No matter how times change, the law of the jungle has not changed. However, in form, it has changed from the previous disobedience and territorial encroachment to hiding needles and acting as a political power.
Pifu is guilty, and Waibi is guilty. Since its independence 200 years ago, the nightmare experience of the South American country of Bolivia has been very representative.
Flag of Bolivia
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Bolivia? Descendants of the Inca Empire? Sky mirror of Uyuni salt lake? Mountain grass mud horse? Full of flamingos?
alpaca
Sky Mirror
For the author, which Bolivian is most impressed? I think it might be the following.
Morales
When I was a student, Morales, an indigenous Indian who ascended the Bolivian presidency three times, and the left-wing president who raised the Latin American anti-American flag with Venezuela's Chávez were extremely impressive.
Bolivia
In fact, Bolivia is not only famous for its tourism resources, but also extremely rich in natural resources, internationally nicknamed "the donkey sitting on a gold mine".
Bolivian streets
Minerals lie beneath the desert
Bolivia is internationally recognized as one of the richest countries in mineral products, to what extent? It has South America's second-largest natural gas field and fifth-largest oil reserves after Venezuela, as well as the world's second-largest tin reserves, accounting for 25% of the world's tin, 45 billion tons of iron reserves after Brazil, and the world's largest lithium reserves, not to mention the huge reserves of gold, silver, copper and other metals.
Global export of silver from the Americas
It is worth mentioning that in the 17th century, it was the large-scale export of silver from Peru and Bolivia to the world, which contributed to the Ming Dynasty's Wanli Zhongxing and the establishment of the silver standard, and also because the amount of silver caused the Spanish Empire itself to suffer serious inflation and had to reduce silver mining in the Americas, which in turn affected the Ming Dynasty silver imports, resulting in the Ming Dynasty's silver austerity and final financial collapse.
salina
Back in Bolivia, Bolivians could live well just by selling primary ore if these mineral resources were fully utilized, but the reality is that Bolivia is now the poorest country in South America. So, is it a natural disaster or a man-made disaster that causes all this?
Bolivian terrain
Located in central South America, Bolivia is the only landlocked country in South America (the other being Paraguay), with a land area of 1.098 million square kilometers, and its neighbors are Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile in a clockwise direction.
Peruvians
The population is about 11.427 million, of which 54% are Indians, 31% are Indo-Europeans, and 15% are whites.
La Paz
The seat of government and parliament is La Paz, the legal capital of Sucre, the only country in South America with two capitals. The actual capital of La Paz is more than 3,600 meters above sea level, which is the world's highest city with a population of more than one million, and it is also the highest capital in the world, known as the "City in the Sky". Because of its high altitude and many mountains, the cable car that can be transferred is a unique mode of transportation in the city.
cable car
As can be seen from the topographic map, most of the eastern and northeastern parts of Bolivia are the alluvial plain of the Amazon River, accounting for about 60% of the country's area, and the southern part of the plain has Bolivian plantation, oil exploitation and modern industrial centers, the country's largest city, Santa Cruz; In the valley of the central Eastern Andes, agriculture is developed, and major cities such as La Paz and Sucre in Bolivia are concentrated here; The western part is the Bolivian plateau, with an average altitude of more than 1,000 meters, the famous Potosí silver mines and the Uyuni salt marsh in the southwest of the plateau, and the famous Lake Titicaca in the northwest, where the Bolivian Navy is stationed.
Bolivia
Yes, you heard it right, as a landlocked country, Bolivia has a large navy with more than 40 ships and more than 4,000 navy personnel, and there is also a special naval festival and pulling ships on trailers for military parades.
Naval parade
This is a painful history, Bolivia had a coastline 150 years ago, a 500-kilometre stretch of Pacific coastline.
Bolivia at independence
This stretch of coastline is inherited from the Upper Peru region of La Plata, the predecessor of Bolivia, the Viceroyalty of La Plata in Spanish America.
Viceroyalty of Peru
The earliest Upper Peru was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, which was skillfully divided by the Spanish government because the territory was too large and the cost of administration was too high.
Viceroyalty of La Plata
Upper Peru, together with this 500 km of coastline, was included in the Viceroyalty of La Plata to the east. The Viceroyalty of Peru was divided into two parts by this short stretch of coastline, later Peru and Chile.
This deliberate division disputed the territorial ownership of the three countries after their independence in the future, and became the historical source of the later outbreak of the "saltpeter war or guano war".
Bolívar the Liberator
In the Latin American War of Independence, San Martín and Bolivar dealt a resolute blow to the Spanish colonialists, liberating Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and other countries, while Upper Peru was liberated by General Sucre sent by Bolívar.
Latin American War of Independence
In gratitude to Bolivar and Sucre, the people of the Upper Peru region changed Upper Peru to Bolivia (meaning the country of Bolívar), and the capital was changed from Chuquisaca to Sucre.
Latin American War of Independence
War one
The causes and processes of the South American Pacific War (the saltpeter war of 1879) have been described in detail in the Chile chapter, and the result was that Chile, which had defected to the British Empire, with advanced British weapons, a tenacious army and a large navy, defeated the short-sighted Peruvian-Bolivian federation collapsed, forcing the defeated and surrendered Peru and Bolivia to cede the Atacama desert region rich in saltpeter and guano, including Bolivia's coastal province of Antofagasta, and Bolivia became a landlocked country.
guano
Coastal territories ceded to Chile
The Bolivian Navy had no sea, but the establishment could not be lost, so it had to treat Lake Titicaca as the sea, and the Navy trained troops on the lake to cultivate domestic maritime awareness and preserve the hope of restoring the coastline.
Stamps issued in 2012, the Primorsky Territory is still on the map
Bolivians believe that as long as the naval fire remains, they will one day be able to sail from Lake Titicaca to the vast Pacific Ocean.
The naval station of Lake Titicaca
Soldier of the Bolivian Navy
You can't win outside, but you can fight in the nest
The saltpeter war divided Bolivia's domestic political power into liberals and conservatives.
Liberals who profit from maritime trade, who want the Bolivians to fight to the end and retake the coastal port, have gathered in La Paz, near Peru. The conservative faction of Bolivia's ruling party, which maintains ties with Britain, insisted on ceding land and paying reparations, and hurriedly ended the war, and they gathered in the capital Sucre.
La Paz
The contradictions between the two factions intensified, but because the regime was in the hands of conservatives, liberals had to wait for an opportunity.
Colonial architecture in Potosí
The opportunity came quickly. In the 1890s, the silver mines in the southern Sucre region gradually dried up and the economy declined. Tin mines were also discovered in La Paz in the north, and the economy took off rapidly.
In this way, the liberals have a little money, the conservatives have a little power, the two sides tear each other down, and the contradictions become more and more profound. The liberals decided to play on their own, and in December 1898, the liberals formed their own new government in La Paz.
In January 1899, the two sides fought and the Bolivian Civil War broke out.
civil war
Due to the conservative government's sale of land in the saltpeter war (Treaty of Ancon), Bolivians mostly turned to the liberal government, so that the civil war lasted for 3 months, the conservative government fled to Chile, and the liberals took power. Because there was too much resistance to moving the capital, the liberals had to compromise, and the stronghold of La Paz became the de facto capital, and Sucre remained the legal capital.
La Paz Street
Of course, in the opposite powerful Chile, the new government's reconquest of lost territory could only be shouted as a political slogan, so since 1904, the Bolivian government did not recognize the Treaty of Ancon, declaring that "Bolivia has not and will never lose its rights to the Pacific." ”
Battle two
While Chile and Peru-Bolivia are fighting, Argentina in the southeast is also paying attention to the dynamics of its old rival Chile. When Argentina discovered that Chile had captured the Atacama Desert and coastal areas, Argentina decisively attacked and occupied the Atacama Plateau, the highlands of the Atacama Desert near the Andes, before Chile sent troops. Faced with Chilean representations, the Argentines pulled Britain to arbitrate. As a result, according to the treaty, the ownership of the land was not written in as detailed, and it did not belong to Chile. The Argentines took the region completely after fooling the Bolivian government.
Argentina took advantage of the chaos
Battle three
The Acre region, Brazil's western border with Bolivia, is located in the Amazon rainforest, sparsely populated and rich in rubber. Originally, according to the division of Spanish and American power, this was the territory of Bolivia by default. , but the Brazilian Empire during the period of expansion did not think so, they thought that whoever grabbed it was whom.
Ceded to Brazilian territory
In 1861, Brazil sent an expeditionary force into the area and actually occupied it, triggering a territorial dispute between the two countries.
In 1867, Bolivia and Brazil signed the Treaty of Ayacucho, confirming that the area belonged to Bolivia, but the Brazilians did not leave.
In the late 19th century, when severe drought struck the Acre region of Brazil, large numbers of Brazilians crossed the border west into Bolivia to continue mining rubber. In 1899, the Bolivian government built a port here to collect and sell rubber from Brazilians, sparking opposition from rubber farmers.
Bolivian territory in 1899
Bolivia sent troops to collect taxes and was defeated by the army spontaneously organized by rubber farmers. Faced with this embarrassing situation, Bolivia had a whim and decided to leave this chaotic area that he could not control to Brazil to clean up. The Brazilian army, which had always been on the lookout, saw an opportunity to suppress the glue farmer regime, and in 1903 changed the 190,000-square-kilometer area into the state of Acre and joined Brazil. In return, Brazil compensated Bolivia with 3,000 square kilometers of land, two million pounds, and promised to build a railway to ensure Bolivian products could flow through the Amazon into the sea.
Battle IV
Perhaps it is the reality of Bolivia in the Acre region that is too crotch-pulling, 190,000 square kilometers of land said no, do not want, Peru, as a hardcore ally, is ashamed to be with it, so Peru asked that the disputed territory between the two countries not need to be discussed, and now it must be taken out to me, if it is not given, it will be beaten!
Illustration of Bolivia's cession of territory
Bolivia was so angry that it immediately pulled out its army and prepared for war. The dispute between the two countries attracted the attention of South American countries, and Argentina took the lead in mediation, and as a result, Bolivia became a victim again, and all the major powers favored Peru, so 96,000 square kilometers of disputed territory were incorporated into Peru, and Bolivia broke off diplomatic relations with Argentina in anger.
Battle Five
The Northern Chaco region is west of the Paraguay River and east of the Andes, and Bolivia and Paraguay have disputed sovereignty. Bolivia's declaration is based on the delimitation of the old colonial era, while Paraguay is based on the fact that the Guaraní people, who make up its people, have been grazing here for generations, belonging to ancient times.
The former territory of Paraguay and the territory of Chaco acquired
At that time, Paraná suffered too much damage in the Paraguayan War, and its population was slowly recovering, but its territory remained only east of the Paraguay River. Originally, the two countries defaulted to maintaining the status quo, who knew that in 1928 Mobil Oil Company surveyed a large amount of oil in the Northern Chaco area, which is amazing. The place that was originally thought to be of little value to only farming and grazing has large oil fields.
At that time, the anti-American sentiment in South American countries was heavier, and the Bolivian oligarchic government even invited American oil companies to explore for oil, and also sent troops into the Chaco area to protect, this kind of behavior that undermined the peaceful status quo in the region was warned by a number of Latin American countries led by Argentina, meaning that Paraguay was beaten by me and other fat more than half a century ago, it was miserable enough, and it has been honest for decades, and it has behaved well, and you Bolivia cannot bully it.
Modern Bolivian army
For Bolivia, which at that time had a land area six times that of Paraguay, I felt that I could not afford to provoke your strong country, and I could not engage in such a small country? !
As a result, the war between Bolivia and Paraguay broke out in 1928, known as the "Chaco War".
In 1929, with the mediation of the United States, Paraguay and Bolivia temporarily agreed to restore the status quo ante.
In the face of the lure of oil, the two sides cannot let go. In 1932, Bolivian oligarchic generals, teetering after the Great Depression, decided to go to war and deflect internal tensions. The Bolivian army took the lead and won the victory, occupying most of the Northern Chaco, while the Paraguayan army had to retreat due to insufficient numbers. When the news reached Paraguay, Paraguayans remembered President López Jr., who died fighting for his country 60 years ago, and the crowd was excited. After a nationwide mobilization, Paraguay quickly organized an army of 20,000 people to march to the Northern Chaco to fight the victory.
Bolivia
The Bolivian army, which had been living on the plateau for a long time, in this hot climate and disease-ridden Chaco jungle, was unsatisfactory and the strong attack of Paraguay made the Bolivian soldiers demoralized and defeated one after another.
Bolivia urgently recruited a large number of indigenous Indians as reinforcements, but these Indian peasants, who did not have the right to vote or even worked for the manor landlords for free, were unwilling to work for the oligarchs, resulting in insufficient will to fight even if the Bolivian army was well equipped. On the other hand, the Paraguayan army, under the call of "fighting for the motherland", although the number is small, but the army is united and fights bravely.
As a result, the two sides fell into a tug-of-war from a surprise war. After a long period of fighting, the superior Bolivian army suffered heavy losses and was forced to retreat to the Andes, while the Paraguayans, who also suffered heavy losses, pursued with victory with their last breath, but the battle line was too long, and the country could not afford to continue the pursuit.
Bolivia
With international mediation, the two sides achieved a ceasefire in June 1935. In 1938, the two sides signed a peace agreement in Buenos Aires:
1) Paraguay gets 75% of the Chaco region, near
200,000 square kilometres, more than doubling its territory directly, while Bolivia receives only about 60,000 square kilometres.
2) Bolivia has the right to navigate the Paraguayan River, and Paraguay must set aside a small piece of land along the river as a port for Bolivia's use.
As a result of the defeat of the war, Bolivia's oligarchic government relying on large landowners collapsed, left-wing young military officers came to power, and Latin America ushered in a large-scale left-wing revolution at the same time.
What a miserable word
At last
The experience of five neighboring countries and five wars has cost Bolivia more than 1 million square kilometers of land, half of its territory compared to the beginning of independence.
We can imagine how passive the Bolivians were after losing access to the Pacific Ocean, so much so that so much territory can be abandoned, as long as there is access to the Atlantic Ocean inland river passage, it is very realistic and helpless.
Administrative regions of Bolivia
Since independence, assassinations, coups, and civil wars have become commonplace in this poor country, and sitting on huge resources to end up mixing themselves into beggars is both a natural and man-made disaster. Frequent regime changes, chaotic decision-making and restless hearts made Peru, an ally of the same sisters, unbearable.
Look at you
Bolivians need a strongman with vision and great political wisdom to unite and lead the people out of their difficult situation, and that day will come.