According to SOFTWARELEVERAGE.ORG, Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a country located in the center-west of South America. The judicial capital and seat of the Supreme Court is Sucre, the political capital and seat of government (political power) and of the legislative power is the high Andean city of La Paz. Until 18 of March of 2009, it was called Republic of Bolivia. Its name derives from the first surname of the Liberator Simón Bolívar, par excellence El Libertador and in recognition of having guaranteed the autonomy of Alto Peruvians.
The Bolivian territory limits to the north and east with Brazil, to the south with Paraguay and Argentina, and to the west with Chile and Peru. Its territory includes an important part of the Andes Mountains, the Altiplano, the Amazon Rainforest and the Gran Chaco, which allows it to be categorized as a megadiverse country. It is, together with Paraguay, one of the two countries in the Americas without a coastline.
The Bolivian population is multicultural. Its approximately 10.5 million residents are ethnically distributed among mestizos, indigenous-natives, white descendants of Creoles, Afro-Bolivians and a lower proportion of descendants of European and Asian migrants.
Ancient civilizations such as the Tiwanaku Culture and the Hydraulic Culture of the Hills developed in its territory.
Name
The Bolivian State was founded with the name of “República de Bolívar” in honor of its liberator, Simón Bolívar. Subsequently, it was modified at the proposal of the deputy of Potosí, Presbítero Manuel Martín Cruz, and under the following argument: ” Yes from Rómulo, Rome; from Bolívar, Bolivia “. The new Republic officially adopted the name Bolivia on October 3, 1825.
Likewise, the Deliberative Assembly appointed the Liberator Bolívar, the first President of Bolivia, whom it called “Favorite Daughter.”
History
First residents
The first civilizations of the Bolivian highlands took place around the year 2000 BC. Among the most important, the Viscachanense, which corresponds to the Andean Paleolithic, deserves to be mentioned; the Wankarani, in the surroundings of Oruro; and the Chiripa culture, near Lake Titicaca.
Of the pre-Inca cultures, the main one is that of Tiwanacu (or Tiahuanaco), which underwent several stages. The Collas or Aymara Indians –as the Spaniards mistakenly called them–. they were distinguished by their progress in agriculture, hydraulics, ceramics, metallurgy (discovery of bronze) and, especially, in architecture and sculpture.
The city of Tiwanacu, which gives its culture its name, is a planned and astronomically oriented city towards the East.
At the beginning of the 10th century, the Quechua from Cuzco invaded Collasuyo, and the Inca Mayta Cápac seized Tiahuanaco around the year 1200. The Incas Sinchi Roca, and Cápac Yupanqui later completed the conquest of Bolivian territory.
The country of the Collas remained under Inca domination and culture until the arrival of the Spanish.
Spanish conquest and Colonial Period
Diego de Almagro, appointed advance of the territories of the South of Peru in 1535, organized an expedition to Chile, passing through the territory of Bolivia. AIli founded Paria (near Oruro). His lieutenant Juan de Saavedra toured part of Bolivian soil without encountering serious resistance from the natives.
For several years the struggle between Pizarro and Almagro for power in Peru kept the Spanish busy and delayed the conquest of Callao. Defeated Almagro in 1538 and executed in Cuzco, Francisco Pizarro ordered Pedro Anzures de Campo Redondo to continue south. Anzures founded Charcas on September 29, 1538, later known as La Plata. Chuquisaca, and finally Sucre.
In 1540 Pizarro extended the encomienda system to these territories. In 1549, Ñuflo de Chávez reached the jungles of the Gran Chaco and went to Paraguay.
The city of Our Lady of La Paz was founded by Captain Alonso de Mendoza on October 20, 1548). Other foundations were: Trinidad (1556), Santa Cruz de la Sierra (1557 and Oropeza (name that in 1786 was changed to Cochabamba).
In 1545, the Indian pastor Diego Gualca discovered the rich silver deposits on the Potosí hill, which became world famous for its wealth and became the largest silver producer in the world. During the three centuries of Spanish rule, the Crown received 3,600 million silver pesos for mining rights in Potosi.
Potosí began its decline in the last decades of the 18th century when silver mining remained in a state of stagnation, as a consequence of the depletion of the richest veins, outdated extraction techniques and the diversion of trade to other countries. With the arrival of the House of Bourbon to the Spanish crown in 1700, the institution of the Encomienda was deepened to reverse the fall of the mining economy, imposing greater rigor on the work of the mine and the indigenous tribute.
The Spanish, obsessed with mines, neglected agriculture and reduced the Indians to harsh slavery.
From 1661 the revolutions began. Shouting “Freedom for the Americans”, Antonio Gallardo and his companions stormed the palace of Corregidor Cristóbal Canedo, in La Paz, and killed him. Gallardo later perished in combat. A popular uprising in Oropeza in 1730 was also unveiled.
