, suggesting the name of Bolivia, as a replacement to Upper Peru.
Officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia (Spanish: Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia; Quechua: Puliwya Mamallaqta; Guarani: Tetã Hetãvoregua Mborivia; Aymara: Wuliwya Suyu), Bolivia is a country is South America, the only one besides Paraguay to be landlocked. It was one of the former South American colonies that threw off Spanish rule in the 1810s. As a nod by Bolivians to Venezuelan leader Simón Bolívar's efforts to help gain the country independence, they named the country for him.
Despite being a landlocked nation, Bolivia has a naval branch as part of its armed forces. The reasons for this date back to events more than a century ago. In the 19th century, the country had a small strip of land that connected it to the Pacific Ocean. However, it was poorly settled by the Bolivians themselves and was mostly inhabited by Chilean immigrants. In 1879, large deposits of nitrates and saltpeter was discovered in the area, prompting the Bolivian government to raise taxes on the Chileans mining these resources. This act, along with subsequent actions against a Chilean mining company, was in direct violation of a treaty Bolivia had with Chile. The Chilean government attempted to find a diplomatic solution, but when the Bolivian government refused to back down, Chile invaded the region, thus beginning the War of the Pacific. Neighboring Peru would end up joining the war on the side of Bolivia because both nations had signed a secret mutual defense pact. The war ultimately ended in a Chilean victory, after which Chile annexed Bolivia's entire coast, in addition to annexing some territory from Peru. Bolivia has never accepted the loss of its coastline and continues to maintain a Navy as part of its hope of someday regaining it. As of now, the Bolivian Navy is a "Brown-water Navy", primarily operating along the many rivers and lakes of the country. The most notable being Lake Titicaca, which is divided between Bolivia and Peru. Bolivia also lost land to Brazil and Paraguay in the 1930s Chaco War.
Bolivia had the luck of having huge tin deposits, but that mainly benefited the Tin Barons who controlled the tin mines. The poorer classes did not take that well and forced a revolution in 1953. Since then, the government has switched between left and right extremes. In 2006, Evo Morales, an ethnic Aymara, was elected President. He nationalized the natural gas industry but angered the eastern part of the country with a large mestizo and white population [Bolivia is mostly Amerindian]. Morales was seen by people as their own version of Hugo Chávez of Venezuela; in fact, Morales was on good terms with the Venezuelan before Chávez' death in 2013 and has a similar relationship with his successor Nicolás Maduro.
In 2019, Morales resigned from the presidency after mass protests over alleged election fraud after seeking a fourth term as president, something his sympathizers have claimed was a coup (needless to say, this is a touchy subject). In the wake of these events, and the multiple resignations that followed, Senate second-Vice President Jeanine Añez took over as interim President, with another round of elections set for the following year. After a tumultuous 11 months marked by the COVID-19 Pandemic, violent crackdowns on political dissidents, and Añez's controversial campaign for a full term as President, which ultimately ended with her withdrawal from the race a month before Election Day, October 2020 saw Luis Arce, Morales's former Minister of Economy and Public Finance, win the Presidency in a clean race.
Its landlocked position has made Bolivia one of the poorest Latin American countries, but its natural gas and lithium reserves could be useful in jumpstarting the economy. The government has plans to do this to benefit the majority of the country.
By the way, the capital according to the constitution is Sucre, where the Supreme Court is located, but the government is seated in La Paz, which makes it de facto capital. That makes La Paz the highest capital in the world, at almost 12,000 feet above sea level.
Culture
The Bolivians are also actively encouraging indigenous cultures [Aymara, Quechua, etc]. As of 2009 they renamed their country the Plurinational State of Bolivia.
While most Bolivians watch Mexican, Argentine, Brazilian, and Colombian soap operas, they had a Soap Opera industry of their own, though it was mainly by independent producers.
There's also the whole coca leaf thing. The coca leaf has been historically a tradition of the Andean zone note , mainly because of its medicinal powers (the lack of air in the highlands provokes dizziness and other maladies, and chewing the coca leaf helps relieve them). As probably everyone knows, the coca leaves can be processed into cocaine, so the United States and other countries have tried to cut back or eliminate the growing of the leaves, which is at odds with the local people. Before being elected, Morales earned fame for his opposition to the pressure the US imposed on the Bolivian government to forcefully reduce cultivation of coca.
Bolivia is well known for its Andean Music, alongside Peru and Ecuador, with popular folk bands such as Los Kjarkas.
The second half of the James Bond film Quantum of Solace is set here, and Ghost Recon Wildlands takes place entirely here.
Notable Bolivians/people of Bolivian descent:
- Raquel Welch, birth name Jo Raquel Tejada, was born to a Bolivian father. After she broke through as an actress, she kept her first husband's last name as her stage name, even though she eventually divorced him (and went on to marry and divorce three more men after that). Her cousin, Lidia Gueiler, became Bolivia's first female president, ruling from 1979 to 1980.
- Ben Mikaelsen is a Bolivian-American writer of Danish descent.
- American actress Stephanie Beatriz was born in Argentina to a Colombian father and a Bolivian mother.
The Bolivian flag
Coat of arms of Bolivia
The Bolivian national anthem
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Government
- Unitary presidential constitutional republic
- President: Luis Arce
- Vice President: David Choquehuanca
Miscellaneous
- Capitals: Sucre (constitutional and judicial), La Paz (executive and legislative)
- Largest city: Santa Cruz de la Sierra
- Population: 11,428,245
- Area: 1,098,581 km² (424,164 sq mi) (27th)
- Currency: Bolivian boliviano (Bs) (BOB)
- ISO-3166-1 Code: BO
- Country calling code: 591
- Highest point: Sajama (6542 m/21,463 ft) (12th)
- Lowest point: Paraguay River (90 m/295 ft) (53rd)
