Cultural Analysis Of Bolivia

            
            
             Civilization in the Bolivian Andes is thought to stretch back some 21,000 years. The most influential Pre-Columbian cultures were the Tiahuanaco, who were based around Lake Titicaca and who ruled the region between 600-1200 AD, and the Incas, who headed a vast empire comprising most of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and northern Chile.
             The Spanish conquest of the country began in 1531 under Francisco Pizarro. In 1544, deposits of silver were discovered at Poto­. The wealth generated by this find underwrote the Spanish economy (and the extravagance of its monarchs) for more than two centuries. Independence was finally declared in 1825 by an assembly which met in Chuquisaca (Sucre). General Antonio Jose de Sucre, was elected as the first president. The land of Alto Peru was then renamed Bolivar, later changed to Bolivia, in honor of its liberator Simon Bolivar. .
             At the time of its birth, Bolivia extended to the Pacific and included most of the coast of the Atacama desert and the port of Antofagasta. However, the discovery of rich nitrate deposits in the Atacama desert and rising border tensions led the outbreak of a war between Chile and Bolivia (1879-1883). Chile's victory in this war resulted in Bolivia's loss of its outlet to the Pacific. Efforts, mainly political, to regain some outlet to the sea failed. In 1904, Bolivia also lost a substantial part of its possessions in the eastern lowlands to Brazil. The final loss came after being defeated in a war with Paraguay (1932-1935), where Bolivia lost most of its territory in the Gran Chaco. At present, Bolivia extends over less than half the territory over which it claimed sovereignty when it declared independence. .
             The expansion of mining by the end of the nineteenth century attracted foreign investment, which led to the development of three large foreign mining corporations that became dominant in Bolivia's economic and political life. In 1952 a populist revolutionary party (Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario) seized control of the government, followed by the expropriation of the mines by the state and an agrarian reform or land redistribution, by which the large estates were divided among former tenants and peasants.