Bolivian War of Independence

Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Miranda lead rebellions in the Viceroyalties of Peru, Venezuela and New Granada, but loyalist troops prevail, forcing Bolívar into Jamaican exile in 1814.

The French invasion of Spain in 1808 had led to the collapse of the Spanish Monarchy.

Most subjects of Spain do not accept the government of Joseph Bonaparte, placed on the Spanish throne by his brother, Emperor Napoleon of France.

At the same time, the process of creating a stable government in Spain, which will be widely recognized throughout the empire, has taken two years.

This has created a power vacuum in the Spanish possessions in America, which creates further political uncertainty.

Spain loses only Trinidad to Britain, but Napoleon’s removal of the Bourbons prompts the Spanish-American Viceroyalties to erect their own governments.

Once Cádiz is secured, attention turns to the political situation.

The Junta Central had announced that the cortes would open on March 1, 1810.

Suffrage is to be extended to all male householders over twenty-five.

After public voting, representatives from district-level assemblies will choose deputies to send to the provincial meetings that will be the bodies from which the members of the cortes will emerge.

From February 1, 1810, the implementation of these decrees had been in the hands of the new regency council selected by the Junta Central.

The viceroyalties and independent captaincies general of the overseas territories will each send one representative.

This scheme will be resented in America for providing unequal representation to the overseas territories.

Unrest will erupt in Quito and Charcas, which see themselves as the capitals of kingdoms (present-day Ecuador and Bolivia, respectively) and resent being subsumed in the larger "kingdom" of Peru.

The revolts will be suppressed.

Throughout early 1809 the governments of the capitals of the viceroyalties and captaincies general will elect representatives to the Junta, but none will arrive in time to serve on it.

The efforts of liberal-minded congressional representatives to subject the military more fully to civilian courts are seen by the latter as an affront,and much of the clergy resents legislation designed to curb church influence, such as measures closing small convents and promoting secular education.

Bolivar, as a committed freethinker, does not oppose the objectives of these first anticlerical measures, and as one who supports total abolition of slavery, he definitely opposes the campaign of slaveholders to water down the free-birth law passed by the Congress of Cucuta in 1821, but he feels that many of the reforms adopted are premature, thus needlessly promoting unrest, and he assigns part of the blame to Vice President Santander, a man who had dropped out of law study to fight for independence but as chief executive surrounds himself with ardent young lawyers as helpers and advisers.

What the country needs, in Bolivar's view, is a stronger executive, a less assertive legislature, and a partial rollback of overhasty reforms.

He also hopes to see some form of a new constitution that he has drafted for Bolivia adopted in the Republic of Colombia.

Its central feature is a president serving for life and appointing his successor.

Some other features are highly liberal, but what attracts attention is the call for a life-term president, who in the Colombian case will obviously be himself.

Bolivar journeys back from Peru to Colombia in September-November 1826.

He finds little real support for introducing his constitutional panacea, but he solves the Venezuelan rebellion by meeting with General Paéz in Venezuela in January 1827 and pardoning him, as well as by promising to call a convention to reform the existing constitution in some way.

This September Bolivar returns to Bogota and resumes the presidency of Colombia.

Bolívar enters La Paz in triumph on August 8, 1825.

During his brief rule of less than five months, he issues a flood of decrees, resolutions, and orders reflecting his ideas about government.

He declares the equality of all citizens and abolishes the tribute payments, replacing them with a "direct contribution" (contribution directa) that amounts to less than half of the previous payments.

Bolívar also decrees a land reform to distribute land, preferably to Indians, and tries to reduce the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in politics.

Most of his decrees cannot be implemented during his short tenure, but they are included in the constitution he writes for Bolivia after his departure in January 1826.

Despite his efforts at reform, Bolívar is outspoken about his doubts as to the ability of Bolivians to govern themselves.

He is careful to avoid recognizing Bolivia's independence, always referring to the country as Upper Peru and signing his decrees as dictator of Peru.

Only in January 1826, when he turns the country over to Sucre, does he promise that the Peruvian legislature will approve Bolivia's independence.

Upper Peru is relatively quiet by 1817 and under the control of Lima.

The Conservative Party criollos after 1820 support General Pedro Antonio de Olañeta, a Charcas native, who refuses to accept the measures by the Spanish Cortes (legislature) to conciliate the colonies after the Liberal Party revolution in Spain.

Olañeta, convinced that these measures threaten royal authority, refuses to join the royalist forces or the rebel armies under the command of Simon Bolivar Palacios and Antonio Jose de Sucre Alcala.

Olañeta does not relinquish his command even after the Peruvian royalists include him and his forces in the capitulation agreement following their defeat in the Battle of Ayacucho in 1824, the final battle of the wars of independence in Latin America.

Olañeta continues a quixotic war until Sucre's forces defeat his forces, and he is killed by his own men on April 1, 1825, in a battle that effectively ends Spanish rule in Upper Peru.

Simón Bolívar, first president of what becomes known as Bolivia, transfers authority over Upper Peru in 1825 to his lieutenant, Antonio José de Sucre, who calls a constituent assembly in Chuquisaca to determine the future of the region.

Almost all delegates want an independent Upper Peru and rejected attachment to Argentina or Peru.

The assembly adopts a declaration of independence on August 6, 1825.

Five days later, the assembly, hoping to placate Bolívar's reservations about the independence of Upper Peru, resolves to name the new nation after him.

The new Republic of Bolivia, created in the territory that had formed the audiencia of Charcas, faces profound problems.

The wars of independence have disrupted the economy.

The entire mining industry is in decline because of destruction, flooding, and abandonment of mines.

Lack of investment and scarcity of labor contribute to a sharp drop in silver production.

Agricultural production is low, and Bolivia has to import food, even staples consumed by the Indian population.

The government has serious financial difficulties because of the huge military expenditures and debt payments to Peru as compensation for the army of liberation.

All these problems are aggravated by the isolation of the new republic from the outside world and the difficulties of securing its borders.

Antonio José de Sucre succeeds Bolívar in January 1826 and continues to rule by decree.

He is formally installed as Bolivia's first elected president after the Constituent Assembly convenes in May and elects him.

During his three-year rule, the government tries to solve its grave financial problems, which are aggravated by the lack of foreign credit.

Sucre reforms the existing tax structure in an effort to finance public expenditures and tries to revive silver mining by attracting foreign capital and technology.

In one of the most radical attacks on the church anywhere in Latin America, he confiscates church wealth in Bolivia and closes down many monasteries.

The Roman Catholic Church in Bolivia will never recover the powerful role that it had held.

Import duties and taxes on the internal movement of goods are also important sources of state revenue.

In addition, Sucre reestablishes tribute payments in an attempt to solve the country's financial crisis.

Sucre's attempts at reform are only partially successful because Bolivia lacks the administration to carry them out.

Many Conservative Party criollos turn away when his reforms threaten to challenge the economic and social patterns of the colonial past.

As opposition increases, the local nationalist elite comes to resent the leadership of their Venezuelan-born president.

The invasion of Bolivia by the Peruvian general Agustin Gamarra and an assassination attempt in April 1827 lead to Sucre's resignation in 1828.