Costa Rica
Costa Rica is a country in Central America, bordering Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south. In Spanish, Costa Rica “rich coast”. Since the civil war in 1948, Costa Rica, unlike most other Central American countries have been free of political violence. Costa Rica has since been known to be the country without an army when it was disbanded after the civil war.
History of Costa Rica
The first European to set foot in Costa Rica was Christopher Columbus landed on the coast of the 1502nd Prior to that time Costa Rica a part of the territory lying between the great civilizations of South America and in the Mexican territory. Costa Rica was conquered by Spain during the 1600s and was the southernmost province of New Spain. The country was very poor and even the governor had to grow his own crops to survive.
Costa Rica Colibri
In 1821 Costa Rica declared along with the other Central American countries independence from Spain. After a brief transition to have been part of the Mexican empire, it was 1823 a part of the United Central American states in order to ultimately become independent in 1838.
Since then, Costa Rica has been a relatively peaceful country with only two periods of civil unrest. First time in 1917-19 when the dictator Federico Tinoco Granados was in power. And the second time in 1948 when a military junta with José Figueres Ferrer in spider took power after a disputed election. The military junta did, however, a free constitution which guaranteed voting rights for all, and then disbanded the army in 1949. Figueres was elected the first president under the new constitution.
Today Costa Rica is still largely an agricultural country, but also has a tourist industry for strong growth.
Cote DIvoire & Coral Sea Islands
