Pre-Columbian Bolivia

Pre-Columbian Bolivia covers the historical period between 10,000 BCE, when the Upper Andes region was first populated and 1532, when Spanish conquistadors invaded Inca Empire.

Based in present-day Peru, the Incas instituted agricultural and mining practices that rivaled those put in place many years later by European conquerors.

[1] Various cultures of indigenous peoples in Bolivia developed in the high altitude settings of altiplano, where they coped with low oxygen levels, poor soils and extreme weather patterns.

[4] In around 400 AD the Tiwanaku empire began its expansion, appropriating the Yungas and establishing contacts with other cultures in Peru, Bolivia and Chile.

[5] Tiwanako then underwent a dramatic transformation between 600 and 700 AD that established new monumental standards in civic architecture for the region and greatly increased the resident population.

[5] The elites thereby gained status by collecting surplus food stocks from all the regions under their influence, and then redistributing it back to the people where needed.

The Tiwanaku empire is believed to have dissolved around year 1000 AD when substantial food production ceased, and with it, the main source of power for the ruling elites dried up.

[9] The highest official of Qullasuyu ruled on behalf of the "Inca" (the emperor) and supervised a group of provincial governors, who in turn controlled the members of the Aymara nobility.

Under a draft system called the Mit'a, the Incas forced the peoples under their domination to work in mines, on construction projects, or to serve in the armies.

As a result of their resistance, the nomadic tribes in the eastern lowlands occupying two-thirds of Bolivia preserved their way of life to a great extent, even after the Spanish conquest.

[8] The independence and success of the Moxo people for instance was shown by their construction of elevated causeways to manage the regular floods in the region and to serve their population.