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Here Come the Aymara
As part of the Andean region, Bolivia shares much of its earliest history with other countries in the region, such as Peru. For example, the earliest settlers of Bolivia were most likely members of the Aymara tribe who migrated from Peru. Beginning in roughly 1200 BC, the Aymara founded a series of small villages, such Tiwanaku, in present-day western Bolivia. For the next thousand years, the villages thrived, partly through farming the rich Lake Titicaca Basin, and partly by trading with other Andean tribes.
By the 1st century AD, the village of Tiwanaku (or “Tiahuanaco”) had expanded into the center of an advanced civilization with an extensive system of roads, canals, and cultivated fields. The remaining architecture and goods from this time demonstrate a stable and prosperous society, but one that seems to have been dominant in the immediate region only. Due to the lack of a written record the exact dates remain unknown, but it appears that only 300 years later—close to 400 AD—the Aymara in Tiwanaku turned outwards and began to actively expand by taking over nearby lands and absorbing other tribes. Eventually, their domain spread from Bolivia into southern Peru and northern Chile.
Remains of monumental architecture, large sculptures, and artistic brownware pottery from this time show that the Tiwanaku Empire was an influential and wealthy society. Satellite imaging and archeological finds show that their power was largely based on an innovative farming system that relied on artificially created fields, called suka kollus (“flood-raised fields”). The suka kollus were, in essence, miniature ecosystems of earthen mounds built between canals stocked with fish. The canals irrigated the mounds, part of the crop was used to feed the fish, and the waste from the fish was then re-used as fertilizer on the mounds. The system worked well for hundreds, even thousands, of years. But then some event—possibly a severe drought—in about 1000 AD caused the suka kollus system to collapse. And with it went the Tiwanaku Empire.
Here Come the Incas
After the fall of the Aymara’s Tiwanaku Empire, historians speculate that Bolivia broke up into as many as seven smaller Aymara-speaking kingdoms. It wasn’t until the 15th century, when the Inca began expending into Bolivia, that the different groups would be reunited into an empire.
At the start of the 1400s, the Quechua-speaking Inca already held a large kingdom, which was centered on their capital in Cusco in modern-day Peru. Starting in 1438, they began a campaign of systematic expansion into Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia. Throughout the 15th century, successive Inca rulers conquered more and more of the Bolivian highlands. By the 1520s, the Inca ruled much of present-day Bolivia, except the lowland areas. (Today, the legacy of the Inca conquest is still apparent in Bolivia’s dialects. Descendants of the Inca or Inca-held territories often speak the Inca language, Quechua, while descendants of unconquered tribes often speak Aymara.)
In addition to introducing their language into Bolivia, the Inca also brought with them their religious beliefs, their building know-how, and their use of quipu (knotted strings used for numeric information like census and accounts). As Inca subjects, the local people of Bolivia were expected to perform mit’a, or public service labor, for a set number of days each year.
The 1520s were a period of upheaval in the Inca Empire. The rapid expansion of the previous century had left the empire’s resources stretched, and after the death of the king Huayna Capac in 1527, internal struggles over succession further weakened the kingdom. Thus, when the Spanish arrived in 1532, the new king, Atahualpa, did not have the necessary resources to easily fight them off.
Here Come the Spaniards; There Goes the Silver
The Spanish conquest of Bolivia happened quickly. At the decisive Battle of Cajamarca in 1532, the Spanish forces—led by one Francisco Pizarro—overcame King Atahualpa’s personal bodyguard and captured the Inca ruler. For many historians, the execution of King Atahualpa on August 29, 1533 marks both the formal the end of the Inca Empire, and the official conquest of the region by Spain.
During the Spanish colonial period, Bolivia—then known as Upper Peru—was part of the Viceroy of Peru, and was ruled from Lima. The Upper Peru region soon became treasured for its silver, which helped keep Spanish coffers full. For all the romantic legends about the gold of the New World, it was actually silver that was behind Spain’s economic rise, and it was Bolivia’s mines at Cerro de Potosi that provided most of that silver. The Potosi mine was so important, and its product so in demand, that a massive boomtown quickly built up in the surrounding area. Less than 100 years after it’s founding in 1546, the boomtown had swelled to 200,000 people, making Potosi the largest city in the Americas and one of the largest cities in the world at that time.
And it wasn’t just the Spanish who were familiar with Bolivian silver. Once an official mint was built in Potosi in 1572, the silver changed into coins—the famous “pieces of eight”, or Spanish dollars. These coins quickly became the preferred currency for international trade, and continued to dominate markets far outside of Bolivia for the next 250 years. (Spanish dollars were actually legal currency in the U.S. until 1857.)
Independence
Sadly the great wealth came at a great price. The Spanish not only replaced the government and religion of the indigenous peoples but they also adapted the Inca mit’a labor practice suit to their own ends. Now called “mita”, the labor was no longer public service work for a set number of days, but rather a condition near slavery. Most of the mita workers were forced into the worst conditions, doing the hardest, dirtiest, and most dangerous work in the mines. Many died from exposure to mercury, which was used in the mining process.
While some indigenous peoples tried to enter into colonial society, others, especially the mita workers, felt that armed resistance was the only solution. Thus, for the entire length of the colonial period, indigenous uprisings and rebellions would flare up in Bolivia. The most famous of which is the 1780 rebellion led by Tupac Amaru II. Although ultimately unsuccessful, the revolt did attract over 60,000 followers—which at the time, was the population of a decent-sized city.
As Spanish power waned during the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th century, the people’s struggle for independence was rewarded. The Bolivian republic was born in 1825, named for its leader Simon Bolivar. The Peru-Bolivian Confederation was formed just ten years later, and this joint power skirmished with Chile and Argentina. After some victories, controversial treaties, and economic strains among the countries, the Confederation was ultimately defeated and the partnership dissolved.
This set the stage for Peru and Bolivia to go to war, starting with the invasion of Bolivia. Peru was defeated on Bolivian soil, and Bolivia retaliated with the capture of Arica, a major Peruvian port that today is part of Chile. The two countries signed a peace treaty in 1842.
The siege of Arica was not a sign of future victories to come. In fact, since its independence, Bolivia has lost more than half its land to neighboring countries. In the War of the Pacific, for instance, it lost its access to the ocean—and its fertile coastal lands—to Chile (though Bolivia can still import and export via the Paraguay River, which spills into the Atlantic Ocean). It also lost its State of Acre, known for its rubber production, to Brazil.
The Modern Era
As silver increased in value in the early 1900s, Bolivia gained wealth and political stability. For much of the first half of the 20th century, its laissez-faire government was ruled by the social elite. A class system of dramatic extremes developed, leaving the indigenous people little choice but to work in silver mines in terrible conditions.
The National Revolutionary Movement promised to turn all that around. But once it took hold (by force, after losing the 1951 elections), leadership within the party proved fractious. Weak governments, military coups d’etats, fiscal crises, and human rights scandals marked the next several decades.
The 1990s saw dramatic economic and social reforms, thanks in part to a newly formed Congress and the election of Sanchez de Lozada as president. Infrastructure—airlines, railroads, and telecommunications—all improved. But not all were pleased with his social and economic policies. Controversy erupted over his ineffective attempts to compensate coca (cocaine) growers who voluntarily destroy their crops, and over his stance toward the powerful teachers’ union. The mid-1990s saw strong economic growth. But international trade, domestic struggles, and regional issues—including financial crises in Brazil and Argentina—brought a decline.
Today, for the first time in almost 200 years, Bolivia’s president is a native Aymara, Evo Morales. His major initiatives—eradicating illegal coca production and smuggling, nationalizing Bolivia’s natural gas fields, and developing a new constitution to give more power to the indigenous people—have gained strong support in concept, but some of his policies and strategies aimed at full equality are controversial.