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Bolivia is a country of South America. Located in the
interior of the continent and crossed by the Andes
mountain range, it has an area of 1,098,580 km 2 . It
borders Brazil, to the north and east; Paraguay, to the
southeast; Argentina, to the south; and Chile and Peru,
to the west. The main cities in Bolivia are La Paz, the
capital, with 850 000 inhabitants (2004), Santa Cruz (1
196 100 inhab.) (2004), Cochabamba (834 900 inhab.)
(2004), El Alto (745 600 inhab.) .), Oruro (216 600
inhab.) And Sucre (209 000 inhab.) (2004). La Paz is
located on the plateau, southeast of Lake Titicaca, the
highest navigable lake on the globe, shared with
Peru. The lowlands and 70% of the Bolivian territory are
scattered to the east. In addition to the foothills of
the Andes, the northern tropical forests provide wood
such as cedar, mahogany, chestnut and Brazil nuts. Only
3% of the land is arable. The remaining lowlands are
made up of savannas and vast natural pastures, covered
by large herds of cattle, much of which remains
wild. Between the plateau and the plains there are
fertile valleys, the Yungas, with a subtropical climate,
where farmers produce different crops.
Climate
In the lower and eastern part of the country, the
climate is humid tropical. In the mountainous area of
the Andes, the altitude eases the temperature and
causes greater differences in precipitation values.
Economy
Bolivia's economy is largely based on the exploitation
of mining and energy resources. Among these resources,
the most important are natural gas, tin, antimony,
tungsten and silver.
Agriculture is practiced by the majority of the rural
population and its main productions are sugar cane, corn
and potatoes. Political instability, combined with
falling prices for some ores, contributes to the
country's economic difficulties. Bolivia's main trading
partners are the USA, the United Kingdom, Brazil and
Peru.
Environmental indicator: the value of carbon dioxide
emissions, per capita (metric tons, 1999), is
1.4.
Population
Bolivia has a population of 8,989,046 inhabitants (est.
2006), which corresponds to a density of 8 inhab./km2. The
birth and death rates are, respectively, 23.3% and
7.53%. Average life expectancy is 65.84 years. The value
of the Human Development Index (HDI) is 0.672 and the
value of the Gender-adjusted Development Index (IDG) is
0.663 (2001). It is estimated that in 2025 the
population will be 11 370 000 inhabitants. In terms of
ethnic composition, Indians represent 55% of the total
population, followed by mestizos (30%) and whites
(15%). The Catholic religion is practiced by about 90%
of Bolivians. The official languages are Castilian and
the Aymara and Quechua Indian languages.
Art and Culture
Bolivian culture results from the mixture of Indian and
Spanish cultures. They appear in the rites of the feast
days, in the women's long dresses and colorful shawls
and in the palla-palla dances, imitations of the
European invasion.
History
Bolivia was part of the Inca Empire until Spanish
colonization in the 16th century. The Spaniards occupied
the territory, seized the lands of the Indians by force
and forced them to work as slaves in the silver
mines. After independence in 1825, Bolivia's history
would almost always be marked by insurrections and
instability. Bolivians have lost more than half of their
territory to the most powerful neighboring countries. It
became a continental country after losing the Pacific
coast in the War of the Pacific (1879-84), and only
through an agreement with Peru in 1993 did it guarantee
access to the Pacific Ocean. It ran out of valuable
nitrate deposits and the port of Antofagasta in the
Pacific, and also lost the eastern Chaco plains, which
was annexed by Paraguay in the Chaco War (1932-35).
In 1952, when the National Revolution took place,
universal suffrage was introduced for the first time in
the history of Bolivia. The Indians benefited from the
nationalization of the tin industry, until then in the
hands of three large companies, two of them foreign, and
from the agrarian reform that gave them some
emancipation. Even so, it did not arrive to change the
impoverished face of the country. There is a lack of
foreign investment in the country, in addition to
corruption and political instability with successive
coups d'état. |
