Category: Southern America

CULTURE: THEATER Both during the colonial period and after independence, Bolivian theater was for a long time an absolutely marginal phenomenon and strongly influenced by Spanish models, with an indigenous production of religious dramas and historical dramas. Only in 1920 did experimental groups form which favored the birth of a new dramaturgy, engaged in the […]

CULTURE: TRADITIONS In Bolivia, ethnic groups of different origins and cultures coexist, which preserve very different traditions; the national framework was then considerably enriched following the introduction of Spanish traditions. The preeminent folkloric aspect, however, is given by the Indians. Indian spirit and Catholic-Spanish culture coexist in syncretic forms, blending animism and Catholic faith, evolved […]

HISTORY: MILITARY DICTATORSHIPS AND THE RETURN TO MULTI-PARTYISM The situation in the country gradually deteriorated, especially after the return of Paz Estenssoro to the presidency (1960). In November 1964, he was deposed in a military coup and replaced by General René Barrientos Ortuño. With the government shifted completely to the right, outbreaks of guerrilla warfare […]

HISTORY: FROM THE SPANISH CONQUEST TO THE “PACIFIC WAR” (1879-83) Already the cradle of the remote civilization of Tiahuanaco, it was part of the Inca empire as a border mark. Towards the middle of the century. XVI was conquered by the Spaniards, who had already taken possession of Peru and the Plata basin. Its territory, […]

ECONOMY: INDUSTRY AND MINERAL RESOURCES The industrial sector, which contributes 36.9% (2011) to the formation of GDP, with less than a third of the active population employed, remains scarcely diversified and mostly linked to extractive activities. An inadequate communications network, combined with a weak internal market, the shortage of effective credit institutions, the scarcity of […]

ECONOMY: GENERAL INFORMATION As a country located in South America according to programingplease, Bolivia ranks among the poorest and most backward countries in Latin America. Despite the richness of the subsoil, the economy is in fact characterized by a deficit agriculture and a very limited industry. This difficulty finds ancient justifications, and is largely due […]

TERRITORY: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY Most of the Bolivian population descends directly from the ancient inhabitants of the plateau, in particular the Aymará (concentrated around Lake Titicaca) and the Quechua ; in the eastern lowlands the Amerindians are represented by scattered groups of Amazonian and Chaco gatherers and hunters, among which Guaraní people have also crept. Overall, […]

TERRITORY: MORPHOLOGY Two fifths approx. of the Bolivian territory are included in the Andean region; the remainder extends over the lowlands and the modest elevations at the limit between the Amazon and the Platense basins. In the Andean section, generically called Altiplano in Bolivia, the Andes reach their maximum width; the system splits into the […]

GENERALITY The name of the state derives from that of the libertador Simón Bolívar, promoter in the nineteenth century of the emancipation of South American countries from Spanish rule. Territorially it corresponds broadly to the audiencia of Charcas (or of Alto Perú), which was one of the parts of the Spanish viceroyalty of Lima; almost […]