Editing Costa Rica (section)

=== Economic growth in the 19th century ===
{{See also|Liberal State}}
[[Coffee]] was first planted in Costa Rica in 1808,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.co.cr/costa-ricas-coffee-tradition/52303/|title=Costa Rica's Coffee Tradition – Costa Rica Star News|date=21 October 2016|access-date=12 August 2017|archive-date=13 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813103455/http://news.co.cr/costa-ricas-coffee-tradition/52303/|url-status=live}}</ref> and by the 1820s, it surpassed [[tobacco]], [[sugar]], and [[cacao bean|cacao]] as a primary [[export]]. Coffee production remained Costa Rica's principal source of wealth well into the 20th century, creating a wealthy class of growers, the so-called Coffee Barons.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.travelcostarica.nu/coffee#history|title=Coffee of Costa Rica – el café|website=www.travelcostarica.nu|access-date=12 August 2017|archive-date=13 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813055045/http://www.travelcostarica.nu/coffee#history|url-status=dead}}</ref> The revenue helped to modernize the country.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.embassycrsg.com/history-of-coffee-in-costa-rica.html|title=History of Coffee in Costa Rica|website=Embajada de Costa Rica en Singapur|access-date=12 August 2017|archive-date=13 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813103822/http://www.embassycrsg.com/history-of-coffee-in-costa-rica.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="cafeimports.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.cafeimports.com/origin_costarica|title=Cafe Imports – Costa Rica|first=Cafe|last=Imports|website=www.cafeimports.com|access-date=4 August 2017|archive-date=5 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170805015137/http://www.cafeimports.com/origin_costarica|url-status=live}}</ref>

Most of the coffee exported was grown around the main centers of population in the Central Plateau and then transported by [[Bullock cart|oxcart]] to the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] port of [[Puntarenas]] after the main road was built in 1846.<ref name="cafeimports.com"/> By the mid-1850s the main market for coffee was Britain.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.anywhere.com/costa-rica/travel-guide/coffee|title=Costa Rica Coffee – Past & Present Coffee Cultivations|website=www.anywhere.com|access-date=12 August 2017|archive-date=13 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813055649/https://www.anywhere.com/costa-rica/travel-guide/coffee|url-status=live}}</ref> It soon became a high priority to develop an effective transportation route from the Central Plateau to the Atlantic Ocean. For this purpose, in the 1870s, the Costa Rican government contracted with U.S. businessman [[Minor C. Keith]] to build a railroad from San José to the [[Western Caribbean Zone|Caribbean]] port of [[Limón]]. Despite enormous difficulties with construction, disease, and financing, the railroad was completed in 1890.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l9QOAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA310|title=Coffee Production and Processing on a Large Costa Rican Finca|publisher=Bib. Orton IICA / CATIE|via=Google Books}}</ref>

Most Afro-Costa Ricans descend from [[Jamaica]]n immigrants who worked in the construction of that railway and now make up about 3% of Costa Rica's population.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} U.S. convicts, Italians, and Chinese immigrants also participated in the construction project. In exchange for completing the railroad, the Costa Rican government granted Keith large tracts of land and a lease on the train route, which he used to produce [[banana]]s and export them to the United States. As a result, bananas came to rival coffee as the principal Costa Rican export, while foreign-owned corporations (including the [[United Fruit Company]] later) began to hold a major role in the national economy and eventually became a symbol of the exploitative export economy.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bUM8y5L1h8kC&q=costa+rica+history+united+fruit+company%27&pg=PA80|title=The History of Costa Rica|first=Monica A.|last=Rankin|date=29 December 2017|publisher=ABC-CLIO|via=Google Books|isbn=9780313379444}}</ref> The major labor dispute between the peasants and the United Fruit Company (The Great Banana Strike) was a major event in the country's history and was an important step that would eventually lead to the formation of effective [[trade unions in Costa Rica]], as the company was required to sign a collective agreement with its workers in 1938.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YujmDAAAQBAJ&q=Great+Banana+strike+1934&pg=PT135|title=Bananas and Business: The United Fruit Company in Colombia, 1899–2000|first=Marcelo|last=Bucheli|date=1 February 2005|publisher=NYU Press|via=Google Books|isbn=9780814769874|access-date=16 October 2020|archive-date=3 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240203170206/https://books.google.com/books?id=YujmDAAAQBAJ&q=Great+Banana+strike+1934&pg=PT135#v=snippet&q=Great%20Banana%20strike%201934&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref><!--?REPEAT2?-->{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/winnerslosershow00shaf|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/winnerslosershow00shaf/page/213 213]|title=Winners and Losers: How Sectors Shape the Developmental Prospects of States|first=D. Michael|last=Shafer|date=29 December 1994|publisher=Cornell University Press|via=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0801481888}}</ref>

==== 20th century ====
{{See also|Reform State}}
Historically, Costa Rica has generally enjoyed greater peace and more consistent political stability than many of its fellow Latin American nations. Since the late 19th century, however, Costa Rica has experienced two significant periods of violence. In 1917–1919, General [[Federico Tinoco Granados]] ruled as a military dictator until he was overthrown and forced into exile. The unpopularity of [[Dictatorship of the Tinoco Brothers|Tinoco's regime]] led, after he was overthrown, to a considerable decline in the size, wealth, and political influence of the Costa Rican military. In 1948, [[José Figueres Ferrer]] led an [[Costa Rican Civil War|armed uprising]] in the wake of a disputed presidential election between [[Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia]] (who had been president between 1940 and 1944) and [[Otilio Ulate Blanco]].<ref>See [https://archive.today/20120717062137/http://reachian.googlepages.com/seniorthesis2 Ian Holzhauer, "The Presidency of Calderón Guardia" (University of Florida History Thesis, 2004)]</ref> With more than 2,000 dead, the resulting 44-day [[Costa Rican Civil War]] was the bloodiest event in Costa Rica during the 20th century.

The victorious rebels formed a government junta that [[military of Costa Rica|abolished the military]] all together and oversaw the drafting of a new constitution by a democratically elected assembly.<ref name="nytimes-military"/> Having enacted these reforms, the junta transferred power to Ulate on 8 November 1949. After the ''coup d'état'', Figueres became a national hero, winning the country's first democratic election under the new constitution [[Costa Rican general election, 1953|in 1953]]. Since then, Costa Rica has held 15 additional presidential elections, the latest [[Costa Rican general election, 2022|in 2022]]. With uninterrupted democracy dating back to at least 1948, the country is the region's most stable.<ref name="peace"/><ref name="pacifism"/>