Costa Rica history

Costa Rica’s first inhabitants likely arrived around 10,000 BC, though the only real evidence is a lone flint arrowhead dug up in Guanacaste in the 1890s. Before 1000 BC, almost nothing is known about the region’s early peoples — no written records, barely any archaeological sites. What little we do know comes from digs at Monumento Nacional Guayabo in the Valle Central, where remnants of an ancient city hint at a once-thriving civilization.

Costa Rica before the Spanish

Pre-Columbian Costa Rica was a crossroads — a trading hub between the Mesoamerican empires to the north and the Incas to the south. Excavations of pottery, jade, and other trade goods show a mix of influences from both cultures.

By the early 1500s, when the Spanish arrived, as many as 27 indigenous groups lived here. The invaders often named them after the cacique (chief) they first encountered. The Catapas, Votos, and Suerres lived in the Zona Norte, while the Cabécars and Guayamís controlled the Talamanca region, stretching south to the Osa Peninsula. The Térrabas and Boruca lived in the Valle de Diquís and Valle de El General, while the Huetars dominated the Valle Central. Guanacaste, then the most densely populated region, was home to the Chorotegas and Nicoyans — the Chorotegas, in particular, showing Olmec influences from Mexico. Meanwhile, groups in the extreme south and Osa Peninsula had strong ties to Panama and Colombia.

Clan society

Pre-Columbian Costa Rica was in a near-constant state of warfare, but unlike the empire-building campaigns of the Aztecs and Incas, battles here weren’t about expanding territory. Instead, clans fought to capture enslaved people, secure marriage partners, or take revenge. No single group ever dominated, and the political landscape remained fairly static for centuries — much like the forest tribes of the Amazon.

Religion was highly complex. Shamans, key figures in society, led funeral rites, especially among the Talamancan groups. Many clans followed animal taboos, with certain species off-limits for hunting — creating a delicate ecological balance. The jaguar was universally revered and only hunted for shamanic rituals, with its pelt and teeth considered sacred.

Gender roles followed familiar patterns — men waged war and led religious ceremonies, while women handled domestic duties. But there were exceptions. Boruca women fought alongside men, and the Votos of the Zona Norte regularly had female chiefs. Inheritance was often matrilineal, with names and important objects passed down through the mother’s line.

People lived communally in stockaded villages, or palenques, as the Spanish called them. Large, kibbutz-like big-houses sheltered entire groups, not just blood relatives. Labor was shared — organized into work “gangs” that tackled farming and construction. Land was usually held in common, and harvests were shared to ensure everyone survived.

Among these groups, the Chorotegas of Guanacaste stood out for their cultural achievements. They had a written, symbol-based language and traded goods like honey, natural dyes, and cotton. Compared to the rest of pre-Columbian Costa Rica, they were ahead of their time.

Costa Rica “discovered”

On September 18, 1502, during his fourth and final voyage, Christopher Columbus spotted Costa Rica. After battling a storm, he anchored off Isla Uvita, near present-day Puerto Limón. His crew stayed for 17 days, making brief forays into the dense jungle and small villages. The indigenous people they met wore gold jewelry — headbands, mirrored breastplates, bracelets — leading Columbus to believe he had found a land of riches. In reality, the gold had been acquired through trade or warfare; the actual source lay far to the southwest, in the Valle de Diquís, beyond the near-impenetrable Cordillera de Talamanca.

Chasing these dreams of wealth, Spain sent Diego de Nicuesa in 1506 to govern the region. His mission was doomed from the start. After his ship ran aground in Panama, his men were forced to march up the Caribbean coast, where they met fierce resistance. Unlike the people Columbus had encountered, these indigenous groups burned their own crops rather than submit. The relentless jungle, deadly diseases, and constant attacks forced Nicuesa to abandon the expedition.

Then came Gil González Dávila in 1521, focusing on Costa Rica’s more navigable Pacific coast. His expedition covered nearly the entire coastline on foot, baptizing thousands along the way — one priest later claimed 32,000 conversions in the name of the Spanish king. But resistance was fierce. Indigenous groups fought back with guerrilla tactics, burning villages, attacking settlements, and even committing infanticide to deny the Spanish future captives. The fighting dragged on for nearly 30 years.

By 1540, Spain officially declared Costa Rica a Royal Province, and within a decade, the conquest was largely complete. Most of the country had been explored and settled — except for the Talamanca region, which remained a mystery for centuries.

Indigenous people in the colonial period

In the early years of Spanish rule, Costa Rica’s indigenous groups met different fates. Larger settlements, like those of the Chorotegas, were easy targets — many were enslaved and forced to work in mines, build colonial towns, or labor on farms. More scattered groups, however, fled into the remote Talamanca mountains, avoiding direct Spanish control. But the real conquerors weren’t soldiers — they were smallpox, influenza, and measles. Pandemics wiped out entire communities, including the devastating Great Pandemic of 1611–60. Colonial censuses were unreliable, but in 1563, an estimated 80,000 indigenous people lived in Costa Rica. By 1714, the official count had dropped to just 999. Today, less than 2% of Costa Rica’s population identifies as indigenous.

In 1560, Juan de Cavallón and Juan Vásquez de Coronado became the first true conquistadors to penetrate the Valle Central, which would become the heart of Spanish Costa Rica. As elsewhere in the Americas, the Spanish played local groups against each other, using native allies from the Valle Central to dominate the Pacific coast.

The encomienda system

The Spanish quickly established the encomienda, a system granting conquistadors the right to demand labor or tribute from indigenous people. In Costa Rica, all indigenous males aged 18-50 — and to a lesser extent, women — were required to work or provide goods like cacao, corn, honey, and chili peppers.

Resistance was fierce. Many indigenous groups fought servitude, and even within colonial society, there was some opposition. In 1542, influenced by the fiery appeals of Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, the Spanish Crown passed the New Laws, which theoretically required colonizers to "protect" indigenous people. In 1711, the Bishop of Nicaragua, Fray Benito Garret y Arlovi, even reported the Costa Rican governor for brutality. But in reality, these laws did little to change the treatment of indigenous communities on the ground.

The early settlers

In 1562, Juan Vásquez de Coronado — known for his relatively fair treatment of indigenous peoples — became Costa Rica’s second governor. Under his leadership, the first major settlement, Cartago, was founded in the Valle Central and made the colony’s capital. For the next century, settlers remained largely in the central highlands, while the Caribbean coast became a haven for English buccaneers, and the Pacific saw its share of pirate raids — including a brief visit from Sir Francis Drake in 1579.

Life in early colonial Costa Rica was defined by hardship. Within a decade, the colony was infamous in the Spanish Empire for its lack of gold. Unlike the wealthier colonies to the north and south, Costa Rican settlers never became aristocrats — they battled disease, hunger, and hostile terrain instead. With no gold and no established cash crops like coffee or tobacco, most turned to subsistence farming. Trade was so scarce that by 1709, settlers were using cacao beans as currency and wearing clothes made from goat hair and tree bark. In 1719, the governor famously complained that he had to farm his own land.

Despite these struggles, small settlements slowly emerged: Cubujuquí (now Heredia) in 1706, Villa Nueva de la Boca del Monte (now San José) in 1737, and Villa Hermosa (now Alajuela) in 1782.

Beginnings of a national identity

The settlers of early Costa Rica — tough, independent farmers — are often credited as the roots of the country’s modern egalitarianism. However, while most colonists were equally poor, social distinctions still mattered. Given the chance, the ruling class likely would have imposed a system of indentured labor on the mestizo population, as happened elsewhere in Central America.

Two key factors later shaped Costa Rica’s identity. First, coffee became the country’s main export — unlike sugar or cattle, it was a crop suited to small farms rather than sprawling haciendas, keeping wealth more evenly distributed. Second, the colony’s population was overwhelmingly of Spanish descent, with far fewer indigenous or mestizo communities than in neighboring countries. As a result, the ruling elite saw them as hermaniticos — "little brothers"— rather than a lower class, reinforcing a sense of shared national identity.

Independence and prosperity

The 19th century was a turning point for Costa Rica. When Central America declared independence from Spain in 1821, it barely changed life for Costa Ricans. Spain had largely ignored its poor, isolated province, and when news of independence finally arrived — by mule, a month later — celebrations quickly turned into a civil war. The Valle Central split, with Alajuela and San José fighting against Heredia and Cartago. The Alajuela-San José faction won, and in 1823, San José was declared the capital.

The rise of coffee

Costa Rica’s transformation in the latter half of the 19th century — roads, bridges, railways, and a European-style San José — was powered by coffee. Though introduced in 1779, coffee only took off after Jamaican beans were planted in the Valle Central in 1808. The climate proved perfect, and by 1820, Cartago’s residents were actively encouraged — if not outright ordered — to grow it.

The game-changer came in 1844, thanks to English merchant William Le Lacheur. Arriving in Puntarenas with an empty cargo hold, he traveled to the Valle Central and secured a shipment of coffee beans on credit, promising to return in two years with payment. Before this, Costa Rican coffee was sent on a long detour to Chile, mixed with lower-grade beans, and rebranded as Café de Valparaíso before reaching England. Le Lacheur’s direct shipment introduced British consumers to Costa Rica’s smooth, high-quality beans, sparking a lucrative trade. Soon, the country’s elite were dining with Sheffield steel cutlery and wearing Manchester linens.

The coffee boom shaped Costa Rica’s political landscape. A powerful coffee bourgeoisie emerged, and in 1848, they elected their man: Juan Rafael Mora. Conservative and pro-trade, Mora later became a national hero for leading Costa Rica’s resistance against the American-backed filibuster William Walker in 1856 — only to be executed in 1860 after falling from power.

The early twentieth century

The early 1900s saw Costa Rica struggle toward democracy. Universal male suffrage was introduced in the late 19th century, but power struggles and caudillo-style (authoritarian) leaders still disrupted politics. Unlike much of Latin America, though, neither the military nor the Catholic Church gained lasting political control.

Inspired by the Russian Revolution, radical labor movements emerged in the 1920s. But governments — regardless of political leanings — consistently opposed workers’ rights, starting with a 1924 law that outlawed most strikes. In 1931, the Communist Party was formed, followed by the conservative National Republican Party (PRN) in 1932. The PRN dominated the 1940s, led by its candidate Rafael Calderón Guardia, a Belgian-educated doctor and devout Catholic.

Calderón’s presidency transformed Costa Rica. In 1941, he introduced a groundbreaking Labor Code, reinstating workers’ right to organize and strike. He also expanded social security, guaranteeing free education, health insurance, and income support — policies that set Costa Rica apart in the region. These reforms won him support from the poor but alienated the elite. One vocal critic was coffee farmer José “Don Pepe” Figueres Ferrer, who condemned Calderón’s policies in a 1941 radio address. His reward? Exile to Mexico, where he quietly planned his return.

The “revolution” of 1948 and after

The 1948 elections triggered one of the most turbulent years in Costa Rica’s history. Since presidents couldn’t serve consecutive terms, the race was between Teodorico Picado — a Calderón loyalist — and Otilio Ulate Blanco, backed by José "Don Pepe" Figueres. Ulate won, but the PRN-controlled Congress annulled the results.

Figueres, now a key opposition leader, saw this as a direct attack on democracy. In March, fighting erupted around Cartago, culminating in a rebel assault on San José. While Figueres’ forces had weapons — some supplied through CIA contacts — the national army was weak, relying on machete-wielding banana workers for reinforcements. By mid-April, 2,000 people were dead, and the rebels had won. Figueres took power in May as head of the Junta of the Second Republic.

Don Pepe takes control

Determined to break from Costa Rica’s past, Figueres banned the Communist Party, nationalized the banks, and imposed a tax on the wealthy — alienating the establishment. The 1949 constitution enshrined universal suffrage, granted full citizenship to African-Caribbeans, and officially abolished the military. While this decision is often romanticized, Figueres’ motives were pragmatic: cutting military spending reduced the risk of coups, a common Latin American problem. Instead, security was left to a well-equipped police force, and in later decades, paramilitary groups like the Free Costa Rica Movement (MCRL) emerged, some accused of tactics resembling Central American death squads.

In 1951, Figueres founded the National Liberation Party (PLN) to secure a legitimate return to power. A political master, he won over small farmers, urban workers (by maintaining the welfare state), and the business elite (with his pro-market, anti-communist stance).

The 1960s and 1970s

The following decades brought prosperity and stability. The welfare state expanded, reaching nearly all Costa Ricans. In 1977, the Indigenous Bill granted land reserves to native groups — a progressive move at the time, though many indigenous communities today argue it hasn’t served them well.

By the late 1970s, regional conflicts overshadowed domestic policy. President Rodrigo Carazo (1978-82) openly supported the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, which ended the 40-year Somoza dictatorship. With tensions rising across Central America, Costa Rica’s attention shifted outward, setting the stage for its future role as a peace broker in the region.

Storm in the isthmus: the 1980s

Against the odds, Costa Rica weathered the political chaos of its neighbors, US interventionism, and a crushing economic crisis during the 1980s. Like much of Latin America, it had taken out loans in the ’60s and ’70s for development projects, but when coffee and banana prices crashed, the economy spiraled. In September 1981, Costa Rica became the first developing country to default on its interest payments, setting off a wave of defaults across the region and plunging international banks into crisis. By 1989, Costa Rica’s debt had ballooned to $5 billion—one of the highest per capita in the world.

Involvement in the Nicaragua conflict

As if economic turmoil wasn’t enough, Costa Rica was pulled into the escalating Nicaraguan Civil War. The US-backed Contras, fighting to overthrow the Sandinista government, used Costa Rica as a supply line — often with tacit approval from the Monge administration (1982-86). The US trained Costa Rica’s police force, and the government signed its first structural adjustment deal with the IMF, leading to wage freezes and rising prices.

Then came the La Penca bombing in May 1984. During a press conference held by Contra leader Edén Pastora on the Río San Juan, a disguised bomber detonated an explosive inside a camera case. The blast, meant to kill everyone inside, was partially deflected by a last-minute mishap, saving Pastora’s life. The attack remains a mystery — suspects range from the CIA to Argentine mercenaries — but the goal was clear: destabilize Nicaragua further by blaming the Sandinistas. The attack shocked Costa Rica into paying closer attention to the regional wars unfolding on its doorstep.

The Arias peace plan

In 1986, former political scientist Óscar Arias Sánchez won the presidency, shifting Costa Rica’s approach to the region. Rather than bowing to US demands, Arias positioned himself as a mediator, working to broker peace across Central America. By October 1987 — just 18 months into office — he had secured the Nobel Peace Prize, elevating Costa Rica’s diplomatic standing.

His peace plan aimed to stabilize the region through ceasefires, an end to US military aid to the Contras, political amnesties, and free elections. But while the Nobel Prize made headlines, the negotiations dragged on through 1987 and 1988, bogged down by accusations of noncompliance. The situation worsened when the US stationed troops in Honduras, preparing to strike Nicaragua. Meanwhile, Washington pressured Costa Rica to allow "humanitarian aid" to pass through its territory — effectively resupplying the Contras. Arias, leveraging his newfound diplomatic clout, met with President George Bush in April 1988 and secured millions in US aid for Costa Rica — without fully compromising the country’s neutrality.

While Arias stood firm on not letting Costa Rica become a base for attacks on Nicaragua, he was less concerned with what was happening to the south. By July 1989, CIA-backed guerrilla forces gathered along the Costa Rica-Panama border, readying for the US invasion of Panama in December.

At home, Arias wasn’t as popular. Many Costa Ricans felt he was too focused on international diplomacy while neglecting domestic issues. Economic conditions remained dire, with IMF-imposed austerity measures keeping prices high and living standards low. By the decade’s end, Costa Rica had won global respect — but at home, frustrations were growing.

The 1990s

In 1990, Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier — son of former president Calderón Guardia — won the presidency. A key figure in consolidating the opposition, he helped shape the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC), a pro-free-market party. His presidency was soon overshadowed by disaster: in 1991, a massive earthquake struck Limón Province, killing 62 people and causing widespread damage — the most powerful quake since the one that leveled Cartago in 1910. 

Meanwhile, Costa Rica saw an influx of refugees from war-torn El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, straining resources and stoking tensions. Adding to the troubles, in 1992 Costa Rica faced a lawsuit in US courts over its failure to comply with international labor laws, a long-standing blemish on its reputation.

A bitter election and economic shifts

Costa Rican elections had traditionally been civil affairs, full of flag-waving and national pride. But 1994 saw one of the country’s dirtiest campaigns. The Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN) candidate was José María Figueres — son of the legendary "Don Pepe" Figueres, who had died in 1990. Figueres, running as a left-leaning candidate promising to uphold state involvement in the economy, was accused of shady investments and influence peddling. His opponent, free-market advocate Dr. Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (PUSC), had his own baggage — he was linked to a tainted-beef scandal in the 1980s. Figueres won by a narrow margin, but his presidency was plagued by corruption scandals.

Despite the political turbulence, Costa Rica made significant economic moves. In 1995, it signed a Free Trade Agreement with Mexico, hoping to counterbalance the lack of preferential treatment for Costa Rican goods under NAFTA. A major economic boost came in 1996 when tech giant Intel chose Costa Rica as the site for its new Latin American factory, generating thousands of jobs and marking the country’s shift toward a more diversified, high-tech economy.

Power swings back to PUSC

In 1998, the presidency returned to PUSC as Dr. Miguel Ángel Rodríguez was elected. The long-standing pattern of power alternating between PLN and PUSC continued. His administration focused on tackling Costa Rica’s biggest infrastructure problem — its crumbling road system — by seeking private (often foreign) investment to finance major public works projects.

The new millennium

In 2002, Abel Pacheco de Espriella, a psychiatrist from the PUSC, became president — the first time the party had won back-to-back elections. His term was dominated by fierce debate over CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the US. While Pacheco signed Costa Rica onto the deal alongside other Central American nations, public opposition stalled ratification. Meanwhile, in 2004, the country’s reputation for clean governance took a hit when three former presidents — Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier, José María Figueres, and Miguel Ángel Rodríguez — were accused of accepting illegal kickbacks.

The return of Arias and the CAFTA battle

In 2006, Óscar Arias Sánchez was elected for a second term, narrowly defeating Ottón Solís of the Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC), a relatively new political force. The election hinged on CAFTA — Arias was strongly in favor, while Solís opposed it. The issue split the country, sparking nationwide protests and leading to Costa Rica’s first national referendum in 2007. The "Sí" vote won by just over 51%, but the drawn-out political fight meant Arias spent much of his term pushing the agreement through Congress. Costa Rica officially entered CAFTA in January 2009, though bureaucratic delays meant the final legal provisions weren’t ratified until May 2010.

That same year, a powerful earthquake struck the Valle Central — the strongest in over 150 years.

Laura Chinchilla and the rise of drug cartels

Laura Chinchilla (PLN) won the 2010 election, becoming Costa Rica’s first female president. While she promised to continue free-market policies, her main focus was tackling violent crime, which had surged as Mexican and Colombian cartels increasingly used Costa Rica as a transit hub. By 2010, the US had placed Costa Rica on its list of the top 20 drug-trafficking countries. Chinchilla strengthened regional ties, visiting Mexico and Central American nations to coordinate anti-crime efforts.

However, her presidency was overshadowed by scandal. In 2013, just weeks after lobbying President Obama for US aid in the drug war, she faced a corruption storm of her own. It emerged that she had used a private jet linked to drug trafficking, leading to the resignation of top security officials — including Mauricio Boraschi, the country’s anti-drugs commissioner.

The 2014 and 2018 elections

Chinchilla’s term ended in disappointment, marred by failed infrastructure projects and the lowest approval ratings in decades. Corruption dominated the 2014 election campaign, helping PAC’s Luis Guillermo Solís to a surprise victory over PLN candidate Johnny Araya. Solís promised to tackle growing inequality — one of the worst in Latin America — while also addressing the influence of drug cartels, a mounting public debt (over 50% of GDP), and tensions with Nicaragua over border disputes and migration.

His policies faced initial resistance, but the 2018 election suggested public approval of PAC’s direction. Carlos Alvarado, also from PAC, won in a landslide with nearly 61% of the vote. His administration championed liberal policies, including ambitious plans to decarbonize Costa Rica by 2050. On same-sex marriage, Alvarado walked a careful line — he didn’t actively push legalization but accepted the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ ruling that Costa Rica must formally recognize same-sex unions.

Costa Rica in the 2020s

Costa Rica’s positive trajectory took a major hit with the COVID-19 pandemic. The economy — especially tourism — was battered, with international visitor numbers plummeting in 2020. Pre-pandemic projections had anticipated 2% growth in the tourism sector, but instead, the industry ground to a halt. By early 2022, signs of recovery were emerging, though it remained a long road back to 2019 levels.

On a brighter note, Costa Rica continued to lead in sustainability. In 2020, 99% of its energy came from renewable sources, and the government pushed ahead with plans to achieve net-zero emissions in transport by 2050. Despite economic setbacks, Costa Rica’s reputation as a global leader in environmental policy remained intact.