Early Settlers
It seems more appropriate to discuss Costa Rica's lack of colonial experience, rather than a bona fide colonization. In 1562, Juan Vasquez de Coronado became the second governor of Costa Rica. Coronado has always been portrayed as the good guy, reputed for his favourable, if not benevolent, treatment of the indigenous peoples he encountered in his migration from the Pacific coast to the Valle Central. It was under his administration that the first settlement of any size or importance was established, and Cartago , in the heart of the Valle Central, became capital. During the next century settlers confined themselves more or less to the centre of the country. The Caribbean coast was the haunt of buccaneers - mainly English - who put ashore and wintered here after plundering the lucrative Spanish Main; the Pacific coast saw its share of pirate activity too, most famously when Sir Francis Drake put ashore briefly in the modern-day Bahia Drake in 1579. This first epoch of the colony is remembered as one of unremitting poverty . Within a decade of its invasion Costa Rica was notorious and widely disparaged throughout the Spanish Empire for its lack of gold. The land of the Valle Central was fertile, but there was uncertainty as to which crops to grow. Coffee had not yet been imported to Costa Rica, nor had tobacco, so it was to subsistence agriculture that most settlers turned, growing just enough to live on. In 1719, the governor of Costa Rica famously complained that he had to till his own land. To make matters worse, Volcan Irazu blew its top in 1723, nearly destroying the capital.
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