CHAPTER IV
BOLIVIA INDEPENDENT
After his great victory at Ayacucho, Sucré advanced rapidly to Cuzco and thence into the Titicaca basin. By February he had reached Oruro in what is now central Bolivia, and Upper Peru rose as one man to welcome the deliverer. The next step was to decide upon the future government. For thirty years before the beginning of the revolution this country had been part of the viceroyalty of Buenos Aires, and when the city on the Plate had expelled its Spanish rulers the patriots there had expected that Upper Peru would continue to be connected with the new nation. Although in the early years of the war these provinces sent delegates to congresses which assembled in the Argentine cities, the Creoles of the plateau never showed any anxiety to incorporate their country with the Argentine, and the successes of the Spanish generals virtually renewed Bolivia's ancient connection with Lima. Now that the Spaniards were expelled, the Bolivian Creoles were no more willing to unite with Lower Peru than with Buenos Aires, and Bolivar encouraged this sentiment. The ambitious and lucky soldier had formed the Napoleonic conception of making himself supreme dictator of a confederation of small states, each of which was to be ruled by a subordinate dictator named from among his creatures. To organise Upper Peru into a separate country with Sucré at its head would be a long step in this direction. Bolivar himself was president of the confederation of Venezuela, New Granada, and Ecuador, as well as dictator of Lower Peru, and at the head of a victorious army of Colombians. Argentina's influence was nullified by civil war. Chile's strength was as yet unsuspected. For the moment Bolivar was supreme in South America. At his dictation Peru and Buenos Aires promulgated decrees leaving to the provinces of Upper Peru the right "to decide freely and spontaneously as to what form of government would be most conducive to their prosperity and good government."
When Bolivar himself reached the country he was received in a delirium of joy and gratitude, and the enthusiastic Bolivians acclaimed him father of their country. In a literal sense he deserved the title, for his intervention had conferred independence on Bolivia, and his decrees now fixed her boundaries. In general he followed the ancient limits of the audiencia of Charcas. Peru retained the seacoast directly to the west as well as all the Titicacan basin north and west of the lake, compelling Bolivian commerce to pass through foreign territory in order to reach the ocean. Far to the south Bolivia was conceded a little ribbon of coast, but the route thither lay over the bleak and barren Puna and was too long to be of any practical service.
On the 11th of August, 1825, official proclamation was made that the new republic had begun its existence, taking the name "Bolivia," in honour of the liberator. Congress said in the act of independence that: "Upper Peru is the altar upon which the first blood was shed for liberty, and the land where the last tyrant perished. The barbarous burning of more than a hundred villages, the destruction of towns, the scaffolds raised everywhere for the partisans of liberty, the blood of thousands of victims that would make even Caribs shudder; the taxes and exactions, as arbitrary as inhuman; the insecurity of property, life, and of honour itself; an atrocious and merciless inquisitorial system; all have not been able to extinguish the sacred fire of liberty and the just hatred of Spanish power."
Early in the following year Bolivar presented a Constitution all ready for the approval of congress. Written in his own hand, it stands a curious proof of his political ideas. After laying down the somewhat vague principle that liberty is a mere island which the waves of tyranny and anarchy alternately threaten to engulf, and establishing a legislative system, too complicated to be workable, he shows the cloven hoof by providing for a president elected for life and possessing the right to nominate a successor. Sucré was made the president as a matter of course, but hardly had he begun his regular government when troubles broke out. His own character, the internal conditions of Bolivia, and the international jealousies felt against him as the friend and representative of Bolivar, combined to make his position untenable. A general of the first order, a statesman of enlightened ideas, and a single-minded and unselfish patriot, Sucré would not deign to impose himself by force of arms on a reluctant people, nor make undignified compromises with the turbulent caudillos. He had accepted the presidency only after it had been repeatedly pressed upon him by the Bolivian congress, and though he was probably influenced by his loyal wish to aid Bolivar in the latter's scheme of uniting all Spanish-America under a strong, semi-monarchical government, he was unselfishly anxious to restore peace and order. The heterogeneous population of about a million who lived upon the plateau was, however, demoralised by the terrible experiences through which it had passed in the previous fifteen years. Three-fourths were Indian, a stoical, docile race which would not make much trouble, but which was divided into two nations speaking different languages and possessing little capacity for organisation. The few whites and the more numerous people of mixed blood were the dominating elements, and these had been trained to lawlessness and ferocity by the long war.
Sucré vainly tried to replace anarchy by some semblance of orderly government. The revenues of the country had fallen from the two millions annually of colonial times to almost nothing. His attempt to substitute a rational system of direct taxation for the countless Spanish imposts failed. Money to pay the Colombian troops could not be raised and the mercenaries became mutinous. At the same time symptoms of rebellion appeared among the Bolivian caudillos. Troubles in Colombia and Venezuela had forced Bolivar to retire from Peru and the troops he left behind almost immediately mutinied, and Santa Cruz pushed himself to the head of affairs at Lima. The Bolivarian Constitution of Peru was overthrown, and Santa Cruz and Gamarra advanced upon Bolivia to expel Sucré. The latter's Colombian troops mutinied and bands of insurrectionists rose in various parts of the country to aid the Peruvian invaders, while Argentina and Chile plainly showed their desire for Sucré's overthrow. On the 28th of July, 1828, a little more than three years after his triumphant entry into Bolivia, Sucré made a treaty with the leader of the Peruvian army agreeing to withdraw from Bolivia with all the natives of Colombia. General Santa Cruz was named president, and the Peruvians occupied many of the Bolivian provinces for several months, only to withdraw when it became evident that their continued presence would surely provoke a universal uprising. Santa Cruz soon triumphed over all opposition and established himself as master of the country.