Costa Rica Essay Example

Costa Rica Essay The countrys official name is Republica de Costa Rica or Republic of Costa Rica.In Spanish Costa Rica means rich coast.You will find the country in Central America.Both water and land surround it.The Pacific Ocean is to the west and the Caribbean Sea is to the east.North of Costa Rica is Nicaragua and the country of Panama is south of it.There are 3 geographical regions in Costa Rica.One is the Pacific Coast, which includes 3 peninsulas, steep cliffs, and sandy beaches.Another region there is the Central Highlands.Here is where the capital and other populous cities remain.Because of its higher elevation there is more rainfall and humidity.The last region is the Caribbean Lowlands.Obviously this is made up of lowlands, but there are the occasional volcanoes and hills.White and black sand beaches are also found here. Two major Indian nations dominated Costa Rica when the Spaniards arrived.They are the Chorotega and the Chibcha.Christopher Columbus was thefirst European to go to Costa R ica.He found the Indians to be nice and seemed to have a lot of gold, so he reported this to the Spanish.This is how the name came about and why the Spaniards went because they believed the Indians would be easy to conquer. Little did they know that the Indians would put up a fight and were not all that easy to conquer.They did eventually conquer they in war and by diseases.Some Indians also left Costa Rica because of fear of being enslaved.The Spaniards also did not find Costa Rica rich with gold.Many years later, an American named William Walker tried to defeat all of Central America to make them slave states for the U.S.He eventually failed and a young drummer boy named, Juan Santamaria, is remembered as a national hero for setting fire to the building Walkers troops were in forcing them to leave the building.Costa Rica eventually won and as a country they becam