Costa Rica Tourism and Retirement Guide

Costa Rica timeline

50,000,000 BC   The Cretaceous Era. Costa Rica is part of the ocean floor.

40,000,000 BC   The western edge of the so-called Caribbean plate, which is moving westward and overriding the Cocos plate located in the Pacific Ocean creates volcanic action. As these two chunks of crust material collide, the rocks of the Cocos plate are pushed downward, subjecting them to increased heat and pressure that eventually turns them into molten rock under great pressure. Because the downward thrust is at an angle to the east, when the pressure build-up finally becomes too much and the lava and steam move back upward towards the surface, they do so beneath the western edge of the Caribbean plate. The result is volcanism. The earliest volcanoes in the area were submarine ones. As layer after layer of cooled volcanic material collects, a chain of volcanic islands forms between Guatemala and Columbia, where before there had been open ocean. As the volcanoes continue to erupt, the space between the islands fills in and eventually turns into the huge landmass that is Central America. In this manner, a chain of volcanic islands forms in a line parallel to and east of the zone of contact between the two plates.

3,000,000 BC   As the volcanoes continue to erupt, the space between the islands fills in and eventually an unbroken land bridge between North and South America is formed out of the volcanic islands. This land bridge between two great continents is in large part responsible for the incredibly high biodiversity found in an area as small as Costa Rica. The other prominent factor that explains the country's tremendous variety of flora and fauna is the range of climatic conditions that result from the changes in temperature and rainfall as one goes up and over the mountains. Additionally, while the Cocos plate submerges even further, sea-floor sediments are scraped off of the edge of the subduction zone, and turn into wedges of sedimentary rocks that are piled upon the coast of the growing continent

20,000 BC   Probably before this date people were living in the area.

2000 BC   The first evidence of people living in Central America in the form of ceramics is from this period. Remnants of paved roads, wells and aquaducts can be seen at the Guayabo National Monument. Maize, beans, palm nuts, and avocados have been recovered at sites in Panama at this time.

700-500 BC   In the Diquis area, in the southwest of Costa Rica, perfect granite spheres varying in size from 8 cm to 2.40 meter (3" to 8') can be found. they weigh up to 15.000kg (16 tons). Most are made of granodiorite. Some of andesite and coquina, a sedimentary stone. The workplaces where the spheres were made was never found. Some of them have been found in graves or burial mounds. Nobody knows why they were made. The area seems to be the focus but smaller spheres have been found as far away as the Olmec sites in Vera Cruz in Mexico and on islands in the Pacific. It is impossible to date the stones so it may be possible that they are from a previous civilization and that they are much older. it is also thought that they may have been made until as late as the 1500's. Stone balls are known from archaeological sites and buried strata hat have only pottery characteristic of the Aguas Buenas culture, whose dates range from ca. 200 BC to AD 800. Stone balls have reportedly been found in burials with gold ornaments whose style dates from after about AD 1000. They have also been found in strata containing shreds of Buenos Aires Polychrome, a pottery type of the Chiriquí Period that was made beginning around AD 800. This type of pottery has reportedly been found in association with iron tools of the Colonial period, suggesting it was manufactured up until the 16th century. So, the balls could have been made anytime during an 1800-year period. Over 300 spheres have been recorded. Some were destroyed by people expecting to find gold or gems at the center. The spheres vary in the craftsmanship they exhibit. The best sphere measures 6' 7" with an error of .5" The spheres are sometimes grouped but no persistent pattern can be discerned. Some of the spheres exhibit carvings that may present celestial maps. No unfinished spheres have been found.

Photos at http://www.mcguinnessonline.com/sphere/photos.htm

1502, Sep 18   Christopher Columbus, on his fourth and final voyage to the New World, lands with his four ships the Captiana, Gallega, Viscaína, and Santiago de Palos, at Isla Uvita, a small island off the coast near present day Limón, naming the land Costa Rica. The coastal Indians had gold ornaments and he assumed that there was more to be found in the area. Columbus only stayed for 17 days. There were four major autonomous indigenous tribes living in Costa Rica. The east coast was the realm of the Caribs, while the Borucas, Chibchas, and Diquis resided in the southwest. Only a few hundred thousand strong to begin with, none of these peoples lasted long after the dawn of Spanish colonialism.

1506, Lured by the report that Columbus brought back to Spain that there were great riches to be had, King Ferdinand sends a Diego de Nicuesa, to colonize the Atlantic coast of the isthmus he called Veragua. He strands off the coast of Panamá and has to march north. The local tribes use guerrilla tactics and even burn their own fields to deny the Spaniards food.

1510   Palacios Rubios writes the Requerimiento in name of king Ferdinand of Spain. The document legalizes the colonization of America. It tells the Indians that they are now under the rule of Spain and the Church and that if they obey and let themselves be preached to they will remain free and if they resist they will be put into slavery and their possessions will be taken. In reality they were put in chains first and then the Requerimiento was read to them in Spanish.

1519   Hernán Ponce de León and Juan de Castañeda set sail from Panama and go north to the Gulf of Nicoya.

1522   Gil González Dávila leads an expedition to the Golfo de Nicoya. They convert thousands of Indians to Christianity, take their gold, sell some as slaves to other parts of the continent, mostly to Panama and Peru, and return to Spain. They were unable to form a permanent colony due to lack of food and disease.

1524   Francisco Fernández de Córdova founds the first Spanish settlement on the Pacific at Bruselas, near what is now Puntarenas. Everybody dies within three years.

1540   Costa Rica becomes part of the vice-royalty of New Spain. Throughout the colonial period, Costa Rica remained one of the provinces ruled by the Spanish viceroyalty in Guatemala (together with the provinces of El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua). Its position as the farthest province from the crown's representative and the fact that great mineral wealth was not discovered here meant that interest in this distant territory was minimal, which in turn allowed Costa Rica to develop in an atmosphere of relative autonomy not found in the other provinces of Central America. The provincial Governors were always Spaniards appointed by the monarchy, although once settled in the new territory they inevitably set about attending to their own personal interests rather than those of the province and its colonists. This practice was by no means limited to the province of Costa Rica but was apparently commonplace throughout the New World colonies, which lead to much discontent among the colonists.

1542   Spain issues the Leyes Nuevas (New Laws) forbidding enslavement of the Indians. Instead of outright slavery, a system of encomienda comes into place. The Indians are now obliged to pay tribute. The result is much like the feudal servitude in Europe where the serf pays tribute and in return is protected by the landowner and also the serf cannot be turned away from his land. it was not allowed to use Indians as carriers unless they were paid.

1561   Spain's Juan de Cavallon leads the first successful colonizers into Costa Rica's Central Valley. They establish a small settlement. The Indians were not very helpful. They resisted by fight or flight and often burned their possessions when they left so the colonizers had to do most of the work themselves. Therefore Costa Rica did not develop into a country with a few people owning all the land as happened in Mexico and the rest of Central America. For a long time cocoa beans were used as payment.

1562   Juan Vásquez de Coronado brings more men and supplies from Nicaragua to help the failing settlement. He treats the natives with more respect and restrains the use of violence. He gets the cooperation of many of the native chieftainships in the eastern end of the valley and he starts a new settlement that in time turns into Cartago. The development of the province is done by soldiers who are granted encomiendas, landholdings with rights to the use of indigenous resident population as slaves. Coronado, however, does not allow the enslavement of the local population. As a reaction more and more settlers move in and the local tribe under chief Quitao bow to the Spanish rule.  Coronado's successor institutes slavery and the population of Indians start to decrease due to repression, diseases (opthalmia, smallpox, and tuberculosis) and flight. The Spanish divide the better land amongst themselves and send the Indians to poorer land and make them hand over part of their crop as tribute. Wheat is introduced as a crop. The gold is shipped back to Spain and due to lack of labor force the province fails to develop.

1568   As a reaction to the increasing rebellion of the Indian population, the Spanish start a program of resettling of the Indians, mostly ending up in servitude to landowners.

1574   Map of Central America from the King of Spain's Library.

1600's   Costa Rica starts to produce enough to be able to export some to its neighboring countries. Corn, wheat, wheat flour and mules are the main export products. Apart from the large plantations and the plots that the Indians have, there is an increasingly large group of Spaniards with small farms. By the end of the century due to lack of Indian labor forces, many large plantations are forced to sell of land. Many others become smaller by partitioning through inheritance. The settlers start to move into new areas.

1706   Villa Vieja is established. this will eventually turn into Heredia.

1723   Irazú erupts and buries Cartago.

1737   Villa Nueva de la Boca del Monte is established. This will eventually turn into San José.

1782   Villa Hermosa is established. this will eventually turn into Alajuela.

1793   Escazú is established.

1808   Coffee is introduced into Costa Rica from Cuba and becomes the principal crop.

1814   Coffee is for the first time shipped from from Puntarenas to Chile, from where it would be sent on to England. This is the start of what was to become a very profitable relationship,

1815   Gold mining begins in the Montes de Aguacate, a mountainous area along the route traveled between the Central Valley and the Pacific port of Puntarenas.

1821   Central America gains independence from Spain on Sep 15. News of this reaches Costa Rica by the middle of October. On Dec 1 the provisional government drafts the Concord Pact. This is the first constitution of the country. A dispute ensues. Imperialist loyalist want to join the Mexican Empire. The separatists want to join a confederation of Central American states as a sovereign state. The majority of the town elders in both Cartago and Heredia proclaimed themselves imperialists, in contrast with the predominant republican sentiments professed in San José and Alajuela.

1823   April in the area of Ochomogo (halfway between Cartago and San José), a battle is waged between groups from the two factions. The Separationists win and Costa Rica joins the United Provinces of Central America, which includes El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Although the newly independent provinces formed a Federation, border disputes broke out among them, adding to the region's turbulent history and conditions. Costa Rica's northern Guanacaste Province was annexed from Nicaragua in one such regional dispute. San José becomes the new capital. The country starts to develop coffee plantations. Originally coffee was shipped to the coast by oxcart. Then a railroad was built from Limón to San José. The construction lasted 19 years. Most of the laborers were Chinese, Italians and Jamaicans. Most of them stayed in Costa Rica . Then banana plantations were started.

1824   The government starts minting coins. Juan Mora Fernandez is elected head of state. Best remembered for his land reforms, Fernandez followed a progressive course but inadvertently created an elite class of powerful coffee barons. The barons later overthrew the nation's first president, Jose Maria Castro, who was succeeded by Juan Rafael Mora. It was under Mora's leadership that Costa Rican volunteers managed to repulse a would-be conqueror, the North American William Walker.

1833   Gold exports accounts for 48% of the country's total exports. José Rafael de Gallegos y Alvarado becomes head of state.

1835   Manuel Fernández Chacón becomes head of state for a short period after which Braulio Carrillo Colina takes over. He establishes an orderly public administration and new laws replacing Spanish law.

1837   Manuel Aguilar Chacón becomes head of state.

1838   Braulio Carrillo Colina becomes head of state. Costa Rica becomes fully independent.

1842   Previous president of Central America, Francisco Morazán Quesada, becomes ruler of Costa Rica for five months after a coup. He tries to use this position to reunite the failing United States of Central America. After he decreed that able-bodied male Costa Ricans would be subject to compulsory service in the new Central American armed forces and after he institutes direct taxes, Costa Ricans quickly turned against Morazán. He was deposed and then executed in San José on the anniversary of Central American independence. His last words were "Posterity shall do us justice!" He is then succeeded by António Pinto Soares who becomes Head of State of Costa Rica from September 11 to September 27 and then hands over power peacefully to José María Alfaro.

1847   Jose Maria Castro Madriz is elected head of state. The United States of Central America start to disintegrate. He institutes freedom of the press and starts the first girls' high school.

1848,  August 31   Jose Maria Castro Madriz formally declares Costa Rica an independent and sovereign republic severing ties with the United States of Central America.

1849   November Opposition forces led by cafeteleros, coffee barons, force Jose Maria Castro Madriz to resign.

1849   Juan Rafael Mora Porras is president from 1849 to 1859.

1850's    Coffee makes up 90% of the nation's exports. Most of the coffee production is being shipped directly to England. As more and more of the small farms convert to coffee, it becomes necessary to import food crops from other countries, principally Nicaragua. The merchant class also becomes active in growing coffee on lands they owned and this necessitates the hiring of laborers. The operation of coffee mills also requires salaried workers. Thus, the beginning of a capitalistic society, in which labor itself becomes a commodity, is established. Associated with the coffee boom were many advances in development, including the founding of banks (with a combination of British and Costa Rican capital), the construction and improvement of roads and port facilities, the establishment of the country's first telegraph system which connected Cartago with Puntarenas (via San José, Alajuela and Heredia), and the building of the nation's first railway linking Alajuela, San José and Cartago. Even the construction of the country's premier architectural showpiece, the National Theater, can be traced to the prosperity brought by coffee production.

1855   William Walker, the US adventurer, takes Nicaragua and attempts to take Costa Rica. He acted with the silent consent of the US government. The goal was to establish slavery plantations. There was also a plan to dig a canal that would connect the two oceans. Of course, this was later done in Panama.

1856   Juan Rafael Mora Porras leads his country's forces in Central America's war against William Walker and his filibuster regime in Nicaragua. Battle of Santa Rosa where William Walker is defeated by Costa Rican troops.

1859   Mora Porras is blamed for the cholera outbreak that killed ten percent of the population. He tries to institute a National Bank which would have gone again the interests of  the coffee barons who controlled the credits given to the smaller growers. Mora Porras is ousted in a bloodless coup by José María Montealegre Fernández who assumes the presidency of Costa Rica from 1859 to 1863. He was born into a wealthy family of coffee plantation owners, he was sent to study medicine in Aberdeen, where he graduated as a surgeon. He convenes a constitutional conventional, which produced the Constitution of 1859.

1860   Under the new constitution he is popularly elected to a three-year presidential term. Juan Rafael Mora Porras flees to El Salvador, where his supporters convince him to launch an attack on Costa Rica and recoup the presidency. After initial victories, in which he succeeds in seizing the port of Puntarenas, he is defeated, captured, and, on 30 September 1860, brought before a firing squad.

1863   Jesús Jiménez Zamora is popularly elected. He dissolves Congress two months into his term of office. He grants asylum to former Salvadoran President Gen. Gerardo Barrios, as a result of which the other four Central American governments break off diplomatic relations with Costa Rica.

1866   Jose Maria Castro Madriz is elected once more

1868   Jose Maria Castro Madriz is overthrown in a coup by the previous president Jesús Jiménez Zamora

1869   On 15th of September the exploratory expedition commanded by Rafael Oreamuno hoisted the flag of Costa Rica at Isla del Coco on orders of the government of president Jesús Jiménez. It was later used as a penitentiary for political prisoners.

1870   Jesús Jiménez Zamora is overthrown in a coup by José Bruno Carranza Ramírez who becomes president of Costa Rica for three months. Tomás Miguel Guardia Gutiérrez overthrows José Bruno Carranza Ramírez and stays president until 1876, and from 1877 to 1882. He makes some of the country's most progressive reforms in education, military policy, and taxation. Costa Rica develops modern characteristics, notably the minimal role of the Catholic Church in secular matters, abolishment of capital punishment and a relatively isolationist foreign policy. Primary education is made obligatory and free. The power of the coffee barons is curbed. The first banana plantations are established.

1871   The Constitution is enacted, it will stay in force until 1948.

1874   US businessman and engineer Minor Cooper Keith introduces banana cultivation and eventually starts the United Fruit Company.

1876   Tomás Miguel Guardia Gutiérrez cedes power to Aniceto Esquivel. He continues to pull the strings of power during Esquivel Sáenz's three months in office and that of Esquivel's successor Vicente Herrera who ousts him in a coup. Vicente de las Mercedes Herrera Zeledón stays president for until September the next year.

1877   Tomás Miguel Guardia Gutiérrez is president again until 1882.

1882   Saturnino Lizano Gutiérrez becomes president and is followed by Juan Primitivo Próspero Fernández Oreamuno. He is particularly remembered for introducing civil marriages and legalized divorce. The death penalty is abolished.

1883   The workday is set at eight hours.
          A map drawn in 1883 by José María Figueroa Oreamuno

1884   Juan Primitivo Próspero Fernández Oreamuno expels the Jesuits from the country.

1885   Ramón Bernardo Soto Alfaro becomes president of Costa Rica after the death of the previous president.

1888   Illiteracy is 80%. There are 243,205 inhabitants according to the census.

1889   President Bernardo Soto calls what will be known as the first honest election with popular participation. Women and blacks, however, are still excluded). To his own surprise, his opponent José Joaquín Rodríguez wins the election. The Soto government refuses to recognize the new president. The masses rise and march in the streets to support their chosen leader, and Soto steps down.

1890   José Joaquín Rodríguez Zeledón is president. The Costa Rica railroad, from San Jose to Limon is finished. It was built, owned and controlled by Minor C. Keith the United States banana baron. During construction 4000 workers lost their lives. Keith gets a 99-year lease on 1,976,000 hectares (800,000 acres) of land with a 20-year tax deferment in return for building the railway. The land that he now owned adjacent to the railway was used for banana plantations.

1894   Rafael Anselmo José Iglesias Castro serves as president of Costa Rica for two consecutive periods until 1902. He was a grandson of "Founder of the Republic" José María Castro Madriz.

1899   The United Fruit company is founded by railway magnet Minor Keith.

1900 Life expectancy is only 30 years. During the second half of the 19th century advances in health and education did not keep pace with the development of infrastructure. This is not to say that the governments of the time were not active in trying to provide improved education and health care, but simply that it took longer to see the results. Poor sanitary conditions were the principal cause of periodic outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as cholera and dysentery.

1902   Ascensión Esquivel Ibarra becomes president until 1906. Born in the Nicaraguan town of Rivas, he became a naturalized Costa Rican in 1869. He first ran for the presidency in 1889, but was defeated by José Joaquín Rodríguez. After his presidential term, he served as the chief justice of the Supreme Court, from 1917 to 1920.

1906   Ascensión Esquivel Ibarra exiles three of his contenders prior to the elections. He imposes his own choice for president: González Víquez.

1910   Illiteracy is 55%. an earthquake destroys much of Cartago.

1914   Congress declares the winner of the 1914 plebiscite ineligible and names its own choice,  Alfredo González Flores, who had not run, as president.

1917   Alfredo González Flores tries to establish direct, progressive taxation based on income.  His interference in the economy had earns him the wrath of the elite. War Minister Frederico Tinoco Granados ousts the president. He rules with an iron fist but Costa but is himself deposed two years later.

1919, Jun 4   US marines invade Costa Rica.

1920   Life expectancy is 35 years.

1930   Illiteracy is 33%.

1934   The Costa Rican Communist Party, PCCR, organizes a successful strike among the banana workers through the Confederation of Workers of Costa Rica. The strike is supported even by many black workers who were not members of the labor confederation.

1940's   The US Navy acquires two-thirds of Vieques, Costa Rica, a 20-by-4-mile island for $1.4 million.

1940-44   President Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia, founder of the United Christian Socialist Party (PUSC), introduces liberal reforms, including recognition of workers' rights, minimum wages, land reform whereby the landless could gain title to unused land by cultivating it, paid vacations, unemployment compensation, progressive taxation, plus a series of constitutional amendments codifying workers' rights. Calderón also founded the University of Costa Rica. World War II puts a damper on the economy and the funding for these programs and induces rampant inflation.
Calderón is one of the first to declare war on Germany, seizing German property, and imprisoning Germans. This further upsets his conservative patrons, many of whom are of German descent.

1944   Calderón is replaced by his puppet, Teodoro Picado Michalsky, in an election widely regarded as fraudulent. Picado's uninspired administration fail to address rising discontent throughout the nation. Intellectuals, distrustful of Calderón's alliance with the Catholic Church and the Communists, join with businessmen, campesinos, and labor activists and form the Social Democratic Party, dominated by the emerging professional middle classes eager for economic diversification and modernization. In its own strange amalgam, the SDP allies itself with the traditional oligarchic elite. 

1945   Figueres begins to train the Caribbean Legion, an irregular force of 700. Figueres launches a revolution along with other landowners and student agitators, hoping to overthrow the Costa Rican government. Hoping to use Costa Rica as a base, the Legion plans to remove the three Central American dictators. Washington officials are not amused. They closely watch the Legion’s activities. Figueres carries out a series of terrorist attacks inside Costa Rica during 1945 and 1946 that are supposed to climax in a general strike. But the people do not respond.

1948   The National Republicans whose candidate President Picado was running for a second term, and who had held the majority of Costa Rica's political power for decades are not willing to give up their monopoly control of the Executive branch. The National Republicans use their strong influence in the Legislative Assembly to annul the February 8 presidential election of rival candidate Otilio Ulate Blanco of the Social Democratic Party. The country is thrown into chaos. Both sides accuse the other of vote tampering and electoral fraud. A civil war, the War of National Liberation, ensues. The Picado administration resorts to the use of the military in order to keep the peace. Pro-Calderón elements within the military institution become involved in street violence as participants rather than as peacekeepers, all of which helps to sully the image of the military in the minds of the people. As the violence grows, supporters of the Opposition begin to carry guns to protect demonstrators from the police, and the police begin to threaten the use of firearms rather than just beating demonstrators with sticks. Disgust with the government's violent reprisals against the Opposition leads to the Huelga de brazos caidos, a strike that stalls commerce in Costa Rica for seven days. Pro-Calderón and communist demonstrators begin to sack those businesses that participate in the strike, and Picado is forced to respond to the strike with force by intimidating merchants and professionals and threatening workers with dismissal and military service. By the end of the strike, police and military forces patroll the streets. One particularly nasty event takes place on the day the government annuls the 1948 elections. Without Picado's approval or support, the police surround the home of Dr. Carlos Luis Valverde, where Ulate was and Figueres had been only moments before. Shots ring out, and Valverde falls dead on his doorstep. Ulate escapes but is later captured and imprisoned, all of which helps to paint an especially distasteful image of the military. The annulment of the election results in 1948 and the attack on Dr. Valverde's home on the same day provides Figueres with the proof that he needs to show that the government has no intention to cede to the will of the people. His hate for Calderón, combined with his idealism, fuels his desire for war. On March 11, Figueres makes the call that brings in the arms and military leaders Figueres needs for a successful campaign. On March 12, his National Liberation Army exchanges fire with government forces, and the war begins. Figueres then makes a decision that reverberates in Central America for the next thirty years. He turns for help to President Juan José Arévalo of Guatemala. Arévalo had become the leading liberal figure in Central America, indeed in much of Latin America, after assuming power in 1945. But Arévalo not only had high hopes for a new Guatemala. He wanted nothing less than a new Central America in which the Somozas could be destroyed and replaced by a democratic regional union. Figueres convinces him that the first step must be to overthrow President Picado. In late 1947, Figueres and other Central American exiles sign the Pact of the Caribbean in which they pledge to free the region of dictators. The instrument of removal is the Caribbean Legion, supplied largely by Guatemala. With this one step a long chain reaction begins. A war to the death starts between Figueres and Somoza. The National Liberation Army work their way up the Pan American Highway, capturing small but important cities and ports with relative ease. The army, which was then led by Picado's brother, offers the greatest resistance, though Figueres had also to contend against the Popular Vanguard Party/Vanguardia Popular and Nicaraguan soldiers who had been sent by Somoza to help the government retain power. In Cartago, Figueres' forces meet considerable military opposition. Supplies of the governmental forces quickly run out, and Cartago falls into the hands of Figueres on April 12. Costa Rican President Picado, realizing that defeat is inevitable, sends notice to Figueres that he is willing to come to a compromise. Picado's long-time political ally, Manuel Mora Valverde of the Communist-affiliated party Vanguardia Popular, has no intention of negotiating with Figueres. Mora's forces have sealed themselves up inside the capital of San José, and are determined not to capitulate as quickly as Picado. As the target of many of Figueres' criticisms about Costa Rica, Mora and his party are worried that a Figueres-led takeover may well lead to their expulsion from politics. As usual, the determining force is United States policy. The creators of that policy hold little love for Figueres, but they were determined to destroy the Vanguardia Popular. Perhaps the Communist party had only seven thousand members, Ambassador Davies reported home, but it should hold the balance of political power in Congress and also constituted “some 70 percent of the police and army.” Writing within hours after the Communist overthrow of the Czechoslovak government (an event that severely shook Washington and other Western capitals), Davis warns that Costa Rica's condition was “in many respects similar to that prevailing in Eastern Europe.” When the State Department learns on 17 April 1948 that small Communist groups threaten to take over the capital of San Jose, US troops are placed on alert in the Canal Zone. Their mission is to move quickly into Costa Rica and stop the revolution before the Vanguardia Popular consolidates its power. It was a false alarm, but it indicates the possibility of unilateral U.S. intervention is no mere abstraction. Throughout the conflict, Figueres receives a steady supply of arms from Arévalo, while Picado’s forces are unable to exploit Somoza’s desire to help. The United States had ensured Somoza’s political impotence. Desperately wanting Nicaraguan help, Picado pleaded with Ambassador Davis to allow what was, after all, the recognized Costa Rican government to obtain help from Nicaragua so it could remain in power. Davis blandly explains the well known policy of non-intervention. Picado bitterly observed that non-intervention was a fiction, Figueres had received “tons” of supplies from Arévalo, and rumors circulate of aid even from the Panamanian government. Davis ignores the charges. Picado then threatens to take the matter to the United Nations. The day after the fall of Cartago, Picado sends a letter to Mora and National Republican leader, and former President Calderon stating that "the attempt to hold San José would be futile and catastrophic." Mora, facing the reality that now the United States is ready to act against him, gives in to Picado's plea. On April 19, Picado and Father Benjamín Núñez, an eminent labor leader within Costa Rica, sign The Pact of the Mexican Embassy, ending the armed uprising. On 24 April, Figueres' forces enter San José, almost six weeks after beginning their revolt in southern Costa Rica. By its mobilization in the Canal Zone, constant pressure on Picado, and cutting off Somoza’s help, the United States determined the outcome of the revolution in April 1948. With more than 2,000 dead, the 44-day civil war resulting from this uprising was the bloodiest event in 20th-century Costa Rican history. The civil war has a lasting effect on the region. The private sponsorship of Figueres by the US leads United States forces to intervene in other politics and governments of Latin America, such as what was later seen in Guatemala in 1954 and Chile in 1973. The strong ties that came about due to US aid help to lift Costa Rica out of the economic instability that it had been facing in the years before the revolution. The new articles of the constitution rewritten by Figueres' regime eliminate the fraudulent aspect of elections that had been an identifiable part of Costa Rica's electoral processes in the past.

1949   New constitution gives women and people of African descent the right to vote; armed forces abolished and replaced by civil guard. In a public ceremony to mark the occasion, the existing Commander-in-Chief hands the keys to Army HQ to the Minister of Education, for use as a school. Executive power is vested in the President, supported by two Vice-Presidents and an appointed Cabinet of Ministers. The President is elected for a 4-year term by universal adult suffrage (voting is obligatory), conditional on one candidate receiving more than 40 per cent of the vote. Legislation is the responsibility of the 57-member National Assembly, which is also elected for a 4-year term of office. Jose Figueres Ferrer, co-founder of National Liberation Party (PLN), elected president begins ambitious socialist program, including introducing a social security system and nationalizing banks. Costa Rica, once a country full of governmental fraud and corruption, becomes a respectable democracy of the West and an ally of the United States, as well as a model for other Latin American countries in how to properly establish democracy and successfully revitalize the economy.

1950   Life expectancy is 56 years. Illiteracy is 21%.

1954   The government signs new contracts with the United Fruit Company calling for the construction of schools and hospitals, the eradication of malaria and the implementation of social security laws. Despite this pressure for better terms from the company, Figueres' government does not alter the underlying monopolistic control by United Fruit.

1955   The United Fruit Company owns 500,000 acres of land in Limon and Golfito of which 75% lays fallow, the company holding it in "reserve".

1956   The population reaches one million.

1960 The Central American Common Market is set up by a treaty between El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and later Costa Rica. It falls apart by the end of the decade.

1963   Irazu volcano erupts. After being dormant for 20 years, clouds of ash and smoke suddenly erupt from the volcano and continue for two years. It sends tephra and secondary mudflows into cultivated areas, causing at least 40 deaths, and destroying 400 houses, some factories and a lot of agricultural land. People had to sweep the sidewalks and roof everyday so it would not collapse under the weight of ash and mud.
Cabo Blanco reserve, the nation's first National park, is established.

1968   Arenal has not erupted for 450 years. After a period of intensifying activity the volcano produces an explosive eruption of hot avalanches and ejected blocks that devastate the west side of the volcano and kill 78 people.

1972 Costa Rica created the 1,680-acre Manuel Antonio National Park.

1974   Daniel Oduber (PLN) elected president and pursues socialist policies.

1978   Rodrigo Carazo, a conservative, elected president amid a sharp deterioration in the economy.

1982   Luis Alberto Monge (PLN) elected president and introduces harsh austerity program. Meanwhile, Costa Rica comes under pressure from the US to weigh in against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.  Cocos Island is made a national park. It is 9-sq. miles and located 300 miles off the Coast of Central America.

1983   Proclamation of perpetual non-armed neutrality.

1985   US-trained anti-guerrilla forces begin operating following clashes with Sandinista troops.

1986   Oscar Arias Sanchez (PLN) elected president on a neutral platform.

1987   Leaders of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras sign peace plan devised by Oscar Arias Sanchez, who in turn wins the Nobel Peace Prize for the plan.

1990   Rafael Calderon, of the centrist PUSC, elected president.

1991   A serious earthquake occurs in April, measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale. The Atlantic zone of the country, its buildings, roads, and even coral reefs suffer great damage, but some areas of the country are not affected at all. The earthquake kills 27 people, injures 400, and leaves 13,000 homeless in the Limon (Atlantic) province.

1994   Jose Maria Figueres Olsen (PLN) elected president.

1998   Miguel Angel Rodriguez (PUSC) elected president.

1999   For the first time over a million tourists visit Costa Rica this year.

2002   Abel Pacheco of the ruling Social Christian Unity Party wins a comfortable 58% of the vote in the second round of presidential elections.

2003, May 1   The US Navy withdraws from Vieques Island.

2004   The Costa Rican Constitutional Court decides that the government's support for the coalition in Iraq in March 2003 is contrary to the Costa Rican Constitution and its Declaration on Perpetual Neutrality. Costa Rica withdraws from the list of coalition countries.
Two former presidents, Miguel Angel Rodríguez and Rafael Angel Calderón, are under house arrest.Another, José María Figures, is in Switzerland refusing a legislative call to return and testify, as well as avoiding an Interpol warrant for his capture and arrest. All are implicated, as well as a long list of high-level government employees and deputies, in one way or another, in various financial scandals or bribery cases. Even the sitting president, Abel Pacheco, is under investigation for accepting illegal campaign contributions.

2006   Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias Sanchez is elected president again.