Historia mínima de Bolivia

Cambridge Concise Histories

by Herbert S. Klein

Bolivia, una nación creada a fuerza de conquistas imperiales y adaptaciones nativas, con una singular población acostumbrada a vivir en las alturas, es aún la más amerindia de las repúblicas americanas, al tiempo que participa de lleno en la economía mundial. Sin embargo, ésta ha experimentado en los últimos tiempos mayor movilidad social y económica que cualquier otra población indígena o mestiza de Hispanoamérica. Bolivia es actualmente el único país latinoamericano gobernado por su población amerindia originaria y la élite mestiza. Uno de los principales intereses de esta edición es revisar cómo y por qué sucedió todo esto mediante el examen de la evolución económica, social y política de esta importante nación, desde los primeros poblamientos de la región hasta el régimen actual de Evo Morales.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Bolivia, Latin American History, World History

391 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 3, 2003

Reviews

[Larkin Tackett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three days in the Miami Airport waiting for a delayed flight and I devoured this book. Although it read like a 300-page Wikipedia article without sections, I learned a ton:
- Bolivia is the first South America country to declare independence from Spain, but paradoxically the last to achieve it
- Spanish was the minority language until the 70s
- Indigenous Bolivians, the majority ethnic group, didn’t receive the right to vote until the 50s
- Che arrived in Bolivia 1966, apparently more interested in setting up a guerrilla headquarters for operations in Argentina and Brazil, but eventually clashed with the Bolivian Army (with support from the US), which ultimately executed him
- Despite lots of economic growth, Bolivia is still ranked the third poorest in Latin America
- With some exceptions for economic reasons, the current Constitution vests property rights in communities rather than individuals
- Recognizing the multiple ethnic groups in the country, Bolivia is officially called, “the Estado Plurinacional de Belovia”
- Civil eights of citizens included “privacy, intimacy, honor, self-image, and dignity” as well as cultural self-identification

[Justino]

valuable to any traveler to bolivia: i read herbert klein as i traveled, through bolivia. the first five chapters (pre-columbian through the creation of a nation state 1841) enriched my visits to sucre, potosi, oruro, and la paz. though the text is not intended for the average tourist, it is valuable to any traveler who has more than a passing curosity about this unusual, provocative country.

herbert klein is profossor of lain american history at columbia and his writting style reflects this. "a concise short history of bolivia" reads like a college text book, jammed with dates, famous and obsure names, events and the obicucious commentary. it is evident that klien has a sharp grasp of bolivian politics and ecomnomics, and his comments bring light to the the plight and oppression that the people of bolivia have endure. no where in south america have the poor been as exploited as they have in bolivia.

the leaders of bolivia have consistantly placed the hopes for an economic renewal in bolivia on one major export (first silver, then tin, now gas). they have not learned from history. they exploit one non-renewable resource, and spend the money (that doesn't first go into the pockets of corrupt politians and their cornies) on bigger government building, a larger militiary (bolivia, a land locked nation still supports a navy) and squander the people's future. herbert klein clearly show how history documented this. saddly, it is happening again today with the newly found reserves of lpg.

after visiting potosi and its infamious mines of 'cerro rico', a huge cone shaped mountain where over 300 mines exist to extract silver, i was perplexed to find that klein does not mention that over 8 million, million! men have suffered and died mining this mountain since 1545 when the silver was discovered. klein glosses over this fact, choosing not to elucidate how the spanish crown was responsible for the genenocide, yes genenocide, of the indigious poplulation. strikingly, klien is silent. i sensed in reading this history text he did not want to rock any boats, and instead choose a text that would be "acceptable" for any college class (including those in spain)... viva the status quo!

that said, the text is strongly recommended for any student of south american history, bolivia and for those that are planning more than a few days in this wonderfully obscure country.

[Nathan Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bolivia is a landlocked country today, but it was originally part of Peru and was therefore part of the Incan empire. As advanced as the Incas became, their empire only lasted about 100 years. They had migrated to the area in the fifteenth century, conquered the Aymara kingdom, and put the Aymara to work. Whether the Aymara were officially slaves can be debated, but the Incas were known to rotate their workforce and allow workers to rest. In 1532 another empire came in- not from the land, but from the sea.

The Spanish who came with Francisco Pizarro were not wealthy by European standards. Yet in their new environment they became rich. Exploiting Aymara grudges against the Incas, they eventually subdued the western half of the continent and brought with them the Catholic faith. Sadly, they also impressed many of its inhabitants into slavery. Yet neither the Incas nor the Spanish fully subdued the area to the south, which was 12,000 feet above sea level. This area known as the Altiplano eventually became Upper Peru.

In 1545, silver was discovered in Potosi. Upper Peru quickly became one of the largest sources of wealth for the Spanish empire. The natives were put to work in the mines, and Mita labor began in 1582. While mining technology advanced in Europe, the primitive equipment in Upper Peru was only able to mine so deep, and water had to be drained before they could dig any deeper. The result was a silver crisis in the mid 1600s (not until steam power advanced the process could they get the rest of the silver). Then in 1695 more silver was discovered in Oruro. Both Potosi and Oruro became major mining cities. Religious advancement was slow, but the Spanish managed to build churches and even a few universities in the region, and while the native population were mistreated, at least Catholicism taught about Jesus. Many Europeans intermarried with natives and a new hybrid culture developed with its own unique art. One of the most famous artists of the time was Melchor Perez de Holguin.

Spain went to war with England in 1796, and a few years later the Napoleonic Wars began. When Napoleon invaded Spain, he put his brother on the throne and weakened Spain's grasp of its American colonies. As a result, the colonies broke away one by one. Despite its geographic isolation, Upper Peru was the first region to feel Napoleon's effect because the society depended on financial resources from Spain. They attempted to break away in 1809, but due to disorganization, geography, and 4 invasions by neighboring Argentina, they did not successfully break away until 1825. Simon Bolivar had helped to liberate the continent, but when it became apparent that a Pan-American empire was impossible, he allowed Upper Peru to be created as a buffer between Argentina and Peru. Even though he was only its leader for a few months, the new nation was named after him.

Bolivia's second president was Antonio Jose de Sucre, and he made a decision that would radically set the tone of the nation's future. In contrast to America’s founders, he sought not just to separate church and state but to severely limit the influence of the church. He confiscated church tithes, closed many of the monasteries, took away church lands, and all but made the nation a secular state. A constitution was created, but its effect was short-lived. The national military was small and people in the new territory seemed to have nothing in common. What followed was decades of military coups and dictatorships in which cultural advancements were crippled by civil wars and constant extremes in leadership. There were so many changes in government that it is impossible to blame any one political ideology more than the others. It was typical for opponents of a new regime to be exiled from the country, if they weren’t executed.

If the ideas of Karl Marx had any influence on Bolivia, no one could agree on just who the proletariat or the bourgeoisie really were. The Spanish hacienda system made many view the landowners as the oppressors and the farm workers are the oppressed. The ethnic differences made some think that people of European descent were the oppressors and the Indians the oppressed. There was no universal language, so people who spoke Spanish had the advantage over Quechua and Aymara speakers. People in the cities had political influence that those in the rural areas did not. The world market for silver gave the mine owners the advantage at the hacienda owners' expense. When the market value of silver suddenly declined in the late 1800s and the value of tin increased, the discovery of tin in the region gave the tin miners the advantage. Yet to make any profit on silver or tin, Bolivia needed to preserve its ocean access, which was dwindling due to Chilean expansion.

In 1879, Bolivia's solution was to wage war with Chile and due to poor military leadership, their small Bolivian army was easily defeated. As a result of this military loss, rural landowners and the miners begin to participate more heavily in politics. Deals were made that allowed them to still use Chilean ports. The war losses were blamed on too much military obsession. Some reforms and concessions were made, and for a while the nation seemed to consolidate and advance. There was a border dispute with Brazil that saw northeastern Bolivian territory ceded in 1904- a minor setback. Then the market value of tin suddenly plummeted. Since oil had been discovered in the Chaco lowlands near the border with Paraguay, drilling for oil and selling it seemed to be the best alternative.

America's depression effected Latin America too. Standard Oil of New Jersey was accused of illegally selling Bolivian oil to Argentina and Paraguay. In 1932, President Daniel Salamanca was failing politicly, and against all advice he declared war on Paraguay using the false premise that they had stolen a Bolivian fort (Bolivia had really taken the fort from Paraguay). At first, the Chaco war seemed to go well. The Bolivian army seized 3 forts in just a month. Then instead of exploiting the advantage, the military leadership assumed that victory was already won. The Paraguayan army mobilized and waged a counteroffensive that encircled the Bolivian troops. On the home front, Salamanca had tried to wipe out political dissenters, and when news of the defeat reached the cities, there was rioting. Then the Paraguayan army retook their forts back and penetrated Bolivian territory. When the war was finally lost, the surviving Bolivian soldiers vowed revenge, not against Paraguay, but against their own government.

Events in Europe gave anyone looking to seize power ideas. Communist sympathizers supported the allies because of their association with Russia. Many who opposed Communism (as well as some who wanted social reforms) sympathized with the Nazis, and a national socialist group was formed. Yet dependence on American trade held sympathy with the Nazis in check. As said before, Marxist and reformist sympathy was divided by disagreements over who was the most oppressed, and while a Communist party was formed, full-blown Communism never overtook Bolivia. However, there was a national revolution in 1952. Citizens in countryside were armed; peasants rose up and killed or expelled overseers. Haciendas were seized, and land ownership shifted to the peasants.

During the Cold War, America offered economic support to third world nations to keep them from turning to Communism, and we made a minerals deal with Bolivia in 1953. This may have created in them a dependence on foreign aid and the neglect of any internal improvements to fix their own problems. Russia in turn offered their support, hoping to break our alliance. When Che Guevara fled to Bolivia, he was captured and executed in 1967. When Salvador Allende was overthrown in Chile in 1973, this temporarily reenforced the belief that being on the side of America was wise- although all things were subject to change.

The late 1960s and early 1970s saw the need for another export that could make a profit, and the illegal exportation of cocaine seemed to be the solution. It was an extremely lucrative endeavor, but America soon began to wage a new Cold War on drugs. The last military Junta was in 1982, and Bolivia finally returned to democracy. In an attempt to solve the nation's fiscal problems, the regime of Hernan Siles Zuazo printed more money in 1982, and by 1985 inflation rose to 8000%. To curb these problems, Pas Estenssoro ended state capitalism and replaced it with an open market. Unions were suppressed, and his reforms included persecution of the miners and general dissent. Yet through all the chaos and changes in government in the last few decades, the nation's indigenous population gradually became more recognized and was finally able to participate more in politics. This improvement was long overdue. In 2006, Evo Morales became the nation's first president of an indigenous race. The change in demographics obviously did not fix all of Bolivia's problems, and in 2019 there was another political coup. Elections continue to be disputed, and when a candidate does not achieve a majority, more elections must be held.

The only constant in Bolivia is change. It has always been this way. At its inception in 1825, Bolivia was given the leftovers of the Latin American revolutions. They lost some of those leftovers by losing territorial wars. Excessive changes in leadership, violent military coups, and too much reliance on foreign aid has not helped the nation's poverty rate, although improvements in education and public health have been made. In order to survive, a nation must have something that unites its people. There hasn’t been much to unite people in Bolivia. A large percentage of people now know Spanish, yet Quechua and Aymara are still widely used. A nation also needs personal freedoms. Yet due to the decisions of Antonio Sucre at the beginning, the influence of the of Christian faith was minimized. Without a value system that defines right and wrong or gives people an inherent value as creations of God, it is hard to protect human rights or to improve any society. Thankfully, the church today has a significant influence.

*My main criticism of this book is that it is very dry. I am not sure if the author would agree with me on the importance of faith, but his book was very enlightening as to the complexities of human civilization and the power struggles involved.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 1 out of 5]

Perhaps more aptly titled "An Unconcise Economy History of Bolivia" or, even better, "An Economic History of Tin and Mining in Bolivia", there is little to commend this to the general reader. Those who follow my efforts to read a history of every country in the world will have noticed a marked tendency in histories I've read for me to openly criticize the pattern of starting-off-well-then-devolving-into-eye-glazing-economic-history.
This book skips the first step and offers a dizzying, confusing and wildly uninteresting history of the economic development of...Bolivia. This could hardly be appealing to anyone outside of tin aficionados and jargon-fetishists. You will learn little else about Bolivia except that it has mines, tin, cocaine, and a bewildering array of acronym-wielding political parties. There is barely anything about actual Bolivians and their art/culture, the latter more than likely tin- or cocaine-themed, if one judges by this work.
On to Peru, where Indiana Jones twice--TWICE--got chased by nearly naked savages!

[Bruno Cobos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aunque por momentos la organización del libro no es la mejor (por ejemplo, la ausencia de subsección dificulta seguir la lectura), el libro es muy sencillo de leer.

[Ryan Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

pretty poorly written and definitely poorly edited. disorganized and mundane. the author used the non-word unqualifiedly more than once. every era in bolivian history was "unquestionably the most creative..." and it often seemed that the author forgot the beginning of a sentence before he reached the end. i had started writing down the hilarious results of this forgetfulness but they became too frequent to catalog.

please just read the "history of bolivia and its people" section of the lonely planet guide. the information is more useful, more up to date, and far better organized.

the worst tragedy about this book is it is not the only work of this author.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Serviceable enough as a general introduction to the topic. The author's leftist bias comes through occasionally, but overall the presentation and interpretation of events seems judicious enough. But the prose style is pretty clunky, with questionable word choice and syntax that don't make for particularly enjoyable reading.

[maren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Herbert Klein's concise history is great for a general understanding of Bolivia's history and politics. Ideal for people who want a basic overarching view of the county. Mine was the 2003 version so the most modern sections (1990s-present) were ridiculously out of date.

[Julian Haigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Straight history without pause for reflection. Concise is a great work but you can't lose track of the narrative for more than a couple sentences without getting thoroughly lost: what one would expect from such a book.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fine for a historical review. 3/5 stars - that's average. If you want a full sense of Bolivia you're not going to read just one book anyway. This is a good book in the bunch.

[Franco · Rating 2 out of 5]

More than half of it was too dense and did not engage me but once we hit the Chaco War I found myself more interested in what it had to say. It helped that I knew some of Bolivia's 20th century history. In general, this book does not play out enough like a narrative so it had a lot of "and then..." to it which made it difficult to get through.