Bolivia is a state of South America. Originally inhabited by populations of the Aymará lineage settled in the basin of Lake Titicaca, it experienced an important development between 200 BC and 600 AD and had its major center in the city of Tiahuanaco. Divided from the 1800s into many small federated states, the Aymará between 1460 and 1475 were subdued by the Inca and incorporated into their empire. The region, known as Upper Peru until 1825, was conquered in 1538 by the Spaniards. Rich in silver and mercury mines, it was included in the viceroyalty of Peru until 1776, when it was annexed to the new viceroyalty of the Rio della Plata, although soon after a series of revolts led by a descendant of the Incas, Túpac Amaru, put the colonial regime (1780-82) is in danger. The crisis of the Spanish monarchy in 1808 offered the favorable opportunity to start a struggle that also extended to the peasant masses and the Amerindians, giving rise to a very fragmented and ferocious guerrilla, which ended, thanks to the intervention of J. de San Martín and especially of S. Bolívar, with the proclamation of independence (6 August 1825) and of the representative republican regime, adopting the name of the liberator Bolívar (later changed to Bolivia). Instability and unrest were accompanied for a good part of the century by a situation of economic stagnation and relative decline of Bolivia compared to other South American countries. For Bolivia 2006, please check computergees.com.
Furthermore, Bolivia was engaged in a state of open or latent conflict with neighboring countries for border issues or for the control of resources which ended with territorial losses in favor of Chile, Brazil and Paraguay. The difficulties following the military defeats and even more those connected with the Great Depression put an end to the relative economic growth of the late 19th century. and opened the way to a new phase of political precariousness, which lasted until 1952. In that year a popular revolt promoted by the Movimiento nacionalista revolucionario (MNR), of nationalist and populist inspiration, it allowed V. Paz Estenssoro to assume the presidency of the Republic (to which he was elected in 1951) and to start a policy of modernization of the country. In 1964, a military coup ousted Paz Estenssoro and brought R. Barrientos Ortuño to the presidency. A harsh repression hit the workers’ organizations, while the guerrillas promoted by E. Che Guevara in the Santa Cruz department in 1967 were quickly defeated.
The death of Barrientos Ortuño (1969) was followed by a convulsive succession of military regimes, increasingly discredited by their direct involvement in international drug trafficking, a source of corruption at all levels of the public administration. In 1982, the military therefore decided to return power to the congress elected in 1980, which designated H. Siles Zuazo president of the Republic; however, the democratization of Bolivia did not solve serious problems such as the predominant role of the armed forces in political life and the dependence of the Bolivian economy on the production and trade of drugs. In the general elections of 1993 the MNR was imposed, which led to the presidency G. Sánchez de Lozada, who pursued a policy of social and economic reforms, accelerating privatization, but was opposed by large sectors of society for the economic measures adopted and for the program prepared for the eradication of coca plantations. The 1997 general elections saw the victory of Acción democrática nacionalista (ADN), of which it was leader the former dictator Banzer Suárez, who became president of the Republic. The government’s goal of destroying the country’s coca plantations by 2002, not accompanied by adequate incentives to promote alternative crops, sparked riots in the Cochabamba region. In 2002 Sánchez de Lozada was re-elected, who prevailed over the leader of the MAS (Movement to Socialism), JE Morales Ayma, an Indian representative of coca farmers; but the following year Sánchez de Lozada was forced to resign due to internal opposition which saw the convergence of different interests and resulted in riots in some Andean areas; after the resignation of vice president C. Mesa, early elections (2005) decreed the victory of Morales Ayma, who immediately started the nationalization of gas reserves, and an agrarian reform in favor of the poorest part of the population. In August 2008, a confirmation referendum was resolved with a large victory by Morales Ayma. A new Constitution was passed in 2009, while Morales Ayma was reappointed as president for a new term.
