REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES DECLASSIFIED Authority Stateletter Whe eyme, NARA Cate 2498 RECU conditions or from a patriotic impetus such as has occurred in other countries within recent years.
For the purpose of this report, it will be useful to consider mationalism under the two headings of political and economic nationalism. In turning to the first named heading, Costa Rica traditional Misolationists policy comes at once to mind: early in the nation life a proud spirit of independence grew up under the illusion of which the myth of an orderly, revolutionless country was nurtured and given wide circulation; the inhabitants developed a feeling of superiority toward their brother central Americans, not supplied by nature with skins as white or with consciences as civic as they themselves were, which had its natural consequences in the continuous refusal of costa Rica to support the Union of the Central American Republics.
The circumstances of costa Rica part in the stand against Walker and the filibusters were such as to permit the growth of the belief that this country was the savior of Central America. The national ego swelled correspondingly and toward the close of the 19th century, as the tide of gold from coffee began to flow back heavier and heavier from Europe, it was suitably translated into ambitious material monuments, such as the National Opera House, railroads, et cetera.
With the turn of the century, the ego, while still inflated, subsided somewhat, and Costa Rica consented