The history of Costa Rica

 

During his fourth voyage in 1502 Christopher Columbus visited Costa Rica and the Spanish did not conquer it yet. But years later in 1564 the Spanish founded its first settlement thatchy ended up calling it Cartago. Costa Rica did not use Spain's slave labor system and instead the people of Spanish Costa Rica lived on growing tobacco and cacao. After Mexico declared independence from Spain in 1821 Costa Rica joined them in the First Mexican Empire but then that failed but in 1823 they joined and became a member of United Provinces of Central America. 23 years later due to political differences the United Provinces of Central America collapsed leaving Costa Rica independent. 

During the 19th century Costa Rica got into some disputes with other nations. later in 1825 after Guanacaste succeeded from Nicaragua and became a Costa Rica territory shortly after. A filbuster named  William Walker and he was not really liked by Costa Rica and a couple other nations. Costa Rica teamed up with Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador and defeated Walker's army and made him go back to the U.S. With the high rise of the export of coffee Costa Rica's transportation was lacking a bit and investor Minor C. Keith wanted to change that. He connected cities like Cartago and Limón and by doing this he made a lot of money off of it. Also after connecting cities and improving transportation Keith also grew bananas which led to them being Costa Rica newest top export. 

In 1948 a civil war broke out in Costa Rica after the former president made a plan to not let the president elect take office. A year later in 1949 the war was over and the president elect Josè Figueres was finally able to take office as the president. A side effect of the civil war resulted in military being abolished but a couple good things were abolished institutionalized racism along with more power being granted to state corporations.