Spanish Conquest and Colonizing of Costa Rica
Costa Rica was the site of many conquests by Spain on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Christopher Columbus landed in 1502 in Limon on the Atlantic side.
Columbus made four voyages to the new world. Contrary to popular opinion, he never landed on the soil of the United States of America. During his fourth voyage to the new world, with a goal of still finding a route to the Indian Ocean, he discovered Central America. On this route, after a brief stop in Jamaica, Columbus sailed to Central America arriving at Guanaja (Isla de Pinos) in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras, on July 30. On August 14th, he landed at Puerto Castilla near Trujillo, Honduras. He spent two months exploring the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica before arriving at Almirante Bay, Panama on October 16.
Like many other countries, the Spanish conquest brought disease and hardship. Bacteria and viruses actually came before the Spanish landed and the population of Costa Rica was very small by the time the Spanish actually arrived and started trying to colonize. The Spanish had a hard time colonizing. The people of Costa Rica fought being colonized often with armed resistance or just escaping in the mountain forests or the jungles. Eventually some colonies did come to exist; however, the settlers here did not find the same riches as settlers in other countries did. They were the poorest and they had few slaves to do the heavy labor. They did make slaves of some of the Costa Ricans and they imported slaves from the Caribbean. However, because there were so few slaves, the price of the slaves were very high. Because of the value of the slaves, they were treated as an investment and much better than in other countries. The slaves also had a method for purchasing their freedom and often masters gave slaves their freedom in their wills.
Christopher Columbus in recent years has become a controversial figure in Costa Rica. While he was the first European to land on Costa Rican soil, his presence and the process of colonization ended up bringing much suffering to the people of Costa Rica as a whole. Because of this, what was Columbus Day has been changed to a Culture Day where the people of Costa Rica can appreciate all of the cultural influences upon the country.