Costa Rica Real Estate And Living

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DURING SPANISH COLONIAL TIMES a contributing factor to the continuing poverty in Costa Rica was the lack of local indigenous population to utilize for forced labor. While many of the Spanish in the the other colonies had tribal members to work as free or forced labor on their land, most Costa Rican settlers had to do the work on their own property. For these reasons, Costa Rica was mainly unappreciated and overlooked by the 'Crown' and were left to develop on their own. It is commonly thought that the circumstances during this time in it's history led to the formation of many of the idiosyncrasies that Costa Rica has developed while, at the same time, setting the stage for Costa Rica's change to a more egalitarian type society than the rest of Central America. Costa Rica has become a democracy with no oppressed indigenous type class. It was not very long before the Spanish invaders (now calling themselves settlers) turned to the higher terrain, where they came upon a rich volcanic type soil and a much more mild climate then that of the valleys and lower land near the coasts.

In 1821 Costa Rica

joined with the other Central American provinces in a declaration of their independence from Mother Spain. After a brief stint as part of the Mexican Empire of 'Agustín de Iturbide' Costa Rica became one state in the 'Federal Republic of Central America' where it stayed from 1823 until 1839. The capital was moved to San José in 1824. Due to an intense rivalry between San Jose and Cartago, a brief period of violence ensued. The now independent provinces formed a loose Federation, though border disputes commonly occurred between them, which added to the turbulent history and conditions in the region.

Membership in the new Federal Republic of Central America, free of Spanish rule, was short; in 1838, long after the Central American Federation ceased to function in practice, Costa Rica withdrew officially and proclaimed itself independent. The distance from Guatemala City to Costa Rica's Central Valley, where most of the population resided (and continues to live), was far. The local population was not strongly allied with the government in Guatemala City, partly due to it's history of isolation during Colonial times. Costa Rica's lack of interest in participating as a province in the greater Central American government was one of the main factors in the break up of the new federation into separate states, which exist today. That said, all of Central American countries continue to celebrate September 15th as independence day, which refers to the day of the independence of Central America from Mother Spain.

Most Afro-Costa Ricans, who constitute about 3% of the country's population, descend from Jamaican immigrants who arrived during the 1880s to work in the construction of railways connecting the urban populations of the Central Plateau to the port of Limón on the Caribbean coast. US convicts and Chinese immigrants also participated in the construction project, conducted by US businessman Minor C. Keith. In exchange for completing the railroad, the Costa Rican government granted Keith large tracts of land and a lease on the train route, which he used to produce bananas and export them to the United States. As a result, bananas came to rival coffee as the principal Costa Rican export, while foreign-owned corporations (including the United Fruit Company) began to hold a major role in the national economy.

HISTORICALLY SPEAKING

Costa Rica has generally enjoyed greater peace and more consistent political stability compared with many of its fellow Latin American nations. Since the late nineteenth century, however, Costa Rica has experienced two significant periods of violence. In 1917-19, Federico Tinoco Granados ruled as a dictator until he was overthrown and forced into exile. Again in 1948, José Figueres Ferrer led an armed uprising in the wake of a disputed presidential election. With more than 2,000 dead, the resulting 44-day Costa Rica Civil War was the bloodiest event in Costa Rican history during the twentieth-century. Afterward, the new, victorious government junta, led by the opposition, abolished the military and oversaw the drafting of a new constitution by a democratically-elected assembly. Having enacted these reforms, the regime finally relinquished its power in 8 November of 1949 to the new democratic government. After the coup d'etat, Figueres became a national hero, winning the country's first democratic election under the new constitution in 1953. Since then, Costa Rica has held 12 presidential elections, the latest being in 2006. All of them have been widely regarded by the international community as peaceful, transparent, and relatively smooth transitions.

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