The first European explorer to encounter Costa Rica, Christopher Columbus, arrived on September 18, 1502. This was his forth and final journey to the New World. A crowd of local Carib Indians greeted his crew warmly as he was setting anchor off shore. Later, the Spaniard Gil Gonzalez Davila named the country Costa Rica, or Rich Coast, impressed by the golden bands that natives were wearing in their noses and ears.

Thousands of years before the arrival of Columbus, civilization existed in Costa Rica.  Evidence of human occupation dates 10,000 years back.  Perfectly spherical granite balls found near the west coast are among the cultural mysteries left by the pre-Columbian inhabitants.  Some are small as a baseball and ranging up in size to that of a Volkswagen bus. Guayabo National Park has ruins of an ancient city with aqueducts and some marvelous gold and jade work made approximately 1,000 years ago. Evidence of the Olmec and Nahuatl Mexican civilizations´ influence is found in archeological sites in the central highlands and Guanacaste.
By the time when Columbus arrived, there were four major native tribes: the Caribs (east coast), the Chibchas, Borucas, and Diquis (southwest). None of them survived as landowners after the arrival of Spanish colonialism. Many died due to the smallpox brought by the Spanish, some worked as slaves, and some ran away to the highest mountains, where their descendants live until this day, making 1% of the Costa Rican population. Due to the lack of indigenous labor African slaves were brought by the Spanish to work in the Caribbean coast. Recent studies suggest that 97% of the country’s inhabitants -which call themselves ticos- come from the mestizaje, which is the mixture of races among the Spaniards and the indigenous that remained in the Central Valley.

During the colonial period, Costa Rica was a tough and unpopular place to reside, with few easily exploited resources and a lack of a labor force. The Spanish were much more interested in living in Peru or Mexico, where vast amounts of silver and gold were being obtained by hundred thousands of indigenous slaves. Thus, the first unfortunate settlers were left largely to their own means in this country.  The first successful colonial city was established in 1562, when Juan Vásquez de Coronado founded Cartago, which later became the first capital city.

As well as the rest of America, Costa Rica followed the example of Mexico when it rebelled against Spain in the year 1821. Two years later, there was a civil war in the Central Valley between four neighboring cities. Two of them, Heredia and Cartago, pursued to become part of Mexico and the other two, San José and Alajuela, wanted complete independence, but finally sovereignty was established.

In 1824, Juan Mora Fernández was elected to become the first head of state. He made land reforms at the same time as an elite class of powerful coffee barons was growing. The barons later overthrew the first Costa Rican president, José María Castro, and Juan Rafael Mora succeeded him. Under Mora’s leadership, the Costa Rican people repulsed a would-be conqueror, the North American William Walker. Walker was a disgruntled southerner who thought that Central America should be annexed to the United States as a slave state.  With a piecemeal army of about 50 men Walker invaded Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica but was ultimately defeated. Finally, he proceeded against Honduras where he was executed.
Military rule has headed the country from time to time but it has not been extremely violent like in the rest of Central America.

In 1870 General Tomas Guardia made some of the country's most progressive reforms -in taxation, education and military policy.

In 1948, Dr. Rafael Angel Calderon and the United Social Christian Party refused to relinquish power after losing the presidential election. Then the Costa Rican civil war erupted.  An exile named José Maria (Don Pepe) Figueres Ferrer defeated Calderon within a month and later proved to be one of Costa Rica's most influential leaders. He headed the Founding Junta of the Second Republic of Costa Rica. One of his sons, José María Figueres, was president of the country during the years 1994-1998.

Historical facts, during and shortly after the civil war, are not totally clear due to the social instability of this period but it is known that important reforms were made under Ferrer's leadership. Women and blacks gained the vote, banks were nationalized, the communist party was banned and presidential term limits were established.  Ferrer was immensely popular, creating a political legacy that lives today.

In 1987 Costa Rican president Oscar Arias Sanchez gained worldwide recognition as he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was able to get all five Central American presidents to sign his peace plan that proposed ending the internal conflicts between governments and local insurgent forces. Because of this initiative, Nicaragua is now experiencing relative stability, ending its civil war between the Sandinistas and the Contras.