History
During the pre-Columbian time, Alajuela was occupied by an indigenous group called 'Huetares' in the south and 'Votos', 'Guatusos', 'Tices' and 'Catapas' in the north. In 1574 the indigenous reservation of Santa Catalina was founded which today is the Canton of Mateo.
Following the establishment of the city of Cartago in the latter part of the 16th century, the incipient population began expanding westward. By the beginning of the 18th century, the population of Heredia had grown such that it became a second base of expansion, again to the west.
To the Catholic colonists one drawback to founding new settlements was the inherent difficulty in attending mass when living far from the established towns. For this reason, in 1782, a new parish that included several small settlements scattered to the west of Heredia was formed in a site known as La Lajuela. Over time this place name evolved into Alajuela, which was also known as Villa Hermosa, "beautiful village."
The settlement of the northern portion of this province only began in earnest in the later half of the 19th century, and even so did not reach great proportions until the second half of the 20th century owing largely to the difficult access. In fact, much of the original colonization (apart from that of the Botos tribes who had inhabited the region for centuries prior to the coming of the Spaniards) came not from Costa Rica, but from Nicaragua since numerous navigable rivers flow north from their origins in the cordilleras and empty into either Lake Nicaragua or the San Juan River. This natural geographic connection was used (and to some extent still is today) by people coming from Nicaragua in search of new land or for exploiting forest products (e.g., hunting, rubber tapping, and extracting ipecac root).
Read more about this topic: Alajuela Province
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Don’t give your opinions about Art and the Purpose of Life. They are of little interest and, anyway, you can’t express them. Don’t analyse yourself. Give the relevant facts and let your readers make their own judgments. Stick to your story. It is not the most important subject in history but it is one about which you are uniquely qualified to speak.”
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)
“The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it.”
—Lytton Strachey (1880–1932)
“Considered in its entirety, psychoanalysis won’t do. It’s an end product, moreover, like a dinosaur or a zeppelin; no better theory can ever be erected on its ruins, which will remain for ever one of the saddest and strangest of all landmarks in the history of twentieth-century thought.”
—Peter B. Medawar (1915–1987)