The Pact of Concord was the provisional Constitution of Costa Rica between 1821 and 1823, officially named the Interim Fundamental Social Pact of the Province of Costa Rica . [1]
The Pact of Concord was the provisional Constitution of Costa Rica between 1821 and 1823, officially named the Interim Fundamental Social Pact of the Province of Costa Rica . [1]
After the Independence of Central America the Towns' Legates Junta (Junta de Legados de los Pueblos) took over temporary control of the then Province of Costa Rica. The Junta governed Costa Rica between November 12 and December 1, 1821 and was the first autonomous government body of the newly independent Costa Rica. It had its headquarters in Cartago and was presided over by the presbyter Nicolás Carrillo y Aguirre, exercising power temporarily in Costa Rica in all branches; Executive, Legislative, Judicial, Electoral and Constituent. [2]
On October 31, 1821, the Cartago City Council, which was the de facto capital of the country, invited the different populations of the Costa Rican to send legacies to the city to decide the destiny of the young nation. [2]
The Junta decides to separate Costa Rica from the Diputación de Costa Rica y Nicaragua and draws up the Interim Fundamental Social Pact, better known as Pact of Concord, considered the country's first constitution. After this a Higher Governmental Junta is created whose president would rotate in each of the four constituent cities of Costa Rica; San José, Cartago, Heredia and Alajuela and would change president every three months. [2]
The discussion between the imperialists desiring to annex the country to the First Mexican Empire of Agustín de Iturbide and that were majority in Cartago and Heredia and the republicans that wished full independence and that predominated in San José and Alajuela, took to the end of this system of government and the outbreak of the Ochomogo War. [2]
On October 31, 1821, the City Council of Cartago invited those of the other populations of the Partido of Costa Rica to send to that city legates with broad powers, in order to decide the way forward to the declaration of absolute independence of Spain formulated on October 11 by the Provincial Delegation of the Province of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. [1]
On November 12 the Junta met in Cartago, presided by the Presbyter Nicolás Carrillo y Aguirre, and as the beginning of its sessions coincided with the resignation presented by the Subaltern Political Chief Juan Manuel de Cañas-Trujillo, the Junta assumed the Government of Costa Rica in all its branches. [1] A few days later it was agreed to appoint a seven-member commission to draft a "Provisional Government Plan" that would serve as a "node of agreement" among all the represented populations. The Legates Junta assumed the character of a constituent assembly , although it did not use such a denomination. The Pact of Concord was signed in the City of Cartago. [1]
The drafting commission, in which there were representatives of different ideological tendencies, took as a basis of their work a project sent from Guatemala by the Costa Rican doctor Pablo de Alvarado y Bonilla, supporter of a liberal regime and determined adversary of the annexation to the established Mexican Empire by Don Agustín de Iturbide. On December 1, 1821, the corresponding project was submitted to the Junta of Legates, which was discussed, reformed and approved on that same date, with the name of Interim Fundamental Social Pact or Covenant of Concord. [1] The document came into force on a provisional basis, waiting to be sanctioned by a new assembly of bequests in January 1822. [1]
In its original version, the constitutional text of 1821 had 58 articles, distributed in seven chapters. [1]
When the Pact of Concord came into force provisionally on December 1, 1821, the sessions of the Junta were concluded and an interim Governmental Junta was inaugurated, presided over by the Presbyter Pedro José de Alvarado y Baeza. [1] This Junta remained in office until January 6, 1822, the date that the Electors Junta met in Cartago, invested with constituent power and chaired by Rafael Barroeta y Castilla. In accordance with the provisions of several transitory articles of the Pact, the Voters' Junta discussed its text and on January 10 it decided to approve it with some reforms, the most significant of which was to constitutionally consecrate the conditional annexation of Costa Rica to the First Mexican Empire, by providing that Deputies would be sent to the Constituent Congress of Mexico and the Constitution issued would be accepted. However, it was also indicated that the Pact would continue to be observed while the Constitution of the Empire was under discussion, and that Costa Rica would accept the authorities and Constitution of the Empire once settled and after the Costa Rican delegation's demands were heard. [1]
The reformed Pact was sanctioned and in full force the same January 10, 1822. However, the town of Heredia, which was in favor of the unconditional annexation to the Mexican Empire, refused to accept it. As the authorities of León, Nicaragua had agreed to the union with Mexico from October 11, 1821, Heredia decided to re-settle themselves under the jurisdiction of those and to separate from Costa Rica. As a consequence of the Heredian segregation, the three-month term established in the Pact for the Government to remain in each of the four major towns of the province was extended for one month to the benefit of Cartago, San José and Alajuela. [1]
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.
The Greater Metropolitan Area of Costa Rica, is the largest urban agglomeration in Costa Rica, comprising areas of high population density surrounding the capital, San José, which geographically corresponds to the Central Valley and extended to include the Guarco Valley, where some of the cantons of the Cartago province are located.
Miguel de Bonilla y Laya-Bolívar (1763–1826) was a Costa Rican Roman Catholic priest and politician. He was one of the signatories of the Costa Rican Declaration of Independence.
Manuel Aguilar Chacón was head of state of Costa Rica from April 1837 to March 1838.
José María Alfaro Zamora was the Costa Rican Head of State between the periods of 1842 and 1844 as well as 1846 and 1847 and President of Costa Rica between May 1 and May 8, 1847.
The Act of Independence of Central America, also known as the Act of Independence of Guatemala, is the legal document by which the Provincial Council of the Province of Guatemala proclaimed the independence of Central America from the Spanish Empire and invited the other provinces of the Captaincy General of Guatemala to send envoys to a congress to decide the form of the region's independence. It was enacted on 15 September 1821.
The Constitution of Costa Rica is the supreme law of Costa Rica. At the end of the 1948 Costa Rican Civil War, José Figueres Ferrer oversaw the Costa Rican Constitutional Assembly, which drafted the document. It was approved on 1949 November 7. Several older constitutions had been in effect starting from 1812, with the most recent former constitution ratified in 1871. The Costa Rican Constitution is remarkable in that in its Article 12 abolished the Costa Rican military, making it the second nation after Japan to do so by law. Another unusual clause is an amendment asserting the right to live in a healthy natural environment.
The Ochomogo War was a civil war fought in Costa Rica, the first in its history, and was fought shortly after the country became independent from Spain.
Joaquín Mariano de Oreamuno was a Costa Rican who led a coup in 1823 that attempted to make Costa Rica part of the First Mexican Empire. A few days later the imperialist forces were defeated by republicans under Gregorio José Ramírez in the Battle of Ochomogo.
The League War was the second civil war of Costa Rica, as a member state of the Federal Republic of Central America. It passed between September and October 1835 in the Central Valley of Costa Rica. Its immediate trigger was the repeal of the "Ambulance Law", the law that established the rotation of the country's capital among the four constituent cities. The most important consequence was the triumph of the city of San José over the cities of Alajuela, Heredia and Cartago, which allowed its consolidation as the capital of Costa Rica.
The history of the Costa Rican legislature is long and starts from even before its formal independence from the Spanish Empire. Costa Rica is one of the world's oldest democracies, thus, its parliamentary history dates back several centuries.
The First Political Statute of the Province of Costa Rica was issued on March 19, 1823 by the newly independent provisional government and replaced the Pact of Concord as its Political Constitution.
The Second Political Statute of the Province of Costa Rica was issued on May 16, 1823 by the interim government and the Second Provincial Congress of the Province of Costa Rica. It was issued just after the Ochomogo War when the monarchist camp settled in Cartago and Heredia and headed by Joaquín de Oreamuno as its commander of arms, was defeated by the Republican side commanded by Gregorio José Ramírez and gravitated around San José and Alajuela.
The Fundamental Law of the Free State of Costa Rica, sometimes called the Political Constitution of 1825, was issued on January 25, 1825 by the Constituent Congress of the State of Costa Rica and during a time the country was a formal member of the Federal Republic of Central America. It would function until it was abrogated by Braulio Carrillo Colina who in 1838 takes power in a dictatorial manner and issues on March 8, 1841 the Decree of Basis and Guarantees that will operate as a de facto constitution until the arrival of Francisco Morazán in 1844 who overthrew Carrillo and was temporarily restored.
The Decree of Bases and Guarantees was the de facto constitutional text of Costa Rica, granted on March 8, 1841 by the Head of State Braulio Carrillo Colina.
The Founding Junta of the Second Republic was a de facto government which existed in the Republic of Costa Rica from May 8, 1948 to November 8, 1949, with the overthrow of the constitutional president Teodoro Picado Michalski, by a group of revolutionaries headed by José Figueres Ferrer.
Gregorio José Ramírez y Castro was a Costa Rican politician, merchant and marine who was most notable for being the 2nd General Commander of Arms of Costa Rica from April 5 to April 16, 1823.
Ochomogo is a location in the province of Cartago, Costa Rica. It is in a mountain pass between the cities of San José and Cartago. It was the site of the Battle of Ochomogo between those who wanted Costa Rica to join the newly formed First Mexican Empire and those who preferred independence.
From January 1822 to July 1823, the five Central American nations of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua were under the control of the First Mexican Empire, and briefly, the Supreme Executive Power. Each nation was one of the five southernmost provinces of the Mexican Empire, and their incorporation brought Mexico to the height of its territorial extent.
