COSTA RICA, a republic of Central America, lying between Nicaragua and Panama and between the Caribbean sea and the Pacific ocean, and known chiefly in the markets of the world f or its high quality of coffee and, politically, for its record of peace and general prosperity. Costa Rica's boundaries are, on the north, Nicaragua, on the east, the Caribbean sea, on the south-east and east, Panama, on the west, the Pacific ocean. The total area of Costa Rica is 18,691sq.m., its population (see below) being about 23.4 to the square mile. The coast line, on the Caribbean sea is about i8im., and on the Pacific, which is broken by deep bays and many inlets, about 36o miles.
The larger portion of the territory of Costa Rica is an elevated table-land of from 3,000 to 6,000ft. above the sea. The country is traversed by the main cordillera of the American continent, with its two characteristic ranges with the wide plateau between. The chief mountains are mostly volcanic, rising above the main ranges of the cordillera, the highest peaks being Chirripo Grande, 11,485ft., Irazu, ii,5ooft., Turrialba, 35of t., Buena Vista, o,82of t., Pico Blanco, 9,645ft. and Poas, 8,895 feet. The slopes to the Caribbean and Pacific shores are sharp, and the lowlands narrow on the Pacific and fairly broad on the Caribbean littoral. However, while the Caribbean shore is broken by relatively few inlets or rivers, and even the salt water lagoons that skirt the other Central American countries and Pan ama are less in evidence, the Pacific shore is broken by great bays and swift rivers. These include three gulfs and bays of prime im portance, the Gulf of Nicoya, the Golfo Dulce, and Coronada bay. The Gulf of Nicoya is a charming, landlocked bay filled with tiny islands and dominated by the hills rising sharply behind it on the mainland. The Golfo Dulce, on the other hand, is sharply cut, averaging oo fathoms in depth and entirely without islands.
The chief river of Costa Rica is the San Juan, which has its origin in Lake Nicaragua and flows for most of its length through Nicaragua, although the Colorado, the chief of its many mouths, is in Costa Rican territory and that portion of the river flows for some distance along the international boundary and through Costa Rican territory. The Reventazon or Parisima is the chief river entirely within Costa Rica. It flows into the Caribbean, coming down from the Central Plateau through the picturesque valley which is the route of the ancient Spanish highway and now of the Costa Rican railway between the capital, San Jose, and the Carib bean port of Port Lim6n. The Rio Frio flows northward into Lake Nicaragua. On the Pacific side the Tempisque river flows into the head of the Gulf of Nicoya, and the Tarcoles also enters that arm of the Pacific. The Terrable or Diquis, and the Pirris flow into Coronada bay. None of these rivers is long, nor is any one of them, excepting the San Juan, navigable to boats of any size. The Tarcoles, flowing to the Pacific, and the Reventazon, flowing to the Caribbean, both rise in the f oot-hills of Irazu, which marks the tip of the watershed between the two oceans. The flora, fauna and the general geological features are similar to those of the other countries of Central America.
The climate of Costa Rica differs but little from that of other Central American countries. There are sharp con trasts, however, due to altitude and the uncertainty of the winds at this point on the earth's surface, and to the fact that some authorities hold that the thermal equator in reality passes through or near San Jose de Costa Rica. The highland climate of the plateau renders the weather cool and refreshing, however, and San Jose has been becoming more and more the summer resort, or the resort for relief from the continued heat, to the foreign residents of Panama and the Canal Zone, which is only 24 hours by sea and rail from the capital of Costa Rica. On the plateau the altitude is from 3,000 to 5,000ft. and the mean temperature is 68° F. On the coasts, the mean annual temperature is around 82° F. In both the coastal regions and the highlands the rainy sea son is generally expected from April or May to December, al though the Caribbean coast often has rain during the dry season when the trade-winds bring rain clouds out of the Atlantic and precipitation on their coming in contact with the cooler air currents from the highlands of Costa Rica.
The population according to the 1927 census was 471,524. The overwhelming bulk of the residents of the highlands is of almost pure Spanish descent, little affected by immigration since the close of the colonial period a century ago, and yet steadily increasing in numbers and apparently losing little if any vigour under the tropical sun. The original stock was largely from Galicia and Andalusia, and this peasantry now makes up the bulk of the small property owners and also of the labouring classes on the coffee plantations. The next most im portant element in the popula tion is the negro, although this is confined almost entirely to the Caribbean coast. There, imported labourers from the British West Indies have formed the bulk of the workers on the banana plan tations founded and operated by large American companies, a single one of these companies em ploying over 6,000 of these negroes, many of whom are ac companied by their families. The negroes virtually never penetrate to the highlands. There is, also, a very small proportion of other foreigners, the total probably not exceeding 8,000. Mosquito Indians come every summer to fish off the Atlantic Coast.
The chief centres of population are on the central plateau in four cities within a few miles of one another. These four cities are the capital, San Jose, with 5o,5o8 inhabitants; Cartago, with 14,883, Alajuela, with 31,692 and Heredia, with 16,597. Pun tarenas, the chief port on the Pacific, possessed 12,569 inhabi tants; Port Limon, on the Caribbean sea, has grown rapidly and in 1927 numbered 15,624 inhabitants.
Costa Rica is governed by its Constitution of 1871, one of the oldest in Spanish America, and the third adopted by the country. It describes the government as "popular, repre sentative, alternative and responsible," vesting the authority in the three usual branches, executive, legislative and judicial. Civil rights are guaranteed, but subject to suspension by the legislature or by the executive in time of war; there is freedom of worship, although the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion is that of the State and is supported by the Government. There is a single legislative chamber called the Constitutional Congress, consisting of about 43 deputies, one for every 8,000 inhabitants, elected for four years, half being renewed every two years. The president is elected by direct vote for four years and is eligible for another term after one term has intervened. His council of ministers may attend the meetings of congress and take part in the deliber ations, although without vote. The judiciary consists of a supreme court of eight members elected by congress, and appellate and inferior courts whose judges are named by the supreme court. The administration of the country is divided into seven provinces, which in turn comprise cantons and districts. The governors of the provinces are appointed by the president, but the capitals of the provinces are self-governing municipalities with officers elected by the inhabitants.
The functioning of the government in Costa Rica follows closely the constitutional provisions set down, and the popular suffrage, which in some countries on the Caribbean region is more an ideal than a reality, functions smoothly and effectively in Costa Rica. There is a high standard of public trust ; the courts are independent of the executive; the highest offices are, in practice, confined closely to a group of the capable aristocracy and there is a very high feeling of public duty in the men holding such offices.
The educational system is based largely on the standards followed in the schools of the United States, a normal school at Heredia providing a number of teachers each year, although not always enough for the needs of the communities. Primary education is relatively widely spread, the enrolment of pupils being over 40,000 in 1927, and the secondary schools are being extended, while there are faculties of law and medicine and a new agricultural school. Under the laws of the country education is free and compulsory. The Roman Catholic Church maintains parochial schools but does not control the public edu cation; the Jesuits were expelled from Costa Rica in 1884. In general, the religious community is overwhelmingly Roman Cath olic, the official records showing less than 5,000 of other religious beliefs, chiefly Protestant Christians, with some Buddhists.
San Jose is the site of a hand some opera house and of a na tional museum, where much of the prehistoric and recent Indian work of the aborigines is on ex hibition, and where the collection of ancient pottery and of the fine gold ornaments for which Costa Rica is famous is a thoroughly representative one. A zoological exhibit is maintained in connec tion with the museum.
The currency unit is the colon, now stabilized at four to the American dollar. The annual revenues are approximately 30,000,000 colones annually, of which an average of about 17,000,00o are from customs reve nues and 4,000,000 from the liquor monopoly (the two chief items of revenue). The coffee tax, which varies from 4 to 6 colones per ioo lb. bag and is assessed against a crop reaching more than 35,000,00o lb. in good years, is also an important source of revenue, as is the export tax on bananas, the equivalent of 2 cents U.S. currency per bunch on the 8,560,910 exported in 1926. Export duties are included in the total of customs revenues. The tax on real estate is
on a low valuation.
In 1926 the Costa Rican Government issued its first series of the new bonds for refunding the old internal debts and furnishing funds for certain public works, this issue being for $8,000,000 (U.S. currency), floated in New York and bearing interest at 7%. In 1927 an additional loan of $1,700,000 (U.S. currency) was issued there. Prior to the arrangement of these loans, the outstanding debts were as follows : Gold refunding bonds of 1911, f 1,763,760 outstanding; the 5% Gold Loan of 1911, known as the French loan, once totalling 35,000,00o gold francs, of which all but 9,600,00o francs had been redeemed in 1925 at the rate of $So for each Soo francs, the funds for the redemption of this balance being on deposit in New York and Paris; the 9% colones bonds of 1923,
colones being outstanding, as well as $545,000 (U.S. cy.) of 8% internal gold bonds of that year, still outstanding; additional internal bonds, bearing 9% and i o% interest, and totalling 10, 281,000 colones, and floating debts in the form of bank notes or otherwise to a total of 5,382, 200 colones. The last three items are those which are refunded under the agreements for the issuance of the External Secured Sinking Fund 7% Gold Bonds of 1926. The British loan of 1911 has first lien on the gross revenues of the republic, and the French loan still has a direct lien on the liquor monopoly.
The mone tary unit, the colon, was originally issued to have an equivalent of 2.15 to the Ameri can dollar (approximately 23d.). The war panic of 1914 forced the Costa Rican banks to restrict their note circulation and limit credit, and one of the principal local banks closed its doors. The Government endeavoured to remedy the crisis by establishing the official Banco Internacional, primarily an agricultural credit bank, and to-day doing no other commercial business but issuing the paper currency of the country. At this time the Government also decreed that the bank notes issued by the newly authorized bank should be freed from the necessity of redemption and should forever remain incontrovertible. This decree, and the subsequent issue of considerable paper currency by the Banco Internacional, was held largely responsible for the continued depreciation of the colon, the average rate even up to 1923 being around 450 (that is, 4.5o colones to the American dollar). In 1921 the privilege of issuing currency was withdrawn from private banks and they were called upon to redeem their outstanding currency at its gold par value, or 215. Outstanding Government silver cer tificates were also redeemed, and in March 1924 the Caja de Conversion was established, with reserves in New York and London, and the colon was stabilized at the present rate of 400. The Banco Internacional carries on the chief exchange business of the country, its convertible notes (as distinguished from the incontrovertible notes still in circulation) being exchanged, on presentation, for drafts against the New York gold conversion fund. The incontrovertible notes have in the meantime been slightly reduced, and on Dec. 31, 1925, the outstanding total was
colones of incontrovertible notes of the Banco Inter nacional while the silver certificates and other incontrovertible paper had all been redeemed. The problem of the incontrovert ible paper is still the subject of many solutions proposed by local and foreign bankers.
The Banco Internacional has resources totalling 28,259,890 colones, and a capital of 2,792,471 colones. The Banco de Costa Rica, founded in 1877, has a capital of 2,000,000 colones and re sources of 16,679,479 colones. The Banco Anglo-Costarricense, founded in 1863, has a capital of 1,200,000 colones and resources of 4,110,000 colones.
Costa Rica has constitutional provisions for the compulsory service of all able-bodied male citizens between 18 and 5o, in time of war. Its army numbers some 2, 500, but the militia has an active service branch, and the national guard includes all able-bodied males. This is estimated to number about 36,000 on a war footing. There is a naval unit and a skeleton navy on paper.
Costa Rica is almost solely an agri cultural country, the most important item of its total exports of $18,962,18o (U.S. cy.) in 1926, being bananas, with coffee second. In 1926, 8,560,910 bunches of bananas were exported, with a total value of $6,520,692 (U.S. cy.), about one-fourth going to the United Kingdom, the balance to the United States. The coffee exports of 1926 totalled
kg. valued at $Io,623,969 (U.S. cy.), four-fifths of the entire crop going to the United Kingdom, the balance going mostly to the United States, Germany and the Netherlands. Cacao is the third item of export, totalling
kg. valued at
in 1926. Tropical woods to a total of 9,096,088 kg. were also exported, and 117,499 kg. of sugar and 319,042 kg. of hides. In the year 1926, the United Kingdom was the heaviest buyer of Costa Rican exports, the official total being put at $8,643,036 (U.S.
cy.), as compared with the United States purchases, which totalled $7,642,294. Port Limon, on the Caribbean sea, is overwhelmingly the chief port of the country, its exports being valued at
and its imports at
both items being in American dollars, the basic currency of trade in Central America.
Costa Rica's total imports in 1926 were valued at
the United States sending $7,7o5,64o of this total, the United Kingdom $1,99o,o81 and Germany $1,704,081. This is a slight gain for the United States and a similar loss of about $2 50,000 by the United Kingdom. The largest single item of import is cotton goods, which in 1925 (the latest year for which itemized figures are available) were valued at $I,338,000. Wheat flour was second, reaching a value of $I,o12,3o6. The United States is the chief source of the flour, which is an increasing item of import, as the Caucasian peasantry of Costa Rica demands wheat instead of the staple maize diet of the Indians and mixed bloods of other Latin American countries. The United States also leads in the cotton-goods imports, the United Kingdom holding the lead only in chintzes, the largest single group, however, in the cotton-goods list. Automobiles have increased steadily as an item of importation, practically all of these coming from the United States. Foodstuffs are an important item of import, in every classification, as Costa Rica's produc tion is so largely on the plantation system that the raising of its own foods is generally decreasing, or certainly not keeping up with the normal increase in population.
Mining is virtually the only industry besides agriculture, the production in 1926 (gold and silver) being worth $520,508, a decrease of nearly $1 oo,000 from 1925. The chief sources of this item are the gold-silver mines of Abangarez, in the province of Guanacaste, on the Pacific slope. There is one cotton-mill and a few small shoe-factories, but in general Costa Rica is an outstanding example of a country devoting its energies to the production of a few specialized products and importing from the world outside the materials and goods it needs.
There are two principal ports, Port Limon on the Caribbean, the centre of the banana traffic and the terminus of the Costa Rica railway, and Puntarenas on the Pacific, the terminus of the Pacific railway. Sixaola and Colo rado are the other ports of entry. The railways are three in number, the Costa Rican railway, between San Jose and Port Limon, with 19om. of track, the Northern railway, leased by the Costa Rican railway, with 135m. of track, and the Pacific rail way, owned by the Government, with 83m. of track. The main lines are between San Jose and Port Limon, 1o5m. ; between San Jose and Alajuela, 14m., and between San Jose and Puntarenas, 69 miles. Port Limon and Puntarenas are ports of call for steamships and liners touching the Panama canal. There are small steamers on the San Juan river, and a steamer service between Puntarenas and several small ports on the Gulf of Nicoya. The highways of Costa Rica are still primitive, the rich soil turning them into clouds of dust in the dry season and deep mud holes in the rainy season. The movement for good roads throughout Latin America is receiving a response in Costa Rica, and the opening of better highways and thus the development of a larger portion of the rich country that lies beyond the limited territory served by the railways, is in prospect. At present the lack of good roads and immigration combine to limit Costa Rica to a position far below that which it could occupy were it properly developed.
The telegraphs are operated by the Government and reach virtually every town of the country, and connect with the services of the other countries of Central America, which can be communicated with at the low domestic rate. The Tropical Radio Corporation has a station at Port Limon, and the All America Cable reaches San Jose via both Port Limon and Puntarenas. There is an efficient telephone service in San Jose and between San Jose and Puntarenas. One of the banana companies maintains a private telephone line between San Jose and Port Limon and the local telephone service in the latter city.
Costa Rica was discovered and probably named by Christopher Columbus, on his fifth and last voyage to Amer ica. On the Caribbean shore of Costa Rica the Spaniards found the first traces of the gold they sought, in the ear-rings and other ornaments of gold worn by the natives—ornaments that are still prizes for archaeologists and the subject of a long con - troversy as to origin and design. A settlement was planned, and a small group of Spaniards, headed by Bartholomew Columbus, brother of Christopher, was landed. It remained only a short time, however, and after attack by the Indians and the loss of a number of men, set sail and joined Columbus farther down the coast. The name of the country, Costa Rica, or "Rich Shore," was possibly the result of Columbus's discovery of gold, or of ear-rings, as a corruption of Costa de oreja might, as suggested by Col. G. E. Church (q.v.), well be the origin of the phrase "Costa Rica." Costa Rica was, however, first called Nueva Cartago, prior to becoming a province of the captaincy-general of Guatemala, but, by 1540, the name Costa Rica had been generally adopted. The country had been conquered and pacified by the Spaniards by 1530, became a province in 1540, and its limits were sur veyed and fixed between 156o and 1573, under Juan Vasquez de Coronada, one of the few able and conscientious Spanish gov ernors in the long history of the province. During the Spanish regime Costa Rica did not prosper, for a continuous search for gold went on, and the Indians, enslaved and ill-used, died off rapidly.
Costa Rican independence dates from Sept. 15, 1821, and fol lows the general history of Cen tral America in this regard, as in the various efforts at union (see CENTRAL AMERICA). The only serious external problems
of Costa Rica since the
pendence have been its boundary
disputes with its two neighbours.
That with Nicaragua was finally
submitted to the arbitration of the
president of the United States in
1888, and the lines were finally settled by treaty in 1896 on the
basis of his award. The charges of Costa Rica that the
Chamorro treaty between the United States and Nicaragua in 1916
violated its rights to the San Juan river (see CENTRAL AMERICA and
NICARAGUA) were not based on a question of boundary lines
but on Costa Rica's feeling that its rights to the river had not been taken into consideration when the United States paid Nicaragua alone the sum of $3,0o0,000 (U.S. cy.) for an option to a canal site following that river. The boundary with Co lombia (and after the independence of Panama in 1903, with Panama), was not settled finally until 1921. President Loubet of France set the boundary in 1 goo under an arbitration submitted to him by Coiombia and Costa Rica, and this was confirmed in 1914 by Chief Justice White of the United States, who was asked to review the cession of the Coto province to Costa Rica. Panama finally accepted the award, and a threatened war be tween Panama and Costa Rica was averted, when the American secretary of state, Charles Evans Hughes, supported the Costa Ricans in taking the territory awarded them, on Aug. 23, 1921.
The internal political situation of Costa Rica has been almost uniformly peaceful, the exception being in 1917-19. In January of the former year, Frederico Tinoco, by a coup d'etat, forced out of office President Alfredo Gonzalez, whose election had been so close that it had been decided by the congress. A new con stitution was promulgated in June 1917 and Tinoco assumed the presidency under this new constitution. His Government severed relations with Germany on May 25, 1918, following the declaration of war by the United States, but the Govern ment of President Woodrow Wilson refused consistently to recognize the Tinoco Government. In the Versailles Treaty, Costa Rica was expressly prohibited from participation (a dis qualification since removed) in the League of Nations, along with Turkey, at the insistence of President Wilson. In 1919 a counter revolution took place, and the Tinoco group was ousted. Julio Acosta was chosen president at the succeeding election, and was promptly recognized by the United States and other Powers. On May 8, 1924, De Ricardo Jimenez Oreamuno became President and returned for a second time in 1932 after the term of Cledo Gonzalez Viquez, 1928 to 1932. A secret and direct bal lot was provided in 1925, and diplomatic relations were resumed with Panama in 1928. In 1932 Costa Rica denounced the Central American Treaty of Peace and Amity with her several neighbours, ratified in 1923.
the three bibliographies under the article Bibliography.-Consult the three bibliographies under the article on Central America.
Also F. Garcia Calderon, History of Costa Rica (1915) ; and the latest edition of the Annual Report of the Council of the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders, London. (W. THo.)
