Bolivia

The Republic of Bolivia (Spanish: República de Bolivia, IPA ) is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil on the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina on the south, and Chile and Peru on the west. more...

History

Pre-colonial period

The Andean region probably has been inhabited for some 5,000 years. Beginning about the 2nd century B.C., the Tiwanaku culture developed at the southern end of Lake Titicaca. This culture, centered around and named for the great city of Tiwanaku, developed advanced architectural and agricultural techniques before it disappeared around A.D. 1200, probably because of extended drought (some legends of the Aymará, who claim descendance from the inhabitants of Tiwanaku, indicate that Lake Titikaka rose and flooded the city, causing dispersal of the survivors). Roughly contemporaneous with the Tiwanakan culture, the Moxos in the eastern lowlands and the Mollos north of present-day La Paz also developed advanced agricultural societies that had dissipated by the 13th century A.D. In about 1450, the Quechua-speaking Incas entered the area of modern highland Bolivia and added it to their empire. They controlled the area until the Spanish conquest in 1535.

Colonial period

During most of the Spanish colonial period, this territory was called "Upper Peru" or "Charcas" and was under the authority of the Viceroy of Lima. Local government came from the Audiencia de Charcas located in Chuquisaca (La Plata — modern Sucre). Bolivian silver mines produced much of the Spanish empire's wealth, and Potosí, site of the famed Cerro Rico — "Rich Hill" — was, for many years, the largest city in the Western Hemisphere. A steady stream of enslaved Indians served as labor force. As Spanish royal authority weakened during the Napoleonic wars, sentiment against colonial rule grew.

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