Bolivia - bōlĭvˈēə, Span. bōlēˈvyä, officially Republic of Bolivia, republic (1995 est. pop. 7,896,000), 424,162 sq mi (1,098,581 sq km), W South America. One of the two inland countries of South America, Bolivia is shut in from the Pacific in the W by Chile and Peru; in the E and N it borders on Brazil, in the SE on Paraguay, and in the S on Argentina.
Sucre is the constitutional capital and seat of the judiciary, but
La Paz is the largest city, political and commercial focus of the nation, and the administrative capital and seat of government.
Land and People Bolivia presents a sharp contrast between high, bleak mountains and plateaus in the west and lush, tropical rain forests in the east. In the southeast it merges into the semiarid plains of the
Gran Chaco. The Andes mountain system reaches its greatest width in Bolivia. Two cordilleras, the western one tracing the border with Chile and the eastern running north and south across the center of the country, are divided by a high plateau (altiplano), most of it 12,000 ft (3,660 m) above sea level—barren, windswept, and segmented by mountain spurs. Despite the harsh conditions the altiplano is the population center of Bolivia. Many sections for want of drainage have brackish lakes and salt beds, notably the extensive Salar de Uyuni in the south. In the north are Lake Titicaca, which Bolivia shares with Peru, and Lake Poopó. This region, world famous for its breathtaking scenery, was the home of one of the great pre-Columbian civilizations. Well known are the ruins of
Tiahuanaco. The eastern mountains, consisting of three major ranges, rise to the cold, forbidding heights of the Puna plateau (as high as 16,000 ft/4,880 m) and in the north to the snowcapped peaks of Illimani (21,184 ft/6,457 m) and Illampú (21,276 ft/6,485 m). In these mountains lies the source of the exploited wealth of Bolivia—its minerals. Tin is by far the most important product, but silver was once the chief metal, and tungsten, copper, wolframite, bismuth, antimony, zinc, lead, iron, and gold are also mined. The names of some mining towns, notably
Potosí and Oruro, are world famous. From the mountains, headstreams cut eastward, carving deep gorges and fingerlike valleys. In these valleys are some of Bolivia's garden spots—Sucre, Cochabamba, and
Tarija.
Santa Cruz de la Sierra and
La Paz are the two main cities of tropical Bolivia. In the eastern foothills headstreams gather to form the Beni, the Guaiporé, and the Mamoré (tributaries of the Madeira, in Brazil), which flow through the torrid, humid
yungas, covered with dense rain forests, and inhabited mainly by indigenous South Americans. The region is the most fertile in the country, yielding cacao, coffee, and tropical fruits, and in the early 20th cent. was a major source of wild rubber and quinine. Some of the more accessible valleys, with luxuriant scenery and a pleasantly warm climate, have become popular Bolivian resort areas. More than half the population is indigenous, although the citizens of European descent (some 5% to 15% of the people) or mixed European and native ancestry (about 25% to 30% of the population) maintain economic, political, and social hegemony. The predominant native languages are Quechua and Aymara; they and Spanish are Bolivia's official languages. A few indigenous groups have remained isolated from European culture. Most of the population is Roman Catholic, although many people of indigenous descent retain the substance of their pre-Christian beliefs. A small but extremely active Protestant minority also exists. There are eight universities in the country. Economy Despite the importance of its mines and its large reserves of natural gas and crude oil, Bolivia is one of the poorest nations in Latin America and still lives by a subsistence economy. A large part of the population makes its living from the illegal growing of coca, the source of cocaine; a government eradication begun in the late 1990s has depressed the economy in those areas where coca-growing was important. Coffee, cotton, soybeans, corn, sugarcane, rice, potatoes, and wheat are the other major crops; timber is also important. Industry is limited to processing (largely smelting and petroleum refining) and small-scale manufacturing. Although Bolivia has much hydroelectric potential, it is underutilized. Bolivia's mineral wealth furnishes the bulk of its exports, although natural gas, soybeans, and jewelry are also important. Chemicals, petroleum, and consumer goods are imported. The tin industry, which is a major component of the economy, has received increasing competition from SE Asia, and as a result several tin mines have closed. The United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Brazil are the chief trading partners. Bolivia became an associate member of the Southern Cone Common Market in 1996. Government Bolivia has had more than 190 revolutions and coups since it became independent in 1825. The latest constitution was adopted in 1967. It provides for a president elected for a four-year term and a bicameral legislature consisting of an upper chamber of senators and a lower chamber of deputies. Administratively, Bolivia is divided into nine departments. History Early History The altiplano was a center of native life even before the days of the Inca; the region was the home of the great Tihuanaco empire. The
Aymara had been absorbed into the Inca empire long before Gonzalo
Pizarro and Hernando
Pizarro began the Spanish conquest of the Inca in 1532. In 1538 the indigenous inhabitants in Bolivia were defeated. Uninviting though the high, cold country was, it attracted the Spanish because of its rich silver mines, discovered as early as 1545. Exploiters poured in, bent on quick wealth. Forcing the natives to work the mines and the obrajes [textile mills] under duress, they remained indifferent to all development other than the construction of transportation facilities to remove the unearthed riches. Native laborers were also used on great landholdings. Thus began the system of plunder economy and social inequality that persisted in Bolivia until recent years. Economic development was further retarded by the rugged terrain, and conditions did not change when the region was made (1559) into the audiencia of
Charcas, which was attached until 1776 to the viceroyalty of Peru and later to the viceroyalty of La Plata. Independence and the Nineteenth Century The revolution against Spanish control came early, with an uprising in Chuquisaca in 1809, but Bolivia remained Spanish until the campaigns of José de
San Martín and Simón
Bolívar. Independence was won with the victory (1824) at
Ayacucho of Antonio José de
Sucre. After the formal proclamation of independence in 1825, Bolívar drew up (1826) a constitution for the new republic. The nation was named Bolivia, and Chuquisaca was renamed Sucre, after the revolutionary hero. Bolivia inherited ambitions and extensive territorial claims that proved disastrous, leading to warfare and defeat. At the time of independence it had a seacoast, a portion of the Amazon basin, and claims to most of the Chaco; in little more than a century all these were lost. The strife-ridden internal history of Bolivia began when the first president, Sucre, was forced to resign in 1828. A steady stream of egocentric caudillos plagued Bolivia thereafter. Andrés
Santa Cruz, desiring to reunite Bolivia and Peru, invaded Peru in 1836 and established a confederation, which three years later was destroyed on the battlefield of Yungay. Although a few presidents, notably José
Ballivián, made efforts to reform the administration and improve the economy, the temptation to wholesale corruption was always strong, and honest reform was hard to achieve. The nitrate deposits of
Atacama proved valuable, but the mining concessions were given to Chileans. Trouble over them led (1879), during the administration of Hilarión
Daza, to the War of the Pacific (see
Pacific, War of the). As a result Bolivia lost Atacama to Chile. The next serious loss was the little-known region of the Acre River, which had become valuable because of its wild rubber. After a bitter conflict, Bolivia, under President José Manuel
Pando, yielded the area to Brazil in 1903 for an indemnity. Twentieth-Century Bolivia Attempts at reorganization and reform, especially by Ismael
Montes, were overshadowed in the 20th cent. by military coups, rule of dictators, and bankruptcy. This repeated sequence led to an increase in foreign influence, through loans and interests in mines and oil fields. Attempts to raise Bolivia from its status as an underdeveloped country met with little success, although great personal fortunes were amassed from tin mining by tycoons such as Simón I.
Patiño. Conflicting claims to the Chaco, which was thought to be oil-rich, brought on yet another disastrous territorial war, this time with Paraguay (1932–35). The fighting ended in 1935 with both nations exhausted and Bolivia defeated and stripped of most of its claims in that area. Programs for curing the ills of the nation were hampered by military coups and countercoups. World War II proved a boon to the Bolivian economy by increasing demands for tin and wolframite. International pressure over pro-German elements in the government eventually forced Bolivia to break relations with the Axis and declare war (1943). Rising prices aggravated the restiveness of the miners over miserable working conditions; strikes were brutally suppressed. The crisis reached a peak in Dec., 1943, when the nationalistic, pro-miner National Revolutionary Movement (MNR) engineered a successful revolt. The regime, however, was not recognized by other American nations (except Argentina) until 1944 |
