" In all ways is it a traditional nation-state. Its history only proves what the people of Costa Rica have earned, and that is the status of being a leading country in the progressive improvement of the living in Central America .
Although it formed an integeral part of the Spanish empire, the country developed along lines very different from Spain's other colonies in the New World, especially after independence. This can be seen today by the strong sense of national identity (Ticos pride themselves first as being Costa Ricans rather then Central Americans, or even Latin Americans.) and by the fact that the country has largely avoided the political turmoil that often beset so much of Latin America, and Central America. However, it is a fact that the strife and turmoil in the region conjures up a less than rosy picture in the minds of most Americans and Europeans. People not well acquainted with Costa Rica often equate the problems in countries such as El Salvador and Nicaragua with all of Central America. Ironically, Costa Rica recently became well-known around the world because of its role in the Central American peace process during 1986 and 1987. The culmination of Costa Rica's efforts, which brought differing sides in Central America to the negotiating table, was the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Oscar Arias in 1987.
The first encounters with the "outside" world, or the Old World, as we know it, was in 1502, when Christopher Columbus sought shelter from a storm on his last voyage to the "New World." He came across the tribe known as the Caribb, who told Columbus of great amounts of gold in the area. Those stories, combined with the large amounts of jewelry being worn by the natives convinced Columbus that he had found a land of great wealth. He promptly claimed it as Spain's territory, and named it Costa Rica, Spanish for "rich coast." .
This discovery by Columbus started the Spanish Colonial Era in Costa Rica which, in turn, moved Costa Rica into a whole new phase of its "existence," for lack of a better word.
