during the colonial period, costa rica was the most southern province of the captaincy general of guatemala. but it mostly ruled itself as a part of the spanish empire. costa rica's distance from the capital in guatemala, its legal prohibition to trade with the viceroyalty of new granada, and the lack of gold and silver made costa rica into a poor, little populated region of the spanish empire. costa rica was called "the poorest and most miserable spanish colony in all america" by a spanish governor in 1719.