffee had not yet been imported to Costa Rica,
nor had tobacco, so it was to subsistence agriculture that most settlers
turned, growing just enough to live on. In 1719, the governor of Costa
Rica famously complained that he had to till his own land. To make
matters worse, Volcán Irazú blew its top in 1723, nearly destroying the
capital.
Independence
The nineteenth century was the most significant era in the development
of the modern nation state of Costa Rica. Initially, after 1821, when
Central America declared independence from Spain, freedom made little
difference to Costa...
The nineteenth century was the most significant era in the development
of the modern nation state of Costa Rica. Initially, after 1821, when
Central America declared independence from Spain, freedom made little
difference to Costa Ricans. Although status as a republic was granted in
the summer of 1823, the news did not reach Costa Rica until well into
the autumn, when a mule messenger arrived from Nicaragua to tell the
astonished citizens of Cartago the good news. A civil war promptly broke
out among the inhabitants of the Valle Central, dividing the citizens of
Alajuela and San José from those of Heredia and Cartago. This struggle
for power was won by the Alajuela-San José faction, and San José became
the capital city in 1823.
Costa Rica made remarkable progress in the latter half of the nineteenth
century, building roads, bridges, and railways and filling San José with
neo-Baroque, Europeanate edifices. Virtually all this activity was
fuelled by the coffee trade, bringing wealth that the settlers just a
century earlier could hardly have dreamed of. Today high-grade export
coffee is still popularly known as grano d'oro . The coffee bourgeoisie
played a vital role in the cultural and political development of the
country, and in 1848 the newly influential cafetaleros elected to the
presidency their chosen candidate, Juan Rafael Mora. Extremely
conservative and pro-trade, Mora came to distinguish himself in the
battle against the American-backed filibusterer William Walker in 1856.
The twentieth century
The first years of the twentieth century witnessed a difficult
transition towards democracy in Costa Rica. Universal male suffrage had
been in effect since the last years of the nineteenth century, but class
and power conflicts still dogged...
The first years of the twentieth century witnessed a difficult
transition towards democracy in Costa Rica. Universal male suffrage had
been in effect since the last years of the nineteenth century, but class
and power conflicts still dogged the country, with several caudillo (authoritarian)
leaders, familiar figures in other Latin American countries, hijacking
power. But in general these figures ended up in exile, and neither the
army nor the Church gained much of a foothold in politics.
With the election in 1940 of the Republican (PRN) candidate Rafael
Calderón Guardia , a doctor educated in part in Belgium and a devout
Catholic, came the social reforms and state support for which Costa Rica
is still almost unique in the region. In 1941 Calderón established a new
Labour Code , which reinstated the right of workers to organize and
strike, and a social security system providing free schooling for all.
Calderón also paved the way for the establishment of the University of
Costa Rica, health insurance, income security and assistance schemes,
and thus won the support of the impoverished and the lower classes and
the suspicion of the governing élites. One of those less than convinced
by Calderón's policies was the man who would come to be known as "Don
Pepe", the coffee farmer José Figueres Ferrer , who denounced Calderón
and his expensive reforms. Figueres soon formed an opposition party,
ideologically opposed to the PRN, calling them "communists". In March,
fighting around Cartago began, culminating in an attack by the Figueres
rebels on San José. Figueres wanted above all to engineer a complete
break with the country's past and especially the policies and legacies
of the Calderónistas. Seeing himself as fighting both communism and
corruption, he not only outlawed the PVP, the Popular Vanguard Party -
formerly known as the Communist Party - but also nationalized the banks
and devised a tax to hit the rich particularly hard, thus alienating the
establishment. A new constitution drawn up in 1949 gave full citizenship
to Afro-Caribbeans, full suffrage to women and abolished Costa Rica's
army in an attempt to save resources and limit political uncertainty in
the country.
The 1960s and 1970s were a period of prosperity and stability in Costa
Rica, during which the welfare state was developed to reach nearly all
sectors of society. In 1977 the indigenous bill established the right of
aboriginal peoples to their own land reserves - a progressive measure at
the time, although indigenous peoples today are not convinced the system
has served them well.
Storm in the isthmus: The 1980s
Against all odds, Costa Rica in the 1980s and 1990s not only saw its way
through the serious political conflicts of its neighbours, but also
successfully managed predatory US interventionism, economic crisis and
staggering debt. Like many Latin...
Against all odds, Costa Rica in the 1980s and 1990s not only saw its way
through the serious political conflicts of its neighbours, but also
successfully managed predatory US interventionism, economic crisis and
staggering debt.
Like many Latin American countries, Costa Rica had taken out bank and
government loans in the 1960s and 1970s to finance vital development.
But in the early 1980s, the slump of prices for coffee and bananas put
the country's current account in the red to the tune of millions. In
September 1981, Costa Rica defaulted on its interest payment on these
loans, becoming the first Third-World country to do so, and sparking off
a chain of similar defaults in Latin America that resonated throughout
the 1980s and threw the international banking community into crisis.
Despite its defaults, Costa Rica's debt continued to accumulate, and by
1989 had reached a staggering US$5 billion, one of the highest per
capita debt loads in the world.
To compound the economic crisis came the simultaneous political
escalation of the Nicaraguan Civil War . During the entire decade, Costa
Rica's foreign policy and to an extent its domestic agenda would be
overshadowed by tensions with Nicaragua on the one hand and with the US
on the other. Initially, the Monge PLN administration (1982?86) more or
less capitulated to US demands that Costa Rica be used as a supply line
for the Contras, and Costa Rica also accepted military training for its
police force from the US. Simultaneously, the country's first agreement
for a structural adjustment loan with the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) was signed. It seemed increasingly clear that Costa Rica was on
the path both to violating its declared neutrality in the conflicts of
its neighbours and to condemning its population to wage freezes, price
increases and other side-effects associated with IMF intervention.
In 1986 PLN candidate Oscar Arias Sánchez was elected to the presidency,
and Costa Rica's relations with the US ? and, by association, with
Nicaragua ? took a different tack. The former political scientist began
to play the role of peace broker in the conflicts of Nicaragua, El
Salvador, and, to a lesser extent, Honduras and Guatemala, mediating
between these countries and also between domestic factions within them.
In October 1987, just eighteen months after taking office, Arias was
awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace , bringing worldwide attention to this
tiny country.
Though Arias had gained the admiration of political leaders around the
world, he proved to be less than popular at home. Many Costa Ricans saw
him as diverting valuable resources and time to foreign affairs when he
should have been paying attention to the domestic agenda, while
increasing prices caused by the IMF's economic demands meant that
conditions in Costa Rica were not much improved
The 1990s
Until 1994, elections in Costa Rica had been relatively genteel affairs,
involving lots of flag-waving and displays of national pride in
democratic traditions. The elections of that year, however, were
probably the dirtiest to date. The campaign opened...
Until 1994, elections in Costa Rica had been relatively genteel affairs,
involving lots of flag-waving and displays of national pride in
democratic traditions. The elections of that year, however, were
probably the dirtiest to date. The campaign opened and closed with an
unprecedented bout of mudslinging and attempts to smear the reputations
of both candidates, tactics which shocked many Costa Ricans. The PLN
candidate - the choice of the left, for his promises to maintain the
role of the state in the economy - was none other than José María
Figueres , the son of Don Pepe, who had died four years previously.
During the campaign Figueres was accused of shady investment rackets and
influence-peddling. His free-market PUSC opposition candidate, Miguel
Angel Rodriguez, fared no better, having admitted to being involved in a
tainted-beef scandal in the 1980s. Figueres won, narrowly, though his
term in office was plagued by a series of scandals. On a more positive
note, in January 1995, a Free Trade agreement was signed with Mexico in
order to try to redress the lack of preference given to Costa Rican
goods in the US market by the signing of NAFTA. Costa Rica's economy
received a further shot in the arm in 1996 when the communications giant
INTEL chose the country for the site of their new factory in Latin
America, creating thousands of jobs.
In February 1998 PUSC candidate Dr Miguel Angel Rodriguez was elected
president, thus reinforcing the trend in Costa Rican politics for the
past half-century, wherein power has been traded more or less evenly
between the PLN and the PUSC. The new government committed itself to
solving Costa Rica's most pressing problems, making improvements to the
country's dreadful road system top priority, but financing this and
other major public works by private investment. Increasingly, courting
private money and catering to foreign interests are the order of the day.
Still, problems dog the economy in the shape of increasing balance of
payments difficulties, as well as pressures on the banana market from
Ecuador's growing competition - banana plantation labour in Ecuador
costs US$3 a day, compared to US$18 in Costa Rica.
The future
Costa Rica's economic future rides on a wave created in the past, a
constant see-sawing between the price of the country's bananas and
coffee on world markets and the amount it pays for imports. Still, the
economy continues to grow, in large part fuelled...
Costa Rica's economic future rides on a wave created in the past, a
constant see-sawing between the price of the country's bananas and
coffee on world markets and the amount it pays for imports. Still, the
economy continues to grow, in large part fuelled by tourism , and the
government is beginning to claw back the massive public sector deficit
through increased taxation, both on basic services like electricity and
water and on restaurant meals and hotel bills.
As the Costa Rican economy grows, however, so do other indicators:
inflation runs around 17 percent, while the annual population growth is
as high as 3.2 percent per annum - Costa Rica has the highest rural
population density in Latin America, and there is tremendous pressure on
land. The prognosis for the campesino, that now nearly forgotten former
backbone of the country, is not good, as peasant agriculture becomes
increasingly anachronistic in the face of the big banana, coffee,
palmito and pineapple plantations. Furthermore, the burden of the
welfare state in Costa Rica has become increasingly difficult for the
state to carry. High external debts to service the country's respected
system of social welfare mean that a staggering 30 percent of the
government budget goes on keeping up interest payments to foreign banks.
Meanwhile, the prognosis for the environment could be bleak if the
authorities continue their strategy of attracting large hotel and
development groups. Even bleaker is the fact that in recent years the
country has gained a reputation as a sex tourism destination, with
increasing evidence that minors are involved in the business. Even so,
the country's legal and judicial institutions are doing their best to
combat the country's most pressing social problems, such as drug
trafficking, domestic violence and increasing crime and disorder. |
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