History of Bolivia

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This is the history of Bolivia. See also the history of Latin America and the history of the Americas.

Bolivia is a landlocked country in South America. Bolivia became independent on 6 August 1825.

Pre-Hispanic period[edit]

Tiwanaku at its largest territorial extent, AD 950

The region that is now known as Bolivia has been constantly occupied for over 2,000 years, when the Aymara arrived in the region, eventually settling in Western Bolivia, Southern Peru and Northern Chile. Present-day Aymara associate themselves with an advanced civilization situated at Tiwanaku, in Western Bolivia. The capital city of Tiwanaku dates as early as 1200 BC as a small agriculturally based village.[1] The community grew to urban proportions between AD 600 and AD 800, becoming an important regional power in the southern Andes. According to early estimates, at its maximum extent, the city covered approximately 6.5 square kilometers, and had between 15,000 - 30,000 inhabitants.[2] However, satellite imaging was used recently to map the extent of "flooded-raised field" agriculture (Aymara language: suka kollus) across the three primary valleys of Tiwanaku, arriving at population-carrying capacity estimates of anywhere between 285,000 and 1,482,000 people.[3]

Around AD 400, Tiwanaku went from being a locally dominant force to a predatory state. Tiwanaku expanded its reaches into the Yungas and brought its culture and way of life to many other cultures in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. However, Tiwanaku was not a violent culture in many aspects.

Tiwanaku became very political and did this as a way to expand his reach, creating colonies, trade agreements (which made the other cultures rather dependent), and state cults.[4]

The empire continued to grow with no end in sight. William H. Isbell states that "Tiahuanaco underwent a dramatic transformation between AD 600 and 700 that established new monumental standards for civic architecture and greatly increased the resident population."[5] Tiwanaku continued to absorb cultures rather than eradicate them. Archaeologists have seen a dramatic adoption of Tiwanaku ceramics in the cultures who became part of the Tiwanaku empire. Tiwanaku gained its power through the trade it implemented between all of the cities within its empire.[4] The elites gained their status by the surplus of food they gained from all of the regions and then by having the ability to redistribute the food among all the people. This is where the control of llama herds became very significant to Tiwanaku. The llama herds were essential for carrying goods back and forth between the center and the periphery as well as symbolizing the distance between the commoners and the elites. Their power continued to grow in this manner of a surplus of resources until about AD 950. At this time a dramatic shift in climate occurred.[6]

At this point in time there was a significant drop in precipitation for the Titicaca Basin. Some archaeologists even venture to say that a great drought occurred. As the rain became less and less many of the cities further away from Lake Titicaca began to produce less crops to give to the elites. As the surplus of food ran out for the elites their power began to fall. The capital city became the last place of production, due to the resiliency of the raised fields, but in the end even the intelligent design of the fields was no match for the weather. Tiwanaku disappeared around AD 1000 because food production, their main source of power, dried up. The land was not inhabited for many years after that.[6]

Between 1438 and 1527, the Inca empire embarked on a mass expansion, acquiring much of what is now western Bolivia. However, they could not maintain control of the region for long as the rapidly expanding Inca Empire was internally weak, but nonetheless left the greatest mark on the Bolivian culture. In 1430, the Inca civilization swept across the western part of Bolivia. During this time, the Incas’ expansion increased under the rule of their ninth emperor, Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, whose reign lasted from 1438 to 1471. Pachacuti Yupanqui was succeeded by his son, Topa Inca Yupanqui whose reign also increased the Incan territory and lasted from 1471 to 1493. During the fifteenth century the Incas conquered the region of Lake Titicaca, the last of the Aymaran people and the last of the Native Bolivians. Thus, western Bolivia became a part of the Inca territory.

Spanish colonial period[edit]

Conquest by Spain[edit]

Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro, and Hernando de Luque led the Spanish discovery and conquest of the Inca Empire. They first sailed south in 1524 along the Pacific coast from Panama to confirm the existence of a legendary land of gold called "Biru" (later altered to Peru).

Francisco Pizarro

Because the rapidly expanding Inca Empire was internally weak, the conquest was remarkably easy. After the Inca Emperor Huayna Capac died in 1527, his sons Huascar and Atahualpa fought over the succession. Although Atahualpa defeated his brother, he had not yet consolidated his power when the their strength. Atahualpa did not attempt to defeat Pizarro when he arrived on the coast in 1532 because the Incan ruler was convinced that those who commanded the mountains also controlled the coast. When Pizarro formed alliances with Indians who resented Inca rule, Atahualpa did not modify the Inca ceremonial approach to warfare, which included launching attacks by the light of the full moon. Atahualpa’s refusal to accept the permanent Spanish presence and to convert led to the bloody Battle of Cajamarca on 16 November 1532. Pizarro executed Atahualpa's 12-man honor guard and took the Inca captive at the so-called ransom room. One year later, the Inca capital of Cuzco fell and was refounded as a new Spanish settlement. Despite Pizarro's quick victory, Indian rebellions soon began and continued periodically throughout the colonial period. In 1537, Manco Inca, whom the Spanish had established as a puppet emperor, rebelled against the new rulers and restored a "neoInca" state. This state continued to challenge Spanish authority even after the Spanish suppressed the revolt and beheaded Túpac Amaru in the public square of Cuzco in 1572. Later revolts in the Bolivian highlands were usually organized by the elders of the community and remained local in nature, except for the great rebellion of Túpac Amaru II. The amount of these revolts can be accredited to the foes nature, and their faces.


Indian resistance delayed the conquest and settlement of the Bolivian lowlands. The Spanish established Sa Sierra in 1561, but the Gran Ce colonial name for the arid Chaco region, remained a violent frontier throughout colonial rule. In the Chaco, the Indians, mostly Chiriguano, carried out unrelenting attacks against colonial settlements and remained independent of direct Spanish control.

Inca expansion (1438–1531)

Spanish administration[edit]


The Cerro Rico, from which the Spanish drew most of their silver














Struggle for independence[edit]

As Spanish royal authority weakened during the Napoleonic Wars, sentiment against colonial rule grew. Bolivian historiography dates the proclamation of independence to 1809, but 16 years of struggle followed before the establishment of a republic, named for Simón Bolívar

The invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 1807-08 by Napoleon's forces proved critical to the independence struggle in South America. The overthrow of the Bourbon Dynasty and the placement of Joseph Bonaparte on the Spanish throne tested the loyalty of the local elites in Upper Peru, who were suddenly confronted with several conflicting authorities. Most remained loyal to the Spanish Bourbons. Taking a wait-and-see attitude, they supported the Supreme Central Junta in Spain, a government which claimed to rule in the name of the abdicated Ferdinand VII. Some liberals eagerly welcomed the possible reforms to colonial rule promised by Joseph Bonaparte. A few officials supported the claims to a type of regency of the Spanish realms by Ferdinand's sister, Carlota, who at the moment governed from Brazil with her husband, Prince Regent John of Portugal.[8] Finally, a small number of radical Criollos wanted independence for Upper Peru.[9]

This conflict of authority resulted in a local power struggle in Upper Peru between 1808 and 1810, which constituted the first phase of the efforts to achieve independence. In 1808, the president of the Audiencia, Ramón García León de Pizarro, leaned towards affiliation with Carlotta. But the oidores of the Audiencia favored the Supreme Central Junta. On 25 May 1809, the oidores deposed President García León and established a junta to govern in the name of Ferdinand VII. On 16 July 1809, Pedro Domingo Murillo led another revolt by Criollos and Mestizos in La Paz and proclaimed an independent junta of Upper Peru, which would govern in the name of Ferdinand VII. By November 1809, Cochabamba, Oruro, and Potosí had joined the La Paz junta. Both revolts were put down by forces sent to La Paz by the viceroys of Peru and the Río de La Plata.[10]

During the following seven years, Upper Peru became the battleground for forces of the United Provinces of the River Plate and royalist troops from Peru. Although the royalists repulsed three Argentine invasions, guerrillas controlled parts of the countryside, where they formed six major republiquetas, or zones of insurrection. In these zones, local patriotism would eventually develop into a full fight for independence. By 1817, Upper Peru was relatively quiet and under the control of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

Antonio José de Sucre, hero of Ayacucho

After 1820, conservative Criollos supported General Pedro Antonio de Olañeta, a Charcas native, who refused to accept the restoration of the liberal Spanish Constitution of 1812. Olañeta, convinced that these measures threatened royal authority, refused to join either the liberal royalist forces or the rebel armies under the command of Bolívar and Antonio José de Sucre. Olañeta did not relinquish his command even after the Peruvian royalists included him and his forces in their capitulation agreement following their defeat in the Battle of Ayacucho in 1824. Olañeta continued a quixotic war during the following months until Sucre defeated him, and he was killed by his own men on 1 April 1825, in a battle that effectively ended Spanish rule in Upper Peru. A constitutional congress declared Bolivia an independent republic on 6 August and named the new republic in honor of Bolívar because it considered him its founder.

19th century[edit]

Bolivia during the Peru-Bolivian Confederation

During the presidency of Marshal Andrés de Santa Cruz, Bolivia enjoyed the most successful period of her history with great social and economic advancement. Santa Cruz got involved in internal Peruvian political problems and succeeded in unifying Peru and Bolivia into a confederation, the Peru–Bolivian Confederation. As Santa Cruz openly declared the Inca Empire as a predecessor of his state, this move was perceived as a threat to regional power balance and a menace to countries on former Inca territory. The War of the Confederation broke out and different wars against almost all its neighbors were fought during this period with sound victories against its enemies. Arguably, the turning point took place on the fields of Paucarpata, where the Confederacion Peru-Boliviana, led by Santa Cruz, forced the Chilean and Peruvian rebel armies to sign the peace treaty known as the Paucarpata Treaty, which included their unconditional surrender; later this treaty was discarded by the Chilean parliament. The rebel Peruvians and the Chilean army set off to a new war against Santa Cruz, defeating the Confederation on the fields of Yungay. This was the turning point in Bolivian history; after this moment, coups and short-lived constitutions dominated Bolivian politics for nearly 60 years.

Going through a vicious economic and political crisis, Bolivia's military weakness was demonstrated during the War of the Pacific (1879–83), when it lost its seacoast and the adjoining nitrate rich fields to Chile. An increase in the world price of silver brought Bolivia a measure of relative prosperity and political stability in the late 1800s.

During the early part of the 20th century, about 1907, tin replaced silver as the country's most important source of wealth. A succession of governments applied laissez-faire policies through the first third of the century.

20th century[edit]

Early 20th century[edit]

Bolivia's territorial losses between the second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th century.[dubious ]

Living conditions of the indigenous peoples, who constitute more than half of the population, remained deplorable. Forced to work under primitive conditions in the mines and in nearly feudal status on gigantic estates with vast land with many holdings, they were denied access to education, economic opportunity, or political participation. Bolivia's defeat by Paraguay in the Chaco War (1932–1936) marked a turning point. Great loss of life and territory discredited the traditional ruling classes, while service in the army produced stirrings of political awareness among the indigenous people. A large portion of Gran Chaco was surrendered to Paraguay. In return, Bolivia was given an access to the Paraguay River where, later, Puerto Busch was founded and, with this, free access to the Atlantic Ocean over international water. In 1936 the Standard Oil was nationalized and the state-owned firm Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) was created. From the end of the Chaco War until the 1952 revolution, the emergence of contending ideologies and the demands of new groups convulsed Bolivian politics.

Bolivian National Revolution[edit]

Standing alongside the Bolivian National Revolution is one of the most significant sociopolitical events to occur in Latin America during the 20th century. The Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) emerged from the ashes of the Chaco War in 1941 as a middle-class political coalition eschewing Marxism for a vague nationalist ideology better suited to Bolivia's social reality. The MNR participated in the military-civilian regime of Gualberto Villarroel (1943–46), but was deposed of in 1946 by the mining oligarchy and the Partido Izquierda Revolucionario (PIR). Its members fled into exile and spent the next six years organizing themselves. The party initiated a brief but bloody civil war on October 1949, but was defeated and, once again, exiled. The MNR emerged victorious in the 1951 elections, but the results were called fraudulent by the opposition, and its right to the presidency was denied. On 9 April 1952, the MNR led a successful revolt and set into motion the Bolivian National Revolution. Under President Víctor Paz Estenssoro and later, Hernan Siles, the MNR introduced universal adult suffrage, carried out a sweeping land reform, promoted rural education, and, in 1952, nationalized the country's largest tin mines. What is especially significant about the Revolution is that, for the first time in Republican history, the State attempted to incorporate into national life the Aymara and Quechua peasants that together constituted no less than 65 percent of the total population. Although the policies pursued by the MNR were largely corporatist and assimilationist, it marked a significant turning point in Bolivia's contested history of indigenous-state relations.

Military rule[edit]



Transition to democracy[edit]

After a military rebellion forced out García Meza in 1981, three other military governments within 14 months struggled with Bolivia's growing problems. Unrest forced the military to convoke the Congress elected in 1980 and allowed it to choose a new chief executive.

1982 to present[edit]










2000 Cochabamba protests[edit]

Between January and April 2000, a series of anti-privatization protests took place in Cochabamba against the privatization of the municipal water supply that was being pushed through on the recommendation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The Bolivian government declared martial law, killing several people, arresting protest leaders and shutting down radio stations. After continued disturbances and civic pressure, the government finally rolled back the privatization on 10 April 2000.[11]


2002 presidential election[edit]

President Hugo Banzer resigned in August 2001, due to being diagnosed with lung cancer. He was succeeded by his vice-president, Jorge Quiroga. In the 2002 presidential elections, Sánchez de Lozada ran again, and narrowly beat NFR's Manfred Reyes Villa and the cocalero and indigenous leader Evo Morales of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party, in an election claimed[by whom?] to have been tainted by clear signs [example needed] of electoral fraud[citation needed].

Several days before Bolivians went to the voting booths, the U.S. ambassador, Manuel Rocha, warned the Bolivian electorate that, if they voted for Morales, the US would cut off foreign aid and close its markets to the country.[citation needed] Morales nonetheless received nearly 21% of the vote, putting him only a couple points behind Sánchez de Lozada.

Black October[edit]


Strikes and blockades first erupted in September 2003, with several deaths and dozens of injuries in confrontations with the armed forces. President Sánchez de Lozada resigned under pressure from protesters, formally handing over the presidency to his vice-president, Carlos Mesa, in order to preserve the Constitutional order. He fled the country to the United States. Mesa was inaugurated and promised to address the demands of the protesting majority. In the face of mounting protests, he resigned on 7 March 2005, claiming he was unable to continue governing the country. With promises of support, he withdrew his resignation.

In May–June 2005, Mesa again tendered his resignation and in a hastily convened session of the Parliament in Sucre, Mr.Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé - the President of the Supreme Court - became President on the night of 9 June 2005. Political agreements were reached to modify the Constitution, and allow the full renewal of Parliament, simultaneously with a Presidential Election, on 4 December 2005.

The 2005 election and the Evo Morales administration[edit]

The deterioration of the political system contributed towards the rise of a loose confederation of indigenous social movements, the MAS and others parties, with the head of the MAS, Evo Morales, a former cocalero, as leader. In the elections of December 2005 Evo Morales and MAS obtained a comfortable victory reaching 54% of the electorate's votes, becoming the first Native Bolivian president in history.

On 1 May 2006, Evo Morales delivered on his promises to nationalize most of Bolivia's natural gas fields, which many indigenous Bolivians had demanded for years. Troops were sent in to occupy the gas fields and take back control from foreign companies that same day.[13] Many were operated by Petrobras, Brazil's largest energy company, and this political development was expected to strain relations between Morales and Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. On 29 October 2006, the Morales government signed agreements with eight foreign gas firms including Petrobras, to give the Bolivian national gas company a majority stake in the gas fields, bringing the nationalization to completion.[14]

In late August 2007, the MAS purged the Constitutional Tribunal of magistrates that voted earlier in the year against Morales' move to fill Supreme Court vacancies while Congress was in recess.[15] The purge dismantled the outlet for arbitration between branches of government.

On 4 May 2008, autonomy referendums were held in four eastern departments, in which they declared themselves autonomous from the central government. All four referendums passed.[16] Evo Morales deemed this referendum illegal. Turnout was as low as 70%.[17]

In February 2009 a new constitution was enacted by Evo Morales. This gave Bolivians of indigenous descent more economic and political rights.

On December 2012, the Government of Bolivia will move the government from Western-style capitalism to a system of communitarianism.

See also[edit]


Much of the material in this article comes from the CIA World Factbook 2000 and the 2003 U.S. Department of State website.  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies.

  1. ^ Fagan, Brian M. 'The Seventy Great Mysteries of the Ancient World: Unlocking the Secrets of Past Civilizations'. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2001.
  2. ^ Kolata, Alan L. 'The Tiwankau: Portrait of an Andean Civilization'. Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge, 1993. p. 145
  4. ^ a b McAndrews, Timothy L. et al. "Regional Settlement Patterns in the Tiwanaku Valley of Bolivia". Journal of Field Archaeology 24 (1997): 67–83.
  5. ^ Isbell, William H. 'Wari and Tiwanaku: International Identities in the Central Andean Middle Horizon'. 731–751.
  6. ^ a b Kolata, Alan L. 'The Tiwankau: Portrait of an Andean Civilization'. Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge, 1993.
  7. ^ Arnade, Charles W. (1957). The Emergence of the Republic of Bolivia. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 3-9.
  8. ^ John Lynch, The Spanish American Revolutions, 1808-1826 (Second edition) (New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 1986), 50-52, ISBN 0-393-95537-0; and Jaime E. Rodríguez O., The Independence of Spanish America (Cambridge University Press, 1998), 65-66, ISBN 0-521-62673-0.
  9. ^ Arnade, Charles W. (1970 [1957]). The Emergence of the Republic of Bolivia. New York: Russell and Russell. pp. 1–9.  Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Lynch, 50-52. Rodríguez, 65-66.
  11. ^ See the Cochabamba protests of 2000 for further information
  12. ^ Bechtel abandons its ICSID claim against Bolivia Opinio Juris, 10 February 2006
  13. ^ BIF Bulletin No 2
  14. ^ "Analysis: Bolivia's gas nationalization". UPI. 1 November 2006. 
  15. ^ Lehoucq, Fabrice. "Bolivia's Constitutional Breakdown." Journal of Democracy 19, no. 4 (2008): 110-124.
  16. ^ BIF Bulletin Special Edition May 2008
  17. ^ Bolivia's referendum sees low turnout

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