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Light on the Colonial Legacy
Costa Rica has long seemed exceptional in Central America, the country with few people of indigenous descent, the country where family farms predominated over large estates, the one country on the isthmus not shattered by the violence of dictatorship, revolution, and reaction in the late twentieth century. While exaggerated, the idea of Costa Rican exceptionalism has some truth. Moderate-sized coffee farms in the country's central highlands around San José did create a more even distribution of wealth in Costa Rica when compared to the other Central American countries. A political reform of the 1940s eliminated the national army, allowing Costa Ricans to brag that their country had "more teachers than soldiers." In the contemporary period, Costa Rica's model system of parks and rainforest preserves is a magnate for eco-tourists. A different side of Costa Rica's economy, more in accord with the overall Central American pattern, is the presence of large American-owned banana plantations, worked by people of African descent, along the Caribbean coast.
Topics:
Questions for Analysis and Further Reflection:
- What factors help explain Costa Rica's "light" colonial legacy? Why was it not a major area of settlement for Spaniards?
- The foundation of the republic of Costa Rica came late—in the 1840s. How did this affect the development of a sense of national identity (promoted by the state) in this small nation? Was this different from other Central American republics, or in line with a pattern?
- Has the rise of eco-tourism helped transform the economy and resulted in improved living and working conditions for Costa Ricans?
Country Bibliography: (Titles with ** are good starting places.)
Bethell, Leslie, ed. Central America since Independence. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1991.
The first three chapters deal with Central America as a whole. Chapter 8 deals specifically with Costa Rica since 1930. A few maps are included, and an index and a bibliographical essay for each chapter follow the text.
Edelman, Marc, and Joanne Kenen, eds. The Costa Rica Reader. New York: Grove
Weidenfeld, 1989.
Primary and secondary sources dealing with Costa Rica, organized both chronologically and thematically. A short bibliography and index are included.
Foster, Lynn V. A Brief History of Central America. New York: Facts On File, 2000.
An accessible historical overview of Central America as a whole from the Pre-Columbian era to the dawn of the present century. The book includes illustrations, tables and maps, a bibliography and index, a list of suggested readings, and appendices with basic facts for each country (including Panama and Belize) and a chronology.
** Molina, Iván, and Steven Palmer. The History of Costa Rica. San José: Editorial de la
Universidad de Costa Rica, 1998.
This fast general history, published in English by the University of Costa Rica, is written for the nonspecialist audience, and undergraduates will appreciate its brevity. The text is followed by a short bibliographical essay, a chronology, and an index.
**Pérez-Brignoli, Héctor. A Brief History of Central America. Translated by Ricardo B. Sawrey
A. and Susana Stettri de Sawrey. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.
This slightly older book presents an overview of the region's history, beginning with the land and the people and ending with the political and social crises faced by many Central American nations at the end of the 1980s. Maps, a chronology, notes, a bibliography, and an index are included.
Wilson, Bruce M. Costa Rica: Politics, Economics, and Democracy. Boulder, CO: Lynne
Rienner Publishers, 1998.
Wilson, a political scientist, focuses on the second half of the twentieth century. Charts, a bibliography, and an index are included.
** Woodward, Ralph Lee, Jr. Central America: A Nation Divided, 3rd ed. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1999.
A solid and well-told overview with an extensive guide to further reading, a set of charts and tables with statistical information, and a political chronology.
Maps:
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