COSTA RICA. - I. GEOGRAPHY. - The smallest of the Central American republics, facing both oceans: 50,000 sq km (the relevant figures are not very reliable), with fewer than 800,000 inhabitants (472,000 in the last census, which dates back to 1927). Of the population, 90% are creoles, 6% Amerindians and mestizos, 4% blacks and mulattoes. The country consists of two flat zones, close to the sea, separated by a thin internal mountain diaphragm. The climate is tropical, hot, uniform, humid, with local differences due to altitude. The national economy is essentially based on plantations and above all on coffee (of fine quality) and bananas (exported to the United States), followed by cocoa, sugar cane, fruit, etc. Among minerals, gold and silver. The forests also yield good profits (timber for aeronautical construction). Industry is only just beginning.
C. R. is a unitary representative republic with a single Chamber. The capital, São José (80,000 inhabitants), is linked by railway to the two ports of Limón on the Caribbean Sea and Puntarenas on the Pacific. Barely 5% of the population professes pagan cults; the religion of the State is Catholic.
| Province | Area in 1000 sq km. | Popul. 1945 (in 1000 inhab.) | Capital popul. (in 1000 inhab.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alajuela | 9 | 157 | Alajuela (10) |
| Cartago | 3 | 111 | Cartago (13) |
| Guanacaste | 11 | 90 | Liberia (4) |
| Heredia | 3 | 55 | Heredia (11) |
| Limón | 9 | 40 | Limón (10) |
| Puntarenas | 10 | 50 | Puntarenas (9) |
| São José | 4 | 283 | São José (80) |
| Total | 49 | 786 |
Bibliography7 works
Giuseppe Caraci
II. EVANGELIZATION OF COSTA RICA
Discovered by Columbus on his last voyage in 1502, it was gradually colonized by the Spaniards after 1526. It was part of the Mexican province (Audiencia) of Guatemala, and of the diocese of León of Nicaragua. The Indians, divided into numerous small tribes, among which the main ones were the Talamancas and the Guaymis, resisted colonization and evangelization stubbornly in the inaccessible mountains of Talamanca. Only at the cost of great sacrifices did the Franciscans succeed, in the 17th and 18th centuries, in creating a few reductions, but the efforts to reduce the other Indians remained fruitless. At the beginning of the 19th century the mission fell more and more into decay, to cease completely in 1829 with the secularization of the Franciscans. In 1850 the diocese of São José of C. R. was erected. The mission was reopened by Msgr. Bernardo Augusto Thiel C. M., bishop of San José (1880-1902), among the Indian tribes considerably diminished in the meantime. He visited the Indians of the Talamanca mountains on various occasions, publishing linguistic studies of great value. In 1894 the German Lazarists took charge of the mission among the Indians. In 1921 São José was elevated to an archdiocese with the suffragans of Alajuela, a diocese, and of Limón, an apostolic vicariate.
Bibliography2 works
Giovanni Rommerskirchen
III. CONTEMPORARY HISTORY
After the proclamation of Mexican independence, the captaincy general of Guatemala, of which C. R. was a part, also declared itself dissolved from Spanish sovereignty on Sept. 15, 1821, and proclaimed its union with Mexico (Jan. 5, 1822). Upon the fall of Iturbide, a constituent assembly proclaimed the United States of Central America, comprising the five Republics of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Salvador and C. R. Soon, however, divergences arose between the federal authority and that of the State of Guatemala: the result was the dissolution of the confederation, decreed by the federal congress on Nov. 14, 1838. When in 1842 the former federal president Morazán came to C. R. with the intention of reconstituting the United States of Central America and of deposing R. Carrera, president of Guatemala, C. R. once again worked in favor of the Central American federal arrangement, but after the defeat and killing of Morazán, it definitively constituted itself as an autonomous republic. The presidency of Juan Rafael Mora, which lasted almost a decade until 1859, marked for C. R. a period of significant economic, political and social progress. At that time the signing of a concordat with the Holy See was also undertaken on Oct. 7, 1852, on the basis of which the Catholic religion became the official religion of the State, and the ecclesiastical authorities obtained control over teaching and full freedom to communicate with Rome. Although since the second half of the last century there has been in C. R. a strengthening of anti-Catholic currents, relations with the Church have on the whole remained good. The Catholic religion is still considered the official religion of the State, and the representative of the Pontiff is surrounded with the greatest esteem. During the troubles of 1948, the skillful action carried out by the nuncio Msgr. L. Centoz led to a cessation of the fighting and to an agreement between the contending parties.
Bibliography
Silvio Furlani