Map of Bolivia geographical changes here
2006, Evo Mortales Aima
became Bolivia�s first ever indogenous Presaident, for the Movement Towards
Socialism Party. Gas was nationalised, and more rights given to indigenous
peoples.
2/2000,
100,000 Bolivians protested against the government decision to privatise the
water supply. The Government�s eradication of coca plantations also caused
dissent.
1990,
16,000 square kilometres of Bolivian rainforest were recogtnised as Amerindian
territory.
1989,
The Movement For The Revolutionary Left took power after a close-run election.
1986,
The world tin price collapsed, and 21,000 miners in Bolivia became unemployed.
1985,
The Nationalist Revolutionary Movement won elections. Austerity measures were
imposed, bringing inflation down to 20%.
1982,
Return to civilian rule under the Leftist president Siles Zuazo. Bolivian inflation
was running at 24,000%,
1979,
A brief period of civilian rule in Bolivia, followed by a further military coup
in 1980.
1975,
Negotiations between Bolivia and Chile to restore Bolivian access to the sea
were close to success, but they could not agree on an equivalent grant of
Bolivian land to Chile. Moreover, Peru insisted it must approve any such
agreement, as the proposed corridor would be on land formerly belonging to
Peru.
19/8/1971, Unrest in Bolivia was
triggered by the arrest of 30 leaders of a Right-wing demonstration in Santa
Cruz. Leftist Bolivian President Juan Jose Torres was supported by peasants,
students, miners and the air force, but opposed by the army and the
conservative middle and upper classes. Then the air force defected to the
Rightist rebels, and they captured the capital, La Paz. President Torres fled to Peru
and then on to Chile, where he gained asylum. A military-civilian coalition
government took control of Bolivia, led by Colonel Hugo Banzer Suarez.
9/1969, General Alfredo Ovando Candia
deposed President
Siles and became dictator. A decade of military rule, becoming
increasingly harsh, ensued until 1979.
9/10/1967. The revolutionary Marxist
leader Che Guevara was captured in Bolivia
and shot. Bolivian troops killed Ernesto �Che� Guevara and six other guerrillas
they had cornered in the village of La Higuera near Vallegrande. The Argentine
born hero of Latin American revolutionaries, Guevara was a prominent figure
in Fidel
Castro�s successful Cuban Revolution of the 1950s and 60s. Guevara
then decided to join other struggles of �liberation�. Guevara came from a middle class
family and his travels convinced him that only violent revolution would solve
the economic, political, and poverty problems facing many Latin American
countries. The French philosopher Jean Paul Satre
described him as �the most complete human being of our age�.
1964, Economic collapse in
Bolivia; the military seized power.
1960, Paz Estenssoro regained the
Presidency.
1956, Hernan Siles, Nationalist
Revolutionary Movement, won the Presidential elections.
9/4/1952, Protests in Bolivia, led by Trotskyist unionised
miners, against the military junta who had seized power in 1951. The miners
were well organised and armed, and mounted blockade in La Paz to prevent te
military from entering to regain power. Three days of fighting followed, after
which the demoralised army gave up and Estenssoro became President. He fulfilled his
political promises, granting universal suffrage, nationalising the tin
industry, raising wages, and redistributing land to Bolivian peasants and the
indigenous peoples.
1951, Presidential elections
were won by Victor
Paz Estenssoro, for the middle-class progressive National Revolutionary Movenent (NRM).
However a military junta then seized power to prevent him taking government.
This led to popular protests, see 9/4/1952.
President
Villaroel, 1943-46
17/7/1946, After World War Two ended, Bolivia suffered
from declining mineral prices, especially tin, and both unemployment and
inflation rose. President
Villaroel (see 21/12/1943) lost popularity and this day was hanged
from a lamppost in front of the Presidential palace. The Bolivian Army did not
try and halt the rebellion, mounted by soldiers, students and workers. A
provisional Liberal Government was installed, and recognised by the USA and
Argentina.
21/12/1943, In Bolivia, President Enrique Penaranda was
deposed. Penaranda
had declared war on the Axis powers in Europe in April 1943, and Bolivian tin
was vital to the War effort. However in December 1943 a group of dissident Army
Officers, led by Colonel Gualberto Villaroel, and backed by the Arhgentine
Government and by German agents in Biuenos Aires, deposed Penaranda. The USA initially
refused to recognise Villaroel as Bolivian President but later did
so when he agreed co-operate with the Allies. However see 17/7/1946.
1932, The Chaco War with Paraguay, lasting until 1935. Bolivia lost thre
quarters of the Chaco region.
1923, Miners revolt in Bolivia.
1920, Amerindian rebellion in
Bolivia.
1914, The Republican Party was
founded.
1903, Bolivia ceded Acre
Province,rich in rubber production, to Brazil. The provoince had been disputed
between the two nations.
1880, Bolivia enjoyed a period
of stable government, lasting until 1930, with mninerals exports creating
prosperity.
1879, The War of the Pacific. Bolivia was defeated by Chile, losing its
coastline and the nitrate rich province of Attacama. The War ended in 1884. For more details
see Chile
1873, Concerned at increasing
Chilean economic development of the nitrate resources on the Bolivian Pacific
Coast, Bolivia and Peru made an alliance and imposed higher taxes on the
Chilean companies working there. Chile respoinded by attacking both Bolivia and
Peru, gaining considerable territory tpo its nporth and depriving Bolivia of
its Pacific Coast.
1866, Bolivia and Chile made an
informal agreement that their Pacific Coast border whould be at 24 degrees
south. Bolivia at the time did not have the capability to develop any
resourcxes found in its Pacific Coast lands north of 24 deg. South, so they
agreed that Chile would develop this area, in exchange for a share of the
revenue from these resources. Valuable guano 9fertiliser) deposits were
discovered there.
1864, The dioctatorship of Matiano
Melgarejo began, lasting until 1871. Three Amerindian revolts over
the seizure of ancestral lands were crushed.
1836, Bolivia formed a
short-lived unuion with Peru, which failed in 1839, leading to internal unrest.
1826, Chuquisaca was renamed
Sucre, after the General who liberated it from the Spanish.
6/8/1825, Bolivia
proclaimed itself a Republic, independent from Spain, after nearly 300 years of Spanish rule.� Antonio Sacre was the first President.
17/12/1819, Simon
Bolivar, who had already secured
the independence of Venezuela, became the President of the newly independent Bolivia.
1809, Anti-Spanish uprising
inspired by Simon Bolivar took place in Chuquisaca (Sucre), La Paz and
Cochabamba. They all failed.
1776, Upper Peru was assigned by
the Spanish to the ViceRoyalty of Rio de la Plata, centred on Buenos Aires.
1545, Cerro Rico, the �Silver
Mountain�, was discovered at Potosi. Wiuthin 3 decades Potosi grew to 120,000
people, the biggets city in the Americas.
30/11/1538, Sucre,
Bolivia, was founded under the name of Ciudad de la Plata de la Nueva Toledo.
1532, The Bolivia area was
conquered by the Spanish.
The last indoigenous resistence was finally supressed in 1538. The region was
governed as part of �Upper Peru�.