History of Costa Rica
Human habitation can be traced back more than 10,000 years but it appears Costa Rica was sparsely populated and a relative backwater in the pre-Columbian era. There is little sign of major communities and none of the impressive stone architecture that characterized the more advanced civilizations of Mesoamerica to the north and the Andes to the south. When Columbus arrived near Lim¢¢n on September 18, 1502 on his third and last voyage to the Americas, there were probably no more than 20,000 indigenous inhabitants They lived in several autonomous tribes, all with distinct cultures and customs. Costa Rica's only major archaeological site is at Guayabo, 30 miles east of San Jos‚‚, where an ancient city, dating back to 1000 B.C. and though to have contained 10,000 people at its peak, is currently being excavated. Many interesting gold, jade and pottery artefacts have been found throughout the region and are on display in several museums in San Jose.
The Indians gave Columbus gold and he returned to Europe with reports of a plentiful supply of the yellow metal. But the adventurers who arrived to cash in found only hostile Indians, swamps and disease for their trouble. Several early attempts to colonize the Atlantic coast failed for the same reasons and for almost half a century Costa Rica was passed over while colonization gathered pace in countries to the north and south. In 1562, the Spanish main's administrative center in Guatemala sent Juan Vasquez de Coronado to Costa Rica as governor and Cartago was established as the capital the following year. With no Indian slaves to work the land, the colonists were forced to work the land themselves, scratching out a meagre subsistence by tilling small plots.
The impoverished colony grew slowly and was virtually ignored by the Spanish rulers in Guatemala. By the late 18th century, the settlements that would buela had been founded and exports of wheat and tobacco were making economic conditions somewhat better.
Central America gained independence from Spain on September 15, 1821. The news reached Costa Rica a month after the event. The question of whether Costa Rica should join newly independent Mexico or join a new confederation of Central American states resulted in a bitter quarrel between the leaders of San Jose and their counterparts in Cartago and Heredia. A brief civil war in 1823 was won by San Jose and Costa Rica joined the confederation.
How exactly do social trends start and how do they become such huge phenomena? The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell explains how ideas, trends, and behaviors reach a “tipping point” (Gladwell, 2000). According to Gladwell, a tipping point is the peak of a particular phenomenon. The Tipping Point describes exactly how health epidemics, fashion trends, television shows, products, etc. become popular and last for elongated periods of time. In this summary, I will attempt to reiterate what Gladwell means in reference to “how little things make big differences.”
To understand the machinations of General Guardia, we must first look briefly at Costa Rica’s historical situation. As noted by innumerable books and articles on the subject, the term “Costa Rica” was something of a misnomer for the country until the coffee-boom of the 1830s and 40s. The “rich coast” was named, as legend has it, by Christopher Columbus himself after landing there in 1502 and seeing natives adorned with gold. Ironically, the natives witnessed by Columbus were not natives at all, but invading members of the Carib tribe that had brought their own gold to this relatively poor place. True to form, Columbus displayed a stunning misinterpretation of the facts and coined the site “Costa Rica” (Watkins). This “discovery” in 1502 would, as in the rest of Latin America, herald the end of life as the indigenous knew it. For the next 300 years Costa Rica would find itself under Spanish control, yet this burden was significantly lightened by the absence of riches the Europeans craved. These long centuries under Spanish influence would find Costa Rica in the position of the periphery, relatively spared from the harsh rule often employed in more profitable sectors.
In his first historical fiction novel, Khaled Hosseini tells the story of a young boy growing up in Afghanistan. The Kite Runner is the story of Amir, the young boy, and the path his life takes because of the decisions he makes when he is a young child. Forgiveness is woven throughout the book as it takes Amir to places he might not have gone if he hadn’t been able to forgive.
Mistakes can be extremely influential to the person who made the mistake’s life. Khaled Hosseini uses multiple forms of conflict involving Amir, a character from his book The Kite Runner to show that mistakes can haunt a person’s life and have monumental effects on them in the future. Amir’s mistake was fatal and continued to affect him many years later, even into his adulthood. The internal and social conflicts occurring when Amir made his mistake clarify the gravity of his mistake as well as show why his mistake haunts him even as an adult. Hosseini uses internal and social conflict to show the fatality of Amir’s mistake which shows why this mistake haunts him and affects his choices years later.
The so-called Battle of Nicaragua at the time of the American Revolution, however, ended British attempts to win a permanent foothold in the country. Their independence began at the beginning of the 19th century, and Nicaragua declared itself independent of Spain in 1821. A year later it became part of the short-lived Mexican empire of Agustn de Iturbide, and in 1823, after Iturbide's downfall, it joined the United Provinces of Central America. In 1893 a successful revolution brought the Liberal leader José Santos Zelaya to power. He remained president for the next 16 years, ruling as a dictator.
The book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell is about the moment when a product, behavior, or idea spreads throughout the world. In writing this, Malcolm Gladwell was trying to help people understand how something can go from not being popular to being the latest fad, how crime rates in New York suddenly dropped lower than ever in the 1990s, and why William Dawes wasn’t nearly as successful as Paul Revere. Teaching people how the tipping point is achieved was the primary message of The Tipping Point.
The native populations of Panama include the Chibchan, Chocoan, and Cueva communities, and like the fates of many indigenous populations in a period of European colonization, they were dealt a poor hand. In the early 1500s, Rodrigo de Bastidas from Spain became the first European to officially explore the Isthmus. Alonso de Ojeda and Diego de Nicuesa were granted permission to begin colonization shortly after, in 1509. Thus the first European colonies in Panama emerged, and the Spanish-influenced culture of Panama began to unfold. Many of the native populations chose to relocate to the surrounding islands, away from Spanish influence. Panama remained under Spanish control until the 1800s.
There were a few main points that led up to the Latin American independence movement. In, 1797 the Britain blockade of Spain took place for two years, which cut off resources and revenues for the country. In doing so, Britain had almost proved to Mexico that they could survive on their own in the New World without Spain. About 10 years later in 1808, Spain was in serious trouble with France and Napoleon Bonaparte had taken over Spain and appointed his brother King of Spain. Spain was in there own sort of disarray at this time so after proving to themselves
The United States of America and Costa Rica’s constitutions have several similarities and differences. The United States and Costa Rica have two of the most successful constitutional republics in the history of the world. They are alike in several ways, however, there are some major differences that allows them to thrive in their own environments. There are many components that describe the two countries: physical structure, traditions and how the constitutions were established, how the constitutions work, languages, military, religion, education, voting rights, presidential elections, and structure of the legislative branch, presidential terms, vice presidents, and Supreme Court justices.
In the year of 1492, the Queen and King of Spain developed thoughts of strengthening their power and seeking new sources of wealth. This being stated the Queen and King had agreed on financing Christopher Columbus’s expedition, hoping it would bring the kingdom wealth (Ellis 2004). On October 12 Columbus had discovered a new location, due to this discovery; Latin America had been colonized by the Spanish conquistadors sent by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Overall, Latin America had been colonized for the sake of seeking wealth (Ellis 2004). Obtaining gold was the simple way of gaining wealth. Gold was the resource that attracted Spaniards to the Island of Hispaniola, because it was also King Ferdinand's interest (De la Riva 2003 ). Thus it ended up becoming the ultimate goal of the Christian Spaniards sent to Hispaniola to acquire gold and swell themselves in riches. (Las Casas 1552).Trading was also the key to getting wealthy; the more resources available for trade the more wealth will be gained. Resources in the New World attracted the Spanish conquistadors to Latin America; it was also what he...
The media is a powerful resource for the Presidency and for the people of the United States. Justice Frankfurter, of the Supreme Court, said “A free press is indispensable to the workings of our democratic society.” He says that the American people need the media to be informed about government workings, foreign affairs, and events of importance. Without this...
In the Tipping Point, How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Malcolm Gladwell, analyzes the start of trends and the outcomes of those trends. Gladwell claims that most trends, styles, and phenomena are born and spread according to routes of transmission and conveyance that are unusually similar.
As centuries crawl by, the concept of music has remained largely a part of social and economic interactions within human culture. Of all instruments that contribute, the guitar is one of the most complex and most widely used across all genres of music. There are records that suggest that the guitar has even been played since the time of the Babylonians (Findlay 3). With that said, the guitar is also one of the most elaborate instruments to build, with the most factors and variables involved in construction. The most important variable is the materials chosen to create the instrument. Contrary to popular belief, the quality of said materials to construct a guitar affects its sound immensely. The subject of materials and components has been a matter of debate between stringed-instrument aficionados and luthiers for decades. The driving force that allows materials to affect the resonance of the guitar so immensely is the guitar’s design; it allows the physics of sound to create most of the instrument’s natural tone.
Four hundred years ago the guitar was invented. Since then, guitar has been a great innovative instrument. It serves as the heart of a song, or sound. From Jazz, and Blues, to Heavy Metal, and punk music guitar has been perhaps the biggest factor in modern music. Between acoustic guitar, and electric guitar there is a lot of history.
Cultural and societal norms forbid the expression of certain feelings and influence the thoughts we are allowed to share. Inhibiting our emotions creates inner-turmoil, which influences long-term guilt and shame. However, sometimes we, ourselves decide to keep our feelings a secret because we are anxious about our reputations and how others see us. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, is a strong example of how the lack of sharing these feelings affects our future emotional developments. In the book to movie adaptation of The Kite Runner, the point of view is changed from first to third person, so we must rely purely on Amir’s actions to understand instead of the descriptive details of his thoughts, and because of this we lose the understanding of his emotions and some of the relationships throughout the movie thus, weakening the theme significantly; when people stifle their thoughts, they often experience remorse, but when people share their thoughts, they feel a sense of relief.