page_title: Costa Rica–Spain relations
section_title: Spanish colonization
hierarchical_section_title: Costa Rica–Spain relations / History / Spanish colonization
caption_attribution_description: Español: Indígenas Moyaguas y Xicaguas atacan a las tropas de Diego de Sojo en Santiago de Talamanca (1610). Álbum de Figueroa.
context_page_description: Costa Rica–Spain relations refers to the diplomatic relations between Costa Rica and Spain. Both nations are members of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language and the Organization of Ibero-American States.
context_section_description: In September 1502, explorer Christopher Columbus arrived to eastern Costa Rica on his fourth voyage to the Americas. In 1561, Spanish conquistador Juan de Cavallón y Arboleda led the first successful colonizers into Costa Rica. In 1564, Spain established the town of Cartago, its first settlement in the country. For several decades, Costa Rica was ignored by the Spanish crown due to its distance from the regional capital of the Captaincy General of Guatemala located in Santiago de Guatemala and from the seat of the Viceroy of New Spain located in Mexico City.
  The colony of Costa Rica developed into a poor peasant society with no large land-owning families or large native population, most of which had been massacred during Spanish colonization. Many of the settlers in the territory subsided on cacao and tobacco farming. In 1808, coffee was introduced to Costa Rica from Cuba and became the principal crop of the country.
caption: Native Moyaguas and Xicaguas tribes attack Spanish soldiers led by conquistador Diego de Sojo, 1639.
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