As we all know, the World Cup, like the Olympics, is a symbol of peace. As the most prestigious international sports event in the world today, the World Cup can well promote peaceful exchanges between countries. Of the 32 teams competing in the World Cup in Qatar today, Costa Rica is undoubtedly the one that best exemplifies this purpose, given that the country does not even have an army.
On December 1, 1948, Costa Rica announced the "formal disbandment of the national army", thus becoming the first country in the world to officially abolish the army.
You may not be familiar with Costa Rica, a small, remote country in Central America. The country has a land area of about 51,000 square kilometers and a population of about 5.2 million. Central America is one of the least developed regions in the world, where production is backward and poor countries are clustered, such as Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador, which are all famous poor countries in Latin America. However, in poor and backward Central America, Costa Rica is an outlier, with a bright economic performance and is known as the "Switzerland of Central America".
Taking GDP data as an example, Costa Rica's per capita GDP in 2021 was about $12,000, second only to Panama among Central American countries. You must know that Costa Rica does not have a cash cow like the Panama Canal, everything is created by its own hands, and it is quite good to achieve such results. In a sense, Costa Rica is the most developed country in Central America.
Costa Rica's ability to stand out in poor and backward Central America has a lot to do with its lack of an army. Because this part of Central America is poor in large part because of its chaotic regional environment. This is the most chaotic region on earth, with perennial wars and conflicts, either a coup d'état in this country or a fight in that country.
It is this frequent armed struggle that has greatly dragged down the country's economic development and made it difficult to get rid of poverty. And how can Costa Rica, as a country that does not even have an army, talk about war?
Of course, just because you don't hit someone doesn't mean they won't hit you. Under the law of the jungle system, the army is ultimately the guarantee for maintaining a country's stability, and abolishing the army is tantamount to abolishing one's own martial arts and putting oneself in danger. Especially in an already chaotic place like Central America, it is undoubtedly difficult to give a sense of security without an army.
So the question arises, what motivates Costa Rica to abolish its army despite its national defense?
Like most Latin American countries, Costa Rica had a colonial experience. Costa Rica fell into a Spanish colony as early as the 16th century and was ruled for nearly two centuries. It was not until 1821, when a wave of independence swept through Latin America, that Costa Rica was able to break free from Spanish colonial control.
Costa Rica did not immediately establish a state after independence, but formed a large family with the provinces of the former Spanish colony of Central America, the Federal Republic of Central America. Unfortunately, due to the extremely complex geography of Central America and traffic congestion, the political and economic environment of the federal provinces is very different, and it is difficult to play together.
Therefore, the family of the Central American Federation only existed for 18 years before it was dissolved, and the members flew solo to establish a state. Among them, Costa Rica had seceded from the federation as early as 1838 and established a republic in 1848, thus officially opening the national form of Costa Rica.
Due to the subtropical climate of Costa Rica, this place also has fertile volcanic soil, which is very suitable for coffee cultivation. Therefore, as early as the Spanish colonial period, the coffee industry became the economic pillar of Costa Rica, which gave birth to a number of manor owners who made their fortunes by growing coffee.
These people control the economic lifeblood of Costa Rica and are well-deserved snakes, even the colonial government has to give them three thin faces. After the Spaniards left, they relied on their financial advantages to recruit private armed forces and became the most powerful class in Costa Rica. Among them, the Mora Polas family, as the largest coffee estate owner family in Costa Rica, stole state power after the establishment of Costa Rica and became the "royal family" of the country.
For more than a decade after Costa Rica's founding, members of the Mora Polas family were at the top of politics. For example, Rafael Mora, known as the "father of the nation" by Costa Rica, has served as vice president and president. Among them, when he was vice president, the presidency was his younger brother Miguel Mora. His other younger brother, Joaquín Mora, became commander-in-chief of the army in Costa Rica.
In addition, his brother-in-law and brother-in-law, who were important government officials and high-ranking military officials at the time, respectively, and his brother-in-law, Montealegre, was the second president of Costa Rica after Rafael Mora.
It is worth mentioning that the presidency of Montealegre was not obtained normally, but after overthrowing his brother-in-law Rafael Mora. This Montealegre is of similar origin to Rafael Mora, and also comes from a family of manor owners in Costa Rica, belonging to the representative of that class.
The same class, coupled with the connection of in-laws, Monte Yalegre should have been Rafael Mora's strongest supporter, but the president's "betrayal" of his own class pushed him to the opposite side of his brother-in-law.
Although Raphael Mora was born as a manor owner, he was a very "close to the people" president. During his time in power, he introduced a large number of policies that benefited the people at the bottom, and he even distributed land to poor peasants. Rafael Mora's policies were supported by the people at the bottom and became the "father of the fatherland" in the hearts of Costa Ricans. But at the same time, it also violated the interests of the manor owner class, and was miserably abandoned. His brother-in-law, Monteyalegre, became the new spokesperson for this class.
In August 1859, Montetalegre, supported by conservative forces, staged a military coup that overthrew the regime of Raphael Mora. For Rafael Mora, the coup d'état was the end of his reigning career, but for Costa Rica, it was the beginning of a nightmare. In the decades that followed, coups d'état in Costa Rica frequent, and the owners of the estates changed their spokespersons.
For example, in November 1868, Jiménez staged a coup d'état that overthrew Castro. In April 1870, Ramirez staged a coup d'état to overthrow Jiménez. Just 4 months later, Guardia staged another coup d'état to overthrow Ramirez...
After Guardia came to power, relying on his strong control of the army, Costa Rica ushered in a period of political stability, but it also plunged Costa Rica into a cycle of dictatorship. The presidents after Guardia were almost all military men, and they first controlled the army and then the regime.
This political environment of military dictatorship actually further increased the influence of the military on the stability of state power, laying the groundwork for a more serious military coup d'état. Sure enough, in 1917, Defense Minister Tinoco again launched a coup d'état frenzy, pushing Costa Rica into a state of terror.
The frequent military coups and repressive dictatorship of the owners of the manor brought terrible harm to the Costa Rican people. They are increasingly aware that a sustained, stable and democratic political environment is what their country desperately needs. In this historical context, a key figure named Figueres was pushed to the foreground of history.
Figueres was also a Costa Rican coffee farmer at the beginning, with more than 1,000 workers under his staff at the height of his career. But unlike traditional conservative forces, Figueres came from an intellectual family, one of whom were doctors and the other of teachers. Therefore, he has been exposed to democratic education since he was a child, and when he grew up, he went to the United States to study and absorbed more democratic ideas.
Figueres, who grew up in this educational background, is obviously different from those old-fashioned. Although he later returned to China to start a business and become the owner of the manor, he was incompatible with the traditional ruling class, but was more inclined to the bottom people. On his estate, the workers were not only given good living conditions, but also medical care and even education for their children. In Costa Rica at the time, it was something that I couldn't even imagine.
For Figueres's alternative, although the other manor owners are dissatisfied but helpless, after all, people are playing in their own manor, spending their own money, and no one can care. However, Figueres is not satisfied with renovating his estate, he wants to change the whole of Costa Rica.
In 1948, Costa Rica opened a new presidential election. As a result, former President Calderón lost the election to the National Union Party of Urart. However, Calderón believed that Urat had cheated in the election and refused to admit defeat. Since Calderón was behind the ruling party and controlled the Legislative Assembly, the results of this election were ultimately declared null and void. But for such an outcome, the forces behind Urat will undoubtedly not accept, so the protest followed and further expanded to the whole country.
Taking advantage of this chaotic opportunity, Figueres led troops to start the Costa Rican Civil War and successfully overthrew the government. After the victory, Figueres did not immediately return power to Urart, but established a transitional ruling council chaired by him.
The ruling council existed for 18 months, and it was during those 18 months that Figueres began to make sweeping reforms to Costa Rica. One of the most far-reaching is the "abolition of the army."
After the end of the civil war in 1948, Figueres personally smashed Costa Rica's standing army at the Bellavista barracks and wrote it into the constitution in 1949. Since then, Costa Rica has not had a civil war, let alone a dictator. All the political environment is moving in a stable direction, which provides a guarantee for the subsequent economic prosperity of Costa Rica.
Of course, "abolishing the army" is always very risky, and although it solves internal chaos, it deepens the external threat. After all, without the protection of the army, Costa Rica would have a hard time facing external invasions, especially in chaotic Central America.
In January 1955, for example, Calderón, who had been expelled by Figueres, made a comeback and invaded Costa Rica with a group of mercenaries. Although their size is only more than a thousand people, it is still a very big threat to Costa Rica, which has abolished its army. Although Figueres was actively preparing for war at that time and organized tens of thousands of troops, he was only barely defensive. It was only through the intervention of the Organization of American States that Costa Rica successfully resisted the invasion.
Calderon's invasion made Figueres realize the need for national defense, but he still did not choose to restore the army, but adopted another approach - neutrality.
In November 1983, Costa Rica declared itself permanently neutral, which was recognized by the international community. This is similar to Switzerland, no country can wage war against it, otherwise it will be subject to various sanctions and even military attacks by the international community. This means that as long as Costa Rica plays by the rules, it doesn't really need to worry too much about the threat of invasion from outside. And for a Costa Rica that doesn't even have an army, even if they don't want to play by the rules, it's probably hard to do.
While the abolition of the army had kept Costa Rica away from endless coup civil wars, permanent neutrality now solved the external threat for Costa Rica. In this way, a safe and stable development environment has been created, Costa Rica has no worries, can concentrate on developing the economy, live well, and finally stand out from the poor and backward Central America and become the "Switzerland of Central America" that everyone yearns for.
Perhaps it is precisely because of this safe and stable living environment that Costa Ricans can calm down and play football and unleash their football talent that belongs exclusively to Latin Americans.
As a small country with a population of nearly 5 million, Costa Rica has been able to reach the World Cup many times. Counting this trip to Qatar, Costa Rica has reached the World Cup for 5 years. Among them, in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, they also reached the last eight in history, reaching a height that our men's football team did not dare to imagine. If it were the same thing as a commonplace coup d'état in Costa Rica, could it still achieve such results?