The empire, domain or lordship of

King Garabito Garabito was an indigenous king of the Huetar ethnic group, who approximately between 1561 and 1574 was a monarch of the Western Huetar Kingdom and its surroundings, in the current territory of Costa Rica. A 1566 document indicates that in 1561 ...

was a vast territory controlled by Huetar

and that extended through most of the Central Valley of Costa Rica from the Virilla River (natural border with the also Huetar but smaller Señorío del Guarco) in modern San José to the Atlantic Slope in what is now the north of the country (

Alajuela Alajuela () is a district in the Alajuela canton of the Alajuela Province of Costa Rica. As the seat of the Municipality of Alajuela canton, it is awarded the status of city. By virtue of being the city of the first canton of the province, it i ...

, Grecia and San Carlos mainly). Garabito's domain transcended the borders of the

Western Huetar Kingdom The Western Huetar Kingdom, also called Lordship of Garabito, Kingdom of Garabito or Cacicazgo of Garabito, was an Amerindian nation located in Costa Rica. It was one of the two great indigenous kingdoms of the central part of the country, the ot ...

where it had multiple vassal populations such as Coyoche, Abacara, Chucasque, Cobobici (possibly Corobicí), Cobux, Yurustí and Barva, and also included several submissive peoples but not incorporated into their kingdom; the Botos, Tises and Catapas. Although the exact location of its capital is unknown, it is speculated that it could be in San Ramón near where it made war raids against the botos. The empire was also an enemy of the also vast Kingdom of Nicoya, of ethnic chorotega unrelated to the huétares but with the

Nahuas The Nahuas () are a group of the indigenous people of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. They comprise the largest indigenous group in Mexico and second largest in El Salvador. The Mexica (Aztecs) were of Nahua ethnicity, a ...

instead and that represented other of the largest pre-Hispanic Costa Rican empires. Garabito presented a fierce resistance to the Spanish conquering expansions, considerably delaying the process of conquest and colonization and causing many headaches to the Spanish governors such as Juan de Cavallón and Vázquez de Coronado, but he would finally be defeated and his domain annexed to the governorship of Costa Rica under the name that the Spanish designated as Garabito province.

References

{{authority control Former monarchies of Costa Rica 16th century in Costa Rica Indigenous peoples in Costa Rica Former empires