Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in the Central American region of North America. Costa Rica is bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as maritime border with Ecuador to the south of Cocos Island. It has a population of around five million in a land area of 51,060 km2 (19,710 sq mi). An estimated 333,980 people live in the capital and largest city, San José, with around two million people in the surrounding metropolitan area.
The first indigenous peoples of Costa Rica were hunters and gatherers, and when the Spanish conquerors arrived, Costa Rica was divided in two distinct cultural areas due to its geographical location in the Intermediate Area, between Mesoamerican and the Andean cultures, with influences of both cultures.
Teodoro Picado Michalski was the president of Costa Rica for four years.
José Bruno Carranza Ramírez was briefly President of Costa Rica in 1870. Bruno Carranza came to power in the coup d'état of 27 April 1870 that deposed President Jesús Jiménez. He resigned three months later.
The Filibuster War or Walker affair was a military conflict between filibustering multinational troops stationed in Nicaragua and a coalition of Central American armies. An American mercenary, William Walker, invaded Nicaragua in 1855 with a small private army. He seized control of the country by 1856, but was ousted the following year.
The Costa Rican Civil War took place from 12 March to 24 April 1948. The conflict began after the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica, dominated by pro-government representatives, voted on 1 March 1948 to annul the results of the presidential elections of 8 February, alleging that the triumph of opposition candidate Otilio Ulate over the ruling party's Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia had been achieved by fraud. This triggered an armed uprising led by José Figueres Ferrer, a businessman who had not participated in the elections, against the government of President Teodoro Picado.
Central America is a subregion of the Americas formed by six Latin American countries and one (officially) Anglo-American country, Belize. As an isthmus it connects South America with the remainder of mainland North America, and comprises the following countries : Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.
Territorial disputes of Nicaragua include the territorial dispute with Colombia over the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina and Quita Sueño Bank. Nicaragua also has a maritime boundary dispute with Honduras in the Caribbean Sea and a boundary dispute over the Rio San Juan with Costa Rica.
Joaquín Bernardo Calvo Rosales (1799–1865) was a Costa Rican politician, born in Cartago, Costa Rica, in 1799. His first wife was Juana Vicenta Fernandez y Quirós and he remarried to Salvadora Mora y Perez.
Ezequiel Gutiérrez Iglesias was a Costa Rican politician.
Manuel María de Peralta y Alfaro was a Costa Rican diplomat and historian. De Peralta y Alfaro was born in Taras, Cartago, Costa Rica, on July 4, 1847. He was the only Costa Rican to ever be given the designation of "Hero of the Motherland" twice.
Pablo Sánchez de Buitrago Sandoval y Benavente was a legitimist Nicaraguan politician who served as the 2nd Supreme Director of Nicaragua from 4 March 1841 to 1 April 1843. He was the first non-acting, elected Supreme Director.
The Cañas–Jerez Treaty between Costa Rica and Nicaragua was enacted April 15, 1858 as a solution to the growing border tension between the two countries. The treaty was negotiated between Máximo Jerez representing Nicaragua and José María Cañas representing Costa Rica. It established a border between the two countries that skirts the southern edge of Lake Nicaragua, then moves east along the San Juan River for the last third of the division, following it north from where it forks from the Rio Colorado. The treaty puts the border on the right bank of the river, giving the river to Nicaragua, but provides commercial navigation rights to Costa Rica.
René Castro Salazar, was FAO's Climate, Biodiversity, Land and Water Department Assistant-Director General and a former Costa Rican politician.
The Nicaragua–Costa Rica San Juan River border dispute was a series of periodical conflicts between the Costa Rica and Nicaragua over the correct delimitation of their common border at its east-end, and the interpretation of the navigation rights on the San Juan River established in the Cañas-Jerez Treaty of 1858.
Costa Ricans are the citizens of Costa Rica, a multiethnic, Spanish-speaking nation in Central America. Costa Ricans are predominantly Castizos, other ethnic groups people of Indigenous, European, African and Asian descent.
The nations of Costa Rica and Mexico established diplomatic relations 1838. Both nations are members of the Association of Caribbean States, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States and the United Nations.
Carmen Muñoz is a Costa Rican politician and activist. She is the Vice-Minister Of Government and Police named by president Luis Guillermo Solís and commissioned to separate and turn it into an independent ministry of the Ministry of Public Security. She was a congresswoman in the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica where she headed the Citizen Action Party. To date Muñoz is the only out lesbian in parliament or in charge of a ministry.
Costa Rica–Spain relations are the diplomatic relations between Costa Rica and Spain. Both nations are members of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language and the Organization of Ibero-American States.
Relations between the Federal Republic of Central America, also known as the Central American Federation, and the United States were formally established in 1824 following the Federation's independence from Spain. Relations lasted until 1841 when the Federation dissolved and relations with the United States continued among the newly independent former member states of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
