Nuevo Cartago y Costa Rica was a province of the Kingdom of Guatemala, created in 1540 during the reign of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...

 (King Charles I of Spain). It was formed from two earlier Spanish territories. The first of these was Royal Veragua

Royal Veragua

Royal Veragua was a territory of the Crown of Castile in the early colonial period in the New World. It included the Caribbean slopes from the Río Sixaola to the island Escudo de Veraguas, in what is now Panama...

, the territories on the Caribbean coast that had been part of Columbian Veragua before the creation of the Duchy of Veragua

Duchy of Veragua

The Duchy of Veragua was a Spanish hereditary domain created in 1537 in the reign of King Charles I in a small section of the territory of Veragua...

 in 1537 for Admiral Luis Colón y Toledo, namely present-day Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

, Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

 and part of Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

. The second was the Pacific coast that had constituted Castilla de Oro

Castilla de Oro

Castilla de Oro was the name given by the Spanish settlers at the beginning of the 16th century to the Central American territories from the Gulf of Urabá, near today's Colombian-Panamanian border, to the Belén River. Beyond that river, the region was known as Veragua, and was disputed by the...

, namely from the Gulf of Nicoya

Gulf of Nicoya

The Gulf of Nicoya is an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. It separates the Nicoya Peninsula from the mainland of Costa Rica, and encompasses a marine and coastal landscape of wetlands, rocky islands and cliffs.-Islands:*Chira Island*Venado Island*Isla Caballo...

 on the west to the borders of the Duchy of Veragua.

The first governor of Nuevo Cartago y Costa Rica, named in 1540, was Diego Gutiérrez y Toledo. He arrived in the territory in 1543 and founded the town of Santiago and the city of San Francisco. He was killed by the indigenous inhabitants in 1544.

In 1549 Juan Pérez de Cabrera was named to succeed Gutiérrez y Toledo, but the Crown revoked the nomination. In 1561 Juan de Cavallón y Arboleda was named alcalde mayor

Corregidor (position)

A corregidor was a local, administrative and judicial position in Spain and its empire. He was the highest authority of a Corregimiento. In the Americas a corregidor was often called an alcalde mayor. They began to be appointed in fourteenth century Castile and the institution was definitively...

of the province. His assistant, Fray Juan de Estrade Rávago y Añez succeeded him in 1562. In the same year, Juan Vázquez de Coronado

Juan Vázquez de Coronado

Juan Vásquez de Coronado y Anaya was a Spanish conquistador, remembered especially for his role in the colonization of Costa Rica, in Central America, where he gained a reputation for fairness, effective administration, and good relationships with the native population...

 was named the new alcalde mayor.

In 1565 the territory became Costa Rica Province.