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Anthem | "Bolivianos, el hado propicio" | ||||||
Capital | La Paz | ||||||
Largest city | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | ||||||
Other cities | Sucre | ||||||
Language official |
Spanish | ||||||
others | Quechua, Aymara | ||||||
Religion | Roman Catholicism | ||||||
Government | Unitary Presidential Republic | ||||||
Legislature | Assembly of Bolivia | ||||||
President | Undefined | ||||||
Population | 4,248,795 (as of 1880 census, to be updated later!) | ||||||
Established | 1829 | ||||||
Independence | from Spain | ||||||
Currency | Boliviano |
Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, was a nation located in South America.
History[]
The Spanish conquest began in 1524 and was mostly completed by 1533. The territory now called Bolivia was then known as "Upper Peru" 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). Founded in 1545 as a mining town, Potosí soon produced fabulous wealth, becoming the largest city in the New World with a population exceeding 150,000 people.
Upper Peru was bounded to Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776.
Independence[]
The struggle for independence started on the city of Sucre on 1822, and after seven years of war the Republic was proclaimed on 6 August 1829, named Bolivia, for the General Simón Bolívar El Libertador.
The Santa Cruz's Government[]

Marshal Andrés de Santa Cruz.
In 1832, assume the presidency of Bolivia the Marshal Andrés de Santa Cruz, one of leaders of the independence. During the Santa Cruz's presidency, Bolivia enjoyed the most successful period of her history with great social and economic advancement.
Santa Cruz was succeeded by José Miguel de Velasco in 1848, who continues your predecesor's politics, however he was assassinated in 1851 by a group of rebels militaries. In next three years, another three coups take place, weakening the country.
In 1858, during the presidency of Manuel Isidoro Belzu Bolivia join to an alliance with Chile, Brazil and Colombia to fight against the Argentina and your allies in the named Second Latin American War. During the conflict, a vicious economical and political crisis Bolivia's military weakness was demonstrated, which eventually led to Bolivia's defeat. The country lost its access to the sea and the adjoining rich salitre fields, together with the port of Antofagasta.
Anarchy and Civil Wars[]
After the war, and with the death of the president Jorge Córdova, the country enter a long period of anarchy and internal conflicts between civilian elites. Although some of the government's leaders during this years tried to reform the country, the great rivalry between the politicians frustrates any attempt of progress. In 1869, initiates one of the most violent periods in Bolivian history, under General José María Achá Valiente (1869 - 1974). Achá is remembered for to order several bloody massacres as the Murders of Yañez, with over 3000 opponents dead. Achá was overthrow in 1874, which initiate a civil war for the power that lasted to 1878, with the General Mariano Melgarejo Valencia taking the power briefly, only for be assassinated and replaced by Agustín Morales Hernández, who also was murdered the next year. Two presidents with high integrity, Tomás Frías Ametller (1879 - 1880) and General Adolfo Ballivián (1880 - 1882), did not last long because of constant intrigues.
Conservative and Liberal Governments[]
However, during the 1880's, new political parties arise in Bolivia and new leaders restored the relative calm to the nation. Mining entrepreneurs, who had become the most important economic group in the country because of increasing production, created the Conservative Party (Spanish: Partido Conservador), in opposition to the Liberal Party. Despite these differences, both parties were primarily interested in political and economic modernization, and their ideological outlooks were similar.
The Conservatives ruled Bolivia from 1890 until 1906. The General Campero, a Bolivian hero, presided over free elections in 1890 that brought to power Gregorio Pacheco Leyes, one of Bolivia's most important mine owners and first conservative president. Under the Conservatives, the high world price of silver and increased production of copper, lead, zinc, and tin combined to create a period of relative prosperity.
In 1906 the Liberal Party overthrew the Conservatives in the "Federal Revolution", and the government was assumed by the Liberal leader, José Manuel Pando. Like their Conservative predecessors, the Liberals controlled the presidential elections but left the elections for the Congress relatively free.
In 1911, the Second Global War began but Bolivia only join by 1913 from the Brazil's side. Bolivia opened the war with an offensive aimed at capturing the town of Salta in the north of Argentina. However, the Bolivian Army was poorly equipped in artillery, vehicles, and ammunition, and a couple of days, the troops was forced to retreat to the borders, and one week later Argentinian and Peruvian forces invade the country. After two years of war, the country's half fell under control of Peru and Argentina, but, by 1915 the arrive of Brazilian reinforcements allow to Bolivia to launch a offensive which liberate the country. At the end, Bolivia along the others nations of Grand Alliance won the war and soon the Bolivian president Ismael Montes mat with the other leaders to discuss the new borders. However, the talks provided little territorial gain to Bolivia, and furthermore, Brazil and Chile receives the most of the former Bolivian territories lost in the First Global War. Despite this, Montes signed the peace treaty, which caused uproar against his government. Civil unrest erupted in the country between nationalists who supported the war effort and opposed the "mutilated victory" (as nationalists called it) and pacifist who were opposed to the war.
President Ismael Montes fell from power June 1919, suffering blame for mismanagement of the Bolivian position at the South America peace conference. Severe economic difficulties, disillusionment, and wounded national pride caused severe unrest and the rise of extremism. Rebel peasants seized lands promised them during the war. In 1921-22 major strikes broke out in the eastern factories areas and the government seemed helpless. By 1926, after a series of weak governments, the Revolutionary National Socialist Movement, that emerge as a broadly based party in 1923, and led by Bernardino Bilbao Rioja (Bolivian hero in the GW2) march and took control of La Paz. Bilbao was made President, and a month later he received dictatorial powers. The National Socialist Era begins.
Rise of The National Socialist[]
In 1927, Bilbao's coalition won two-thirds of the vote and 80 of the 96 seats in the Bolivian Congress. The enemies of National Socialism were silenced by terrorism and brute force, as the opposition deputies withdrew in protest in 1927.
Affected by the Great Depression in 1931, the Bolivian state attempted to respond to it both by elaborating public works programs such as constructions, the developing hydroelectricity, improving the railways which in the process improved job opportunities, and launching military rearmament. At the end, Bolivia fared better than other world nations during the Crisis.
The Bolivian Regime supported to Argentina at the Cordova conference in 1938, and increasingly became an ally of the another National Socialist Nations in South America. Although Bolivia was militarily weak and unprepared, Bilbao declared war on Brasil, Chile and Colombia, after the Argentina's successes in the Invasion of Uruguay. Bolivian troops joins to the Peruvian Army in his advance against Brazilian territories, meanwhile, in the chilean borders remains in a defensive position. However, by 1944 the situation changes and after several disastrous battles, the bolivian forces were repelled and the country was invaded by brazilian and chilean troops. By 1946, an important revolt begin in the capital, and soon the anti-government crowds took control of the Plaza Murillo, where the Palace of Government (the so-called Palacio Quemado) is located, essentially laying siege to it. The enraged hordes of teachers, students, workers and marketplace women, broke into the Quemado after an hour of fighting, assassinating the Dictador and various of his aides. Bilbao's body was tossed from a balcony toward the square, where the crowds proceeded to hang it from a lamp-post opposite the Palace. Almost an week after this, La Paz fell under chilean control and the order was restored.
In the aftermath of the war, the fate of Bolivia was decided in an conference of the south American nations. Due to the great level devastation of the country, Bolivia was united with his neighbor, th nation of Peru, to create a new state, under influence of the Brazilian Empire. The new country was named as the Peru-Bolivian Confederation.
Peru-Bolivian Confederation[]
- Main Article: Peru-Bolivian Confederation
During the Tri-Powers Conflict period, which begun with the end of Third Global War in 1946, the new state remains under the sphere of influence of the Brazilian Empire. However, with the collapse of Brazil in 1979, and the begin of the Dual Powers Conflict, a coup took place in the confederation, and the new government decides to join to the Juneau Pact, under the leadership of the United States of America.
Government[]
During most of his history, Bolivia was officially a presidential and democratic republic, with three branch of government: executive (President), legislative (Gongress or Assembly) and Judicial. However the country suffered a long series of coups d'état and civil wars, which interrupted several governments.