Costa Rica

Pre-Columbian Costa Rica — jade, gold, and chiefdoms

Pre-Columbian Costa Rica (c. 500 BCE – 1502 CE) was home to complex chiefdom societies — the Huetar, Bribri, Boruca, and Chorotega peoples — who produced extraordinary jade and gold work traded across a network connecting Mexico to South America, leaving archaeological treasures at the Diquís Delta (home to the mysterious stone spheres) and the Jade Museum that are among the Americas' most important pre-Columbian collections.

Colonial Costa Rica — the poorest and most egalitarian colony

Colonial Costa Rica (1502–1821 CE) was paradoxically the Spanish Empire's most egalitarian colony precisely because it was its most neglected — no gold or silver deposits meant no encomienda plantation system, no wealthy encomendero class, and no large indigenous labour force (disease had killed 95% of the population), leaving Spanish settlers to farm their own land and producing the mestizo smallholder society that shaped Costa Rican democracy.

Costa Rican democracy — the oldest in Latin America

Costa Rica's democracy (1889 – present) — the oldest continuous democracy in Latin America, interrupted only by the 1948 civil war — is built on an electoral system of extraordinary integrity, universal education (established 1869), and a political culture that produces the highest human development and happiest population indices in Central America and consistently ranks among the world's top democracies.

The 1948 Civil War and the abolition of the army

Costa Rica's 1948 civil war (44 days, 2,000 dead) — triggered by a disputed election, fought by José Figueres Ferrer's National Liberation Army against the government — ended when Figueres won, drafted a new constitution, and made the most radical decision in Latin American political history: abolishing the army permanently, transferring its budget to education and health.

Biodiversity and the eco-tourism model

Costa Rica (c. 1970 – present) pioneered the global eco-tourism model — protecting 25% of its national territory in parks and reserves (the highest proportion of any country), developing a tourism industry worth $4 billion annually based on its extraordinary biodiversity (5% of all species on earth in 0.03% of its land area), and proving that conservation and economic development can be mutually reinforcing.

Costa Rica's carbon neutrality and the renewable energy model

Costa Rica generated 99.99% of its electricity from renewable sources in 2015 — running entirely on hydro, geothermal, wind, and solar for 300 consecutive days — and has set a target of carbon neutrality, becoming the world's most celebrated example of a developing country decoupling economic growth from carbon emissions while also being one of the happiest and most equal societies in the Americas.