Spanish Colonization
Costa Rica….everybody loves this beautiful country….but how did it start you may ask? Well, Costa Rica was a Spanish colony for almost 300 years. The colonial period began when Christopher Columbus reached the eastern coast of Costa Rica on September 18, 1502, during his fourth and final voyage to the new world he discovered, America.
In 1821 Costa Rica was established. Costa Rica and many other central American colonies declared independence from Spain. In 1838 Costa Rica became an independent country.
Where it Originated from
Costa Rica’s history starts with the movement of tribes southwards from North America during the last ice age approximately between 13,000 and 17,000 years ago from now. The first human settlement in Costa Rica comes from around 10,000 years BC which is about 12,000 years ago. Which is far earlier from what the people originally thought. However it wasn’t until the colonial time that Costa Rica started to have a good size population, the country was practically isolated before the colonial time. The after colonization Costa Rica start to have many people moving from Spain or the rest of Europe looking for new opportunities in this new country, creating an interesting international mix.
Its Name
The name Costa Rica came from its founder Christopher Columbus, he named it “Costa Rica” which means “Rich Coast” because he believed that the land would be filled with precious metals.
During his final journey in 1502, he reported vast quantities of gold jewelry worn by the few natives there.
The Language
The official language of Costa Rica is Spanish. The language came into prominence after the arrival of the Spanish in that country. Spanish has been spoken in Costa Rica there since long time ago, but they also speak English, about 70% percent of the country speaks OK English, though not fluently. About 1% percent of the people in Costa Rica are English native speakers.
Costa Rica is a multi-cultural country now and you can find there people from anywhere in the world, including Europe, Russia, the United States, Canada, Latin America, and Asia. Costa Rica has become a very popular country for foreigners to move and buy or rent real estate.
Money
The money in Costa Rica is very different than the money in the U.S.A, the money in Costa Rica is called Costa Rican colón. One Costa Rican colón is about 0.0017 in dollars that’s less than one cent in dollars and 1000 Costa Rican colón is about $1.73 in the U.S.A.
The history of it is that Christopher Columbus is known as Cristóbal Colón in Spanish, and from his name, they made up Costa Rican money called Costa Rican colón.
