The First Costa Rican Republic is the name given to the
historical period
In historiography, periodization is the process or study of categorizing the past into discrete, quantified, and named blocks of time for the purpose of study or analysis.Adam Rabinowitz.It's about time: historical periodization and Linked Ancie ...
between the proclamation of the
Republic of Costa Rica in the
1848 reformed Constitution and the official decree by then
President José María Castro Madriz on 31 August 1848 and the
Costa Rican Civil War of 1948 which ended with the enactment of the current
1949 Constitution on 7 November 1949 starting the
Second Costa Rican Republic.
The First Costa Rican Republic marked the dominion of the
liberal ideology and the hegemony of a very powerful liberal oligarchy that ruled the country for most of its history. The liberal hegemony was so prevalent that the period between 1870 and 1940 is known as the ''
Liberal State''. However, the exhaustion of the model and discontent from the working classes would result in a series of left-leaning social-reformist governments in the 1930s and 1940s and the consequent civil war.
History
The First Republic was founded by the last President of the
Free State of Costa Rica and first
President of the
Republic of Costa Rica José María Castro Madriz earning the official title of “Father of the Republic” in Costa Rica's law. Liberal and
freemason, Madriz was a brilliant intellectual trying to promote a very enlighten society.
Madriz would be president in two non-consecutive terms, both of them deposed by the military. During this period the long authoritarian government of General
Tomás Guardia happened.
However, Guardia was also a liberal and promoted some progressive reforms including the abolition of the
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...
and the use of
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...
since 1871.
Guardia's Constitution of 1871 is the longer lasting
Constitution of Costa Rica to this date. Another important presidency was that of
Juan Rafael Mora Porras, caudillo during the
Filibuster War which is by many historians considered Costa Rica's true “war of independence”.
Despite its achievements in many areas including economy, secularization, freedoms and civil rights, the liberal hegemony gave little space for dissent.
Both the conservatives and the more left-leaning groups were excluded from power by the use of questionable methods, and authoritarian governments and factional fighting among the liberals were common. For example, the
1889 Costa Rican general election saw the fights between the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
supporting candidate
José Joaquín Rodríguez Zeledón against liberal
Ascensión Esquivel Ibarra with the government of then president
Bernardo Soto Alfaro openly supporting Esquivel and almost rejecting Zeledón's victory until popular unrest changed his mind and caused his resignation. Similarly president
Alfredo González Flores attempt to tax the Grand Capital caused the
1917 Costa Rican coup d'état by
Federico Tinoco and his short-lived
two years dictatorship.
But the real challenge to the Liberal model would come from the
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...
groups that started to flourish in the early 20th century, including groups of
Christian socialists,
social-democrats,
anarchists,
socialists
Socialism is an economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes the economic, political, and socia ...
and
communists
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...
.
This helped in the victory of
Christian socialist candidate
Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia in the
1940 Costa Rican general election. Calderón's alliance with the
Communist Party of Costa Rica led by
Manuel Mora and the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
led by archbishop allowed the
Social Reform, which at the same time would cause the outbreak of the Civil War.
Government
The Constitution of 1847 creates for the first time the office of President of the Republic (formerly President of the State) and a Vice President is created to replace him in his temporary or permanent absences, however the position of vice president would be abolished in 1859 and not it would be restored until the creation of the two vice-presidencies in 1949. In their place there were "appointed to the presidency" elected among the legislators. The Constitution of 1847 established a unicameral system with a single parliament called
Constitutional Congress, however the constitutions of 1844, 1859, 1869 and 1917 all stipulated bicameral systems with a
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
and a
House of Representatives or Deputies.
It also established an Independent judiciary.
Religion
The 1847 Constitution established the official status of the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
as the
state religion and the prohibition of any other public worship.
However, the 1848 Constitutional reform despite keeping the official status and the exclusive right to receive public funding, also allowed
freedom of religion
Freedom of religion or religious liberty, also known as freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice ...
. All other Constitutions kept the state religion status of Catholicism and the duty of the State to funding it, but explicitly established the religious tolerance of the other faiths which was a difference from most of the Constitutions of the previous
State of Costa Rica that made Catholicism mandatory.
The Costa Rican population at the time was very homogenous religiously and almost all of the population was Catholic.
Freemasonry
Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...
was introduced in 1865 and soon became popular among the liberal elites, alongside the influential
Theosophical Society
The Theosophical Society is the organizational body of Theosophy, an esoteric new religious movement. It was founded in New York City, U.S.A. in 1875. Among its founders were Helena Blavatsky, a Russian mystic and the principal thinker of the ...
.
A series of
anti-clerical measures after the consolidation of the
Liberal State after 1870 which included the expulsion of the
Jesuits
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
and prohibition of all monastic orders, expulsion of Bishop Bernard Thiel, secularization of education and cemeteries, closure of the Santo Tomás University and legalization of
divorce
Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the M ...
and
civil marriage caused tensions with the Catholic Church that almost causes a civil uprising during the
1889 Costa Rican general election. However, after a while both the Church and the liberal elite found themselves enjoying a certain stability with their respective camps of action thoroughly delimited.
On June 1, 1902 the first official lodge of the
Theosophical Society
The Theosophical Society is the organizational body of Theosophy, an esoteric new religious movement. It was founded in New York City, U.S.A. in 1875. Among its founders were Helena Blavatsky, a Russian mystic and the principal thinker of the ...
is founded in the country.
Further migratory waves of new ethnic groups attracted for economic opportunities or escaping poverty or persecution in their countries made even more diverse the religious landscape including the immigration of
Polish Jews
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...
,
Maronite
Maronites (; ) are a Syriac Christianity, Syriac Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant (particularly Lebanon) whose members belong to the Maronite Church. The largest concentration has traditionally re ...
Lebanese,
Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
Chinese and
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
Jamaicans
Jamaicans are the citizens of Jamaica and their descendants in the Jamaican diaspora. The vast majority of Jamaicans are of Sub-Saharan African descent, with minorities of Europeans, Indians, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and others of mixed a ...
during late 19th and early 20th century.
References
{{Costa Rica topics
Former countries in Central America
19th century in Costa Rica
20th century in Costa Rica
Liberalism in Costa Rica