History of Costa Rica

Costa Rica , was discovered by Christopher Columbus on his 4th voyage. He arrived to a little island in front of what it is now Limon, on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica . In 1821 Costa Rica acquired the independence from Spain . It is common to celebrate it on September 15th, but the truth is that the letter of independence din`t reach Costa Rica until a month later. Cartago was the capital since the 16th century, but in a little war in 1823, the coalition between San Jose and Alajuela won, and they took the capital to San Jose , which is still the capital of Costa Rica . In 1823 Costa Rica send to England for fist time coffee. Since then and until 1990, coffee was the main source of the economy of Costa Rica . But since Brazil and Vietnam started planting coffee, and their productions were so high, that they oversupplied the market, and the price went down. After that for a couple of years bananas were the principal product of exportation. Since 1997 when Intel built a branch here, microchips took the first place in the products of exportation. In 1948, the Liberacion Nacional Army won the last war of Costa Rica , and Jose Figueres Ferrer, then leader of that group made the decision that has made this country different in the world. He decided to abolish the army, and to invest in education. The fact of living without an army has made the Costa Rican people different from the rest of the Latin-Americans. In the 80`s when all the countries of Central America where at war, Costa Rica, right in middle of the conflicts, was living in peace. San Jose has been the Capital of Costa Rica since the 19th century. San Jose is in several aspect a very unlikely capital. First because is one of the few capitals that does not have access to the sea. Most of the countries with sea access, have their capital near the sea. Second, because it is also, one the few capitals without an airport. The National airport of Costa Rica, is in Alajuela, but it is very near to San Jose. San Jose has the Braulio Carrillo national park, the last "Shiny rainy forest" of the world.