Country Facts

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Summary by Gustavo Cañas-Valle
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Historical remarks

Bolivia was the land of the Aymaras before the Incas arrived to conquer them(1430) . The first example of development of this culture is the Tiahuanaco society, which existed before the Incas (2000 BC).

It was originally called Alto Peru during the Spanish conquest of the Inca empire and colonial era. Alto Peru was first part of the Vicerroyalty of Peru and later part of the Vicerroyalty of Rio de la Plata.

Even before the Spaniards arrived, Alto Perú was an important territory for several cultures and particularly for the Aymaras, who were an important and culturally rich society. Alto Peru was one of the two axis of development of the Indigenous America, the other being the Maya territory.

"Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon BOLIVAR, broke away from Spanish rule in 1825; much of its subsequent history has consisted of a series of nearly 200 coups and countercoups. Democratic civilian rule was established in 1982, but leaders have faced difficult problems of deep-seated poverty, social unrest, and illegal drug production.

In December 2005, Bolivians elected Movement Toward Socialism leader Evo MORALES president - by the widest margin of any leader since the restoration of civilian rule in 1982 - after he ran on a promise to change the country's traditional political class and empower the nation's poor majority. However, since taking office, his controversial strategies have exacerbated racial and economic tensions between the Amerindian populations of the Andean west and the non-indigenous communities of the eastern lowlands."

Source
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/