History

The country now forming the republic of Bolivia, named after the great liberator Simon Bolivar (q.v.), was in early days simply a portion of the empire of the Incas of Peru (q.v.). After the conquest of Peru by the Spaniards in the 16th century the natives were subjected to much tyranny and oppression, though it must in fairness be said that much of it was carried out in defiance of the efforts and the wishes of the Spanish home government, whose legislative efforts to protect the Indians from serfdom and ill-usage met with scant respect at the hands of the distant settlers and mine-owners, who bid defiance to the humane and protective regulations of the council of the Indies, and treated the unhappy natives little better than beasts of burden. The statement, moreover, that some eight millions of Indians perished through forced labour in the mines is a gross exaggeration. The annual diminution in the number of the Indian population was undoubtedly very great, but it was due far more to the result of European epidemics and to indulgence in alcohol than to hard work. The abortive insurrection of 1780-82, led by the Inca Tupac Amarú, was never a general rising, and was directed rather against Creole tyranny than against Spanish rule. The heavy losses sustained by the Indians during that outbreak, and their dislike and distrust of the colonial Spaniard, account for the comparative indifference with which they viewed the rise and progress of the 1814 colonial revolt against Spain, which gave the South American states their independence.

We are only concerned here with the War of Independence so far as it affected Upper Peru, the Bolivia of later days. When the patriots of Buenos Aires had succeeded in liberating from the dominion of Spain the interior provinces of War of Independence. the Rio de la Plata, they turned their arms against their enemies who held Upper Peru. An almost uninterrupted warfare followed, from July 1809 till August 1825, with alternate successes on the side of the Spanish or royalist and the South American or patriot forces,—the scene of action lying chiefly between the Argentine provinces of Salta and Jujuy and the shores of Lake Titicaca. The first movement of the war was the successful invasion of Upper Peru by the army of Buenos Aires, under General Balcarce, which, after twice defeating the Spanish troops, was able to celebrate the first anniversary of independence near Lake Titicaca, in May 1811. Soon, however, the patriot army, owing to the dissolute conduct and negligence of its leaders, became disorganized, and was attacked and defeated, in June 1811, by the Spanish army under Gey fol Goyeneche, and driven back into Jujuy. Four years of warfare, in which victory was alternately with the Spaniards and the patriots, was terminated in 1815 by the total rout of the latter in a battle which took place between Potosi and Oruro. To this succeeded a revolt of the Indians of the southern provinces of Peru, and the object being the independence of the whole country, it was joined by numerous Creoles. This insurrection was, however, speedily put down by the royalists. In 1816 the Spanish general Laserna, having been appointed commander-in-chief of Upper Peru, made an attempt to invade the Argentine provinces, intending to march on Buenos Aires, but he was completely foiled in this by the activity of the irregular gaucho troops of Salta and Jujuy, and was forced to retire. During this time and in the six succeeding years a guerrilla warfare was maintained by the patriots of Upper Peru, who had taken refuge in the mountains, chiefly of the province of Yungas, and who frequently harassed the royalist troops. In June 1823 the expedition of General Santa Cruz, prepared with great zeal and activity at Lima, marched in two divisions upon Upper Peru, and in the following months of July and August the whole country between La Paz and Oruro was occupied by his forces; but later, the indecision and want of judgment displayed by Santa Cruz allowed a retreat to be made before a smaller royalist army, and a severe storm converted their retreat into a precipitate flight, only a remnant of the expedition again reaching Lima. In 1824, after the great battle of Ayacucho in Lower Peru, General Sucre, whose valour had contributed so much to the patriot success of that day, marched with a part of the victorious army into Upper Peru. On the news of the victory a universal rising of the patriots took place, and before Sucre had reached Oruro and Puno, in February 1825, La Paz was already in their possession, and the royalist garrisons of several towns had gone over to their side. The Spanish general Olañeta, with a diminished army of 2000 men, was confined to the province of Potosi, where he held out till March 1825, when he was mortally wounded in an action with some of his own revolted troops.

General Sucre was now invested with the supreme command in Upper Peru, until the requisite measures could be taken to establish in that country a regular and constitutional government. Deputies from the various provinces to the number of fifty-four were assembled at Chuquisaca, the capital, to decide upon the question proposed to them on the part of the government of the Argentine provinces, whether they would or would not remain separate from that country. In August 1825 they decided this Bolivia a nation. question, declaring it to be the national will that Upper Peru should in future constitute a distinct and independent nation. This assembly continued their session, although the primary object of their meeting had thus been accomplished, and afterwards gave the name of Bolivia to the country,—issuing at the same time a formal declaration of independence.

The first general assembly of deputies of Bolivia dissolved itself on the 6th of October 1825, and a new congress was summoned and formally installed at Chuquisaca on the 25th of May 1826, to take into consideration the constitution prepared by Bolivar for the new republic. A favourable report was made to that body by a committee appointed to examine it, on which it was approved by the congress, and declared to be the constitution of the republic; and as such, it was sworn to by the people. General Sucre was chosen president for life, according to the constitution, but only accepted the appointment for the space of two years, and on the express condition that 2000 Colombian troops should be permitted to remain with him.

The independence of the country, so dearly bought, did not, however, secure for it a peaceful future. Repeated risings occurred, till in the end of 1827 General Sucre and his Colombian troops were driven from La Paz. A new congress was formed at Chuquisaca in April 1828, which modified the constitution given by Bolivar, and chose Marshal Santa Cruz for president; but only a year later a revolution, led by General Blanco, threw the country into disorder and for a time overturned the government. Quiet being again restored in 1831, Santa Cruz promulgated the code of laws which bore his name, and brought the financial affairs of the country into some order; he also concluded a treaty of commerce with Peru, and for several years Bolivia remained in peace. In 1835, when a struggle for the chief power had made two factions in the neighbouring republic of Peru, Santa Cruz was induced to take a part in the contest; he marched into that country, and after defeating General Gamarra, the leader of one of the opposing parties, completed the pacification of Peru in the spring of 1836, named himself its protector, and had in view a confederation of the two countries. At this juncture the government of Chile interfered actively, and espousing the cause of Gamarra, sent troops into Peru. Three years of fighting ensued till in a battle at Jungay in June 1839 Santa Cruz was defeated and exiled, Gamarra became president of Peru, and General Velasco provisional chief in Bolivia. The Santa Cruz party, however, remained strong in Bolivia, and soon revolted successfully against the new head of the government, ultimately installing General Ballivian in the chief power. Taking advantage of the disturbed condition of Bolivia, Gamarra made an attempt to annex the rich province of La Paz, invading it in August 1841 and besieging the capital; but in a battle with Ballivian his army was totally routed, and Gamarra himself was killed. The Bolivian general was now in turn to invade Peru, when Chile again interfered to prevent him. Ballivian remained in the presidency till 1848, when he retired to Valparaiso, and in the end of that year General Belzu, after leading a successful military revolution, took the chief power, and during his presidency endeavoured to promote agriculture, industry and trade. General Jorge Cordova succeeded him, but had not been long in office when a new revolt in September 1857, originating with the garrison of Oruro, spread over the land, and compelled him to quit the country. His place was taken by Dr José Maria Linares, the originator of the revolution, who, taking into his own hands all the powers of government, and acting with the greatest severity, caused himself to be proclaimed dictator in March 1858. Fresh disturbances led to the deposition of Linares in 1861, when Dr Maria de Acha was chosen president. In 1862 a treaty of peace and commerce with the United States was ratified, and in the following year a similar treaty was concluded with Belgium; but new causes of disagreement with Chile had arisen in the discovery of rich beds of guano on the eastern coast-land of the desert of Atacama, which threatened warfare, and were only set at rest by the treaty of August 1866, in which the 24th parallel of latitude was adopted as the boundary between the two republics. A new military revolution, led by Maria Melgarejo, broke out in 1865, and in February of that year the troops of President Acha were defeated in a battle near Potosi, when Melgarejo took the dominion of the country. After defeating two revolutions, in 1865 and 1866, the new president declared a political amnesty, and in 1869, after imposing a revised constitution on the country, he became its dictator.

In January 1871 President Melgarejo was in his turn deposed and driven from the country by a revolution headed by Colonel Augustin Morales. The latter, becoming president, was himself murdered in November 1872 and was Recent history. succeeded by Colonel Adolfo Ballivian, who died in 1874. Under this president Bolivia entered upon a secret agreement with Peru which was destined to have grave consequences for both countries. To understand the reasons that urged Bolivia to take this step it is necessary to go back to the above-mentioned treaty of 1866 between Chile and Bolivia. By this instrument Bolivia, besides conceding the 24th parallel as the boundary of Chilean territory, agreed that Chile should have a half share of the customs and full facilities for trading on the coast that lay between the 23rd and 24th parallels, Chile at that time being largely interested in the trade of that region. It was also agreed that Chile should be allowed to mine and export the products of this district without tax or hindrance on the part of Bolivia. In 1870, in further consideration of the sum of $10,000, Bolivia granted to an Anglo-Chilean company the right of working certain nitrate deposits north of the 24th parallel. The great wealth which was passing into Chilean hands owing to these compacts created no little discontent in Bolivia, nor was Peru any better pleased with the hold that Chilean capital was establishing in the rich district of Tarapacá. On 6th February 1873 Bolivia entered upon a secret agreement with Peru, the ostensible object of which was the preservation of their territorial integrity and their mutual defence against exterior aggression. There can be no doubt that the aggression contemplated as possible by both countries was a further encroachment on the part of Chile.

Upon the death of Adolfo Ballivian, immediately after the conclusion of this treaty with Peru, Dr Tomas Frias succeeded to the presidency. He signed yet another treaty with Chile, by which the latter agreed to withdraw her claim to half the duties levied in Bolivian ports on condition that all Chilean industries established in Bolivian territory should be free from duty for twenty-five years. This treaty was never ratified, and four years later General Hilarion Daza, who had succeeded Dr Frias as president in 1876, demanded as the price of Bolivia’s consent that a tax of 10 cents per quintal should be paid on all nitrates exported from the country, further declaring that, unless this levy was paid, nitrates in the hands of the exporters would be seized by the Bolivian government. As an answer to these demands, and in order to protect the property of Chilean subjects, the Chilean fleet was sent to blockade the ports of Antofagasta, Cobija and Tocapilla. On the 14th February 1879 the Chilean colonel Sotomayor occupied Antofagasta, and on 1st March, a fortnight later, the Bolivian government declared war.

An offer on the part of Peru to act as mediator met with no favour from Chile. The existence of the secret treaty, well known to the Chilean government, rendered the intervention of Peru more than questionable, and the law passed by the latter in 1875, which practically created a monopoly of the Tarapacá nitrate beds to the serious prejudice of Chilean enterprise, offered no guarantee of her good faith. Chile replied by curtly demanding the annulment of the secret treaty and an assurance of Peruvian neutrality. Both demands being refused, she declared war upon Peru.

The superiority of the Chileans at sea, though checked for some time by the heroic gallantry of the Peruvians, soon enabled them to land a sufficient number of troops to meet the allied forces which had concentrated at Arica and other points in the south. The Bolivian ports were already in Chilean hands, and a sea attack upon Pisagua surprised and routed the troops under the Peruvian general Buendia and opened the way into the southern territory of Peru. General Daza, who should have cooperated with Buendia, turned back, on receiving news of the Peruvian defeat, and led the Bolivian troops to Tacna in a hasty and somewhat disorderly retreat. The fall of San Francisco followed, and Iquique, which was evacuated by the allies without a struggle, was occupied. Severe fighting took place before Tarapacá surrendered, but the end of 1879 saw the Chileans in complete possession of the province.