Costa Rica

Where the name comes from

Costa Rica is Spanish for “rich coast”; whether Columbus or the later conquistador Gil González Dávila coined it is disputed.

First people

Indigenous societies here linked the Mesoamerican and Andean worlds, and left the stone spheres of the Diquís delta.^1,2

Known for

Costa Rica is known for protecting nature: about a quarter of its land is in parks and reserves, and it abolished its army in 1948.^3,4

Outside contact

Spain settled permanently at Cartago in 1563.¹

The modern country

Independence from Spain in 1821 came before leaving the Central American federation in 1838; its 1949 constitution banned a permanent military.¹