History of Bolivia
Cultures of indigenous peoples in Bolivia developed in the high altitude settings of altiplano with low oxygen levels, poor soils and extreme weather patterns.
[1] However, satellite imaging was used recently to map the extent of "flooded-raised fields" (suka qullu) across the three primary valleys of Tiwanaku, arriving at population-carrying capacity estimates of anywhere between 285,000 and 1,482,000 people.
[2] 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.
William H. Isbell states "Tiahuanaco underwent a dramatic transformation between AD 600 and 700 that established new monumental standards for civic architecture and greatly increased the resident population.
[8] During the first two decades of Spanish rule, the settlement of the Bolivian highlands – now known as Upper Peru (Alto Perú) or Real Audiencia of Charcas – was delayed by a civil war between the forces of Pizarro and Diego de Almagro.
[citation needed] Bolivian silver mines produced much of the Spanish Empires wealth, and Potosí, site of the famed Cerro Rico ("Rich Mountain") was for a couple of centuries the largest city in the Western Hemisphere.
[11] The jurisdiction of the audiencia, known as Charcas, initially covered a radius of 100 leagues (1,796 km2) around Chuquisaca, but it soon included Santa Cruz and territory belonging to present-day Paraguay and, until 1568, also the entire district of Cuzco.
[11] Spain was at first primarily interested in controlling the independent-minded conquerors, but its main goal soon became maintaining the flow of revenue to the crown and collecting the tribute of goods and labor from the Native American population.
[14] After scoring some initial victories, including defeating a Spanish army of 1,200 men, Túpac Amaru II was captured and executed in May 1781; nonetheless, the revolt continued, primarily in Upper Peru.
[14] The Inquisition had not kept the writings of Niccolò Machiavelli, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, and others out of Spanish America; their ideas were often discussed by criollos, especially those educated at the university in Chuquisaca.
[18] 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.
[18] 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.
[citation needed] 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.
[citation needed] 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.
[citation needed] During the presidency of Marshal Andrés de Santa Cruz, Bolivia enjoyed the most successful period of their history with great social and economic advancement.
[citation needed] Under President Víctor Paz Estenssoro, the MNR introduced universal adult suffrage, nationalized the country's largest tin mines, carried out a sweeping land reform, and promoted rural education.
[23] Twelve more tumultuous years of national reform left the MNR divided,[10] and in a November 1964 coup d'état, a military junta[10] led by vice-president René Barrientos[citation needed] overthrew President Paz Estenssoro at the outset of his third term.
[citation needed] Towards the end of Paz's second term, Barrientos—a popular, Quechua-speaking general—had succeeded in co-opting the peasant unions formed in the wake of the 1953 agrarian reform, establishing the so-called Military-Peasant Pact (Pacto Militar-Campesino).
US Ambassador Ernest Siracusa (who participated in the coup d'état against Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, then was expelled from Peru in 1968, accused of being a CIA man) ordered Torres to change his policies, threatening him with financial blockage.
After less than a year in power, Torres was overthrown in August 1971 in a bloody coup d'état led by the colonel Hugo Banzer, supported by the Brazilian military regime and the United States.
[10] Severe social tension, exacerbated by economic mismanagement and weak leadership, forced him to call early elections and relinquish power a year before the end of his constitutional term.
Beginning in early 1994, the Bolivian Congress investigated Paz Zamora's personal ties to accused major trafficker Isaac Chavarria, who subsequently died in prison while awaiting trial.
[10] The most dramatic change undertaken by the Sanchez de Lozada government was the capitalization program, under which investors acquired 50% ownership and management control of public enterprises, such as the Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) oil-corporation, telecommunications system, electric utilities, and others.
[10] 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.
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.
[28] 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.
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.
His second term witnessed the continuation of leftist policies and Bolivia's joining of the Bank of the South and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States; he was again reelected in the 2014 general election.
[49] The New York Times reported on 7 June 2020 that the OAS analysis immediately after the 20 October election was flawed yet fuelled "a chain of events that changed the South American nation's history".
[50][51][52] Following the disputed 2019 general election and the ensuing unrest, in events characterized as a coup d'état by supporters of Morales, the president resigned, declaring that he did so to "protect the families of Movement for Socialism members".
