The history of the republic of Bolivia reflects both its pre-Columbian and its colonial heritage. The ruins of Tiahuanaco testify to the first great Andean empire. Bolivians still speak the languages of the Aymara kingdoms and of their Quechua conquerors; the society remains predominantly Indian and rural, and only a minority is monolingual in Spanish. Nevertheless, Spain also left its imprint in the political, economic, and social spheres. During 300 years of colonial rule, Spain imposed its institutions on the colony and centralised on mineral exports, which are still the backbone of the Bolivian economy. Using forced Indian labor, local entrepreneurs extracted the mineral wealth--the silver deposits at Potosí were the largest in the Western world--and shipped it to Spain in accord with the prevailing mercantilist practices.

Bolivia's 1952 Revolution, led by the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement, was a turning point in the nation's history. The government decreed universal vote without literacy or property requirements, an action that increased the electorate from some 200,500 to 1 million voters. It nationalized the mines of the three great companies--Patiño, Hochschild, and Aramayo-- and distributed land to the campesinos under a far-reaching agrarian reform. The revolution remained incomplete and lost momentum, when the government's policies produced a virtual bankruptcy of the economy. In exchange for massive assistance from the United States and the International Monetary Fund, the government agreed to cut social spending. This action produced renewed labor unrest and eroded support for President Víctor Paz Estenssoro.