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History of Bolivia

A landlocked country in central South America where 36 indigenous languages have official status. 3 eras, 1438 to today.

Inca Empire, 1438–1533 Draft, not yet reviewed

The Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. From 1438 to 1533, the Incas incorporated a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. At its largest, the empire joined modern-day Peru with what are now western Ecuador, western and south-central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, the southwesternmost tip of Colombia and a large portion of modern-day Chile. Later, in 1532, the Spanish began the conquest of the Inca Empire, and by 1572 the last Inca state was fully conquered.

Seat of power: Cusco

Rulers

Royal Audiencia of Charcas, 1559–1825 Draft, not yet reviewed

The Real Audiencia of Charcas was a Spanish audiencia with its seat in what is today Bolivia. It was established in 1559 in Ciudad de la Plata de Nuevo Toledo (later Charcas, modern-day Sucre) and had jurisdiction over Paraguay and the Governorate of the Río de la Plata (now Uruguay and northern Argentina). The audiencia oversaw the incredible silver output of the mines at Potosí. The Republic of Bolivia was created from the Royal Audiencia of Charcas on August 6, 1825.

Seat of power: Sucre

Plurinational State of Bolivia, 1825 to today Draft, not yet reviewed

Following an unsuccessful rebellion in Sucre on May 25, 1809, sixteen years of fighting would follow before the establishment of the republic, named for Simón Bolívar. Over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Bolivia lost control of several peripheral territories to neighboring countries, such as the Acre territory after Brazil's 1899–1903 takeover, and the Pacific coastal region which Chile seized in 1879. Bolivia was ruled by an oligarchy composed of land-owning and mining interests, in which the people who were apart of the oligarchy were Simón Iturri Patiño, Moritz Hochschild, and Carlos Víctor Aramayo, until the Bolivian National Revolution of 1952 established universal suffrage, nationalized lucrative tin mining and made a limited land reform. There was a succession of military and civilian governments with the last non-elected military ruler leaving office in 1982.

Seat of power: Sucre

Rulers

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