Who discovered the “Rich Coast”?

It was the famous Christopher Columbus who discovered Costa Rica in 1502. It was then that he made his final journey in this field. This great explorer then lost his superlative due to contracting rather severe dementia. He then sought a “secret route” to Jerusalem.

He reached the shores of Uvita Island (not far from Limon Province) and inspected the condition of the boat before continuing his voyage. He was greeted by locals (Kiribli Indians) who provided the crew with many beautiful fabrics. Columbus then fell in love with the lush landscape. He named the island La Huerta (meaning garden). He then left without even tracking him down, arriving on the coast of Costa Rica.

Seventeen years later, the conquistadors reached La Huerta and continued their expedition to reach Costa Rica. They built Panama City and moved south under the leadership of Hernan Ponce de León and Juan de Castañeda, followed by Diego de Niqueza. Diego de Niqueza was given control of parts of Colombia and Venezuela and devoted himself to his territory. As a result, Diego de Niquesa’s name is not significant in local history. However, it marks the beginning of Spanish colonization. In 1522, the first formal establishment took place in Costa Rica. Exploration of the territory began in 1539 by Hernan Sánchez de Badajoz. However, the area was never of interest to explorers, as mineral resources were very limited. This explains the slow conquest of the country, even though Indian resistance remains weak.

However, full-scale colonization began in 1561. Evangelism has also begun. Spain offered fairly flexible governance and installed a small number of settlers. They also encountered very weak Indian resistance, so few revolts except those led by King Garavito.

Juan Vazquez de Coronado made several incursions from Nicaragua as early as 1562, the Cordillera de he explored Talamanca (near the province of Limon).
This country was a Spanish colony until 1704. After that, with the collapse of the Spanish Empire, the struggle for succession intensified in Europe. These issues clearly had a large impact on the colony and, by extension, Costa Rica.

At that time, the country had complete autonomy. For residents left alone, the problem is becoming increasingly difficult to face. Nevertheless, his two towns of Kubujuqui (Heredia) and Villa Nueva de Boca del Monte (San José) were built.

Over time, the importance of Spain has weighed heavily on its inhabitants. This led them to gain her independence in 1821 (without much difficulty). A period of political instability ensued and ended when Juan Mora Hernández took power. The country became part of the Federal Republic of Central America. It remained one of the Five United States before leaving that coalition a few years later.

Civil war broke out in 1825, beginning a new period of political instability. Juan Mora Fernández he became the country’s first president in 1825 and introduced peace-seeking reforms. Mora moved his capital to San Jose. In the 18 years since Mora resigned in 1833, there have been 11 heads of state (Presidents of Costa Rica)!

Let’s not forget to mention William Walker, an American who wanted to conquer several countries in Latin America, who participated in the national campaign of Costa Rica.

At the end of the 19th century, democracy was established through presidential elections. However, the measures taken by the government were not well received, and in 1917 Federico Tinoco took over the government and established a dictatorship. This will be deprecated in a few years. Costa Rica bore the brunt of the crisis of 1929 and saw the birth of the Communist Party, which had a great influence on its leaders.

However, this did not stop the people from demonstrating and several crises followed.The most important civil war claimed more than 2000 lives. José Figueres Ferrer then took command and calmed the inhabitants. He took over leadership of the country and was re-elected President of Costa Rica several times. Other presidents followed, including T. Picado Michalski (not to be confused with Picado Twight, the famous scientist he is). Picado had to flee to Nicaragua due to corruption problems.