Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. It is a country with the largest geographic extension of Amazonian plains and lowlands, mountains and Chaco with a tropical climate, valleys with a warm climate, as well as being part of the Andes of South America and its high plateau areas with cold climates, hills and snow-capped mountains, with a wide biome in each city and region. It includes part of the Pantanal, the largest tropical wetland in the world, along its western border. It is bordered by Brazil to the north and east, Paraguay to the southeast, Argentina to the south, Chile to the southwest, and Peru to the west. The seat of government is La Paz, which contains the executive, legislative, and electoral branches of government, while the constitutional capital is Sucre, the seat of the judiciary. The largest city and principal industrial center is Santa Cruz de la Sierra, located on the Llanos Orientales, a mostly flat region in the east of the country with a diverse non-Andean culture.
Sucre is the de jure capital city of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the sixth most populous city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of 2,790 m (9,150 ft). This relatively high altitude gives the city a subtropical highland climate with cool temperatures year-round. Over the centuries, the city has received various names, including La Plata, Charcas, and Chuquisaca.
The Bolivian War of Independence began with the establishment of government juntas in Sucre and La Paz, after the Chuquisaca Revolution and La Paz revolution. These Juntas were defeated shortly after, and the cities fell again under Spanish control. The May Revolution of 1810 ousted the viceroy in Buenos Aires, which established its own junta. Buenos Aires sent three large military expeditions to Upper Peru, headed by Juan José Castelli, Manuel Belgrano and José Rondeau, but the royalists ultimately prevailed over each one. However, the conflict grew into a guerrilla war, the War of the Republiquetas, preventing the royalists from strengthening their presence. After Simón Bolívar and Antonio José de Sucre defeated the royalists in northern South America, Sucre led a campaign that was to defeat the royalists in Charcas for good when the last royalist general, Pedro Antonio Olañeta, suffered death and defeat at the hands of his own defected forces at the Battle of Tumusla. Bolivian independence was proclaimed on 6 August 1825.
Chuquisaca ; Guarani: Chuquisaca; Quechua: Chuqichaka; Aymara: Chuqisaka) is a department of Bolivia located in the center south. It borders on the departments of Cochabamba, Tarija, Potosí, and Santa Cruz. The departmental capital is Sucre, which is also the constitutional capital of Bolivia.
Juana Azurduy de Padilla was a guerrilla military leader from Chuquisaca, Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. She fought for Bolivian and Argentine independence alongside her husband, Manuel Ascencio Padilla, earning the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. She was noted for her strong support for and military leadership of the indigenous people of Upper Peru. She is a prime example of a woman who broke gender barriers and denied the pressure of simply tending to the home. Her actions brought value to the Latin American woman and proved their loyalty and ability to be politically active. Today, she is regarded as an independence hero in both Bolivia and Argentina.
Pedro Domingo Murillo was a patriot of Upper Peru who played a key role in Bolivia's independence.
Severo Fernández Alonso Caballero was a Bolivian lawyer and politician who served as the 24th president of Bolivia from 1896 to 1899 and as the tenth vice president of Bolivia from 1892 to 1896. He is best remembered as the last president of the 15-year period of Conservative Party hegemony (1884–99).
Teodoro Sánchez de Bustamante was an Argentine statesman, lawyer and soldier. He was a representative to the Congress of Tucumán which on 9 July 1816 declared the Independence of Argentina.
José Miguel de Velasco Franco was a Bolivian military officer and statesman who served as the fourth president of Bolivia on four occasions: 1828, 1829, 1839–1841, and 1848. Velasco also served as the second vice president from 1829 to 1835 under Andrés de Santa Cruz, though the first two of his terms were as vice president-designate, pending Santa Cruz's arrival to the country.
Mariano Enrique Calvo Cuéllar was a Bolivian lawyer, general and politician who served as the de facto eighth president of Bolivia briefly in 1841. He also served as the third vice president from 1835 to 1839 during which he also held the powers of acting president while President Andrés de Santa Cruz was in Peru. He would also be given the rank of general and commander of the Bolivian Army by Santa Cruz.
Bolivia's independence was definitively proclaimed on 6 August 1825 at a congress held in Chuquisaca.
The invasion of the Iberian Peninsula from 1807 to 1808 by Napoleon Bonaparte's forces proved to be critical for the independence struggle in South America, during which the local elites of Upper Peru mainly remained loyal to Spain, supporting Junta Central, a government which ruled in the name of the overthrown king Ferdinand VII of Spain. Many radical criollos in 1808-10 began a local power struggle. Pedro Domingo Murillo proclaimed an independent state in Upper Peru in the name of King Ferdinand VII. During the following seven years, Upper Peru became the battleground between the armed forces of independent United Provinces of the Río de la Plata and royalist troops from Viceroyalty of Peru.
In 2010, Mexico celebrated both the 200th anniversary of its Independence and 100th anniversary of its Revolution. The entire year was proclaimed by President Felipe Calderón as "Año de la Patria", or "Year of the Nation". 16 September 1810 is the day of the "Grito de Dolores" or Miguel Hidalgo's call to take up arms against the Spanish colonial government. The start of the Mexican Revolution is celebrated as being 20 November 1910, when Francisco "Pancho" Villa and Pascual Orozco led the first insurrectionist attack against the regime of Porfirio Díaz. Events and other promotions of these celebrations were designed to link of Mexico's identity and historic continuity. During a speech at the inauguration of the Casa de Allende Historic Museum, President Felipe Calderón called upon Mexico to use the upcoming anniversaries to reflect on where the country has been and to think about what kind of Mexico descendants will inherit in the future. He said the vision of the insurgents of the War of Independence was forward, not backward, so every celebration of these past events must consider the future as well.
The Chuquisaca Revolution was a popular uprising on 25 May 1809 against Ramón García de León y Pizarro, Governor-intendant of the Intendancy of Chuquisaca. The Real Audiencia of Charcas, with support from the faculty of University of Saint Francis Xavier, deposed the governor and formed a junta. The revolution is known in Bolivia as the "First Cry of Freedom", meaning the first phase in the Spanish American Wars of Independence. The level of hostility against the Spanish Crown and news from both the American Revolution and the French Revolution has made historians dispute whether such a description is accurate. However, accounts depict it as the first step towards liberty in Latin America against the Spanish Crown.
The city of La Paz, in the region of Upper Peru, experienced a revolution in 1809 that deposed Spanish authorities and declared independence. The revolution is considered one of the early steps of the Spanish American Wars of Independence and a predecessor of the Bolivian War of Independence. However, the revolution was defeated shortly it had started, and the city returned to Spanish rule.
The Bicentennial of Chile took place on September 18, 2010. The celebration commemorates the beginning of the Independence process in Chile, with the first Government Junta of Chile on September 18, 1810, and Chile's becoming a free and independent country eight years later. Several activities were prepared for this occasion by the Chilean Government.
Claudia Arce Lemaitre is a Bolivian actress, singer, model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Bolivia 2009, representing the Department of Chuquisaca. In the development of the contest she won titles as Yanbal Face Best Smile and Best National Costume. Claudia stood for Bolivia in the Queen of the World 2009 contest held at Berlin, Germany, and also in Miss Universe 2010, without success. She was the first woman born in Bolivia's Department of Chuquisaca who participated in Miss Universe.
Bolivia has experienced more than 190 coups d'état and revolutions since its independence was declared in 1825. Since 1950, Bolivia has seen the most coups of any country. The penultimate known attempt was in 1984, two years after the country's transition to democracy in 1982. The most recent attempted coup d'état was in 2024, led by General Juan José Zúñiga.
Yesenia Yarhui Albino is a Bolivian lawyer, politician, and former student leader who served as a party-list member of the Chamber of Deputies from Chuquisaca from 2015 to 2020. An activist forged in the student movement, Yarhui entered politics in 2014 as a candidate on the Christian Democratic Party ballot. Elected in that year's general elections, Yarhui was just 19 years old upon her entry into the Chamber of Deputies, making her the youngest parliamentarian in Bolivian history.
The Intendancy of Chuquisaca, also of Charcas or of La Plata, was an administrative area that was part of the Spanish Empire within the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata located within the territory of the current Republic of Bolivia and whose capital was the current city of Sucre. It was the smallest municipality, located between the Pilcomayo River and the Grande River. The president of the Real Audiencia de Charcas was at the same time Intendant Governor of Chuquisaca.
