Political Divisions and Population.— The following are the political divisions of Bolivia, with the census of 1910; and the estimated cen sus of 1915, the latter of which has been made up by returns from the state governments: 1910 1915 La Pas 517,316 726,357 Cochabamba 366,395 534,901 Potosi 395,738 530,748 Santa-Cruz 210,000 341,640 Chuquisaca 240,720 333,226 Tarifa 102,887 164,704 Oruro 160,000 140,891 El Bent 35,816 52,450 En Chaco 13,085 Colonial territories 51,968 Total 2,028,872 2,889,970 There has been no official census taken of the whole of the republic for years as the pop ulation of many parts of the country has to be estimated in any census taken, whether by the Federal government or by the states sep arately. Fully 50 per cent of the population is Indian and from 10 to 15 per cent whites, the rest being mestizos. Of this population over 85 per cent lives on the highlands, where are situated all the larger cities and the Federal capital of the republic, La Paz (100,000 inhabit ants). The only city of any importance sit uated out of the highlands is Santa Cruz de la Sierra (20,000). Cochabamba has 45,000 and Potosi, Oruro and Sucre, all state capitals, on the uplands, are also all very nearly equal in population, ranging between 23,000 and 30,000. The other cities and towns of the republic are of relatively small importance, though as trade distributors to the rural villages, ranches and plantations, many of them enter largely into the activities of the nation, whose population is widely spread without proper means of com munication. Most of the political divisions have capitals bearing the same names as them selves, the exceptions being: Chuquisaca, Sucre; El Beni, Trinidad; El Chaco, Jacuiba; Colonial Territories, Cobija.
Labor.— One of Bolivia's greatest needs is labor for the development of her mines, her agriculture and her other industries. Owing to the condition of the Indian throughout the country, wages are low and there are little or no inducements offered to foreign labor. Owing to the great extremes of altitude in the country the hot-land Indians cannot well be used for mining on the uplands and vice-versa. Hence the government has, for several years, been making efforts to tap, with roads and railways, the mid-region from which labor may be brought to the uplands or down to the low lands. It is also hoped that the extension of railway communication with neighboring countries may result in a supply of upland In dians from outside the republic. At the rate at which Bolivian mining and industries were pushed from 1910 to 1917 this additional sup ply of labor from some source, whether from the still untapped regions of the republic it self or from without it, became evident in 1916; and the need of additional labor was still greater the following year; for on it depend the continued development of the great mineral resources of the republic.
History.— The country was formed in 1825 from the province of upper Peru, and named in honor of the South American Liberator, Simon Bolivar (q.v.). Partly within Peruvian and partly within Bolivian territory are the waters of Lake Titicaca, on the shores of which we find monuments of semi-civilization antedating the Inca conquest by more than 1,000, perhaps even several thousand, years. From the earliest
times, therefore, Peru and Bolivia must have been united in civilization. The Incas of Cuzco overran this district in the 14th century, and 200 years afterward Hernando Pizarro added it to the conquest his brother had made at the heart of the Inca empire. Under the Spaniards, then, it was known as the district or territory of the high court of Charcas, and remained subject to the viceroy of Peru until 1776, when it became a province of the new viceroyalty of Buenos Aires. Before the coming of Pizarro the Sierra supplied a large part of the gold used for the decoration of temples and palaces of the Incas; after the Spanish conquest the natives were driven to work, to continue or increase the out put of precious metals for the benefit of masters whose ruthless severity was conspicuous even in that age. There is no entirely trustworthy record of the numbers of those who perished in the mines, but we know that a large Indian population was reduced to •its present propor tions in the course of two centuries. Taxation was oppressive; provincial governors became monopolists, from whom the natives were obliged to purchase their supplies; here, as else where in America, colonists were forbidden to raise any crops or manufacture any articles which could interfere with the industries of the mother country. Commerce was so strictly limited to Spain that even neighboring colonies were forbidden to have commercial dealings with one another. Toward the end of the 18th century the resentment of the Indians was ex pressed in several insurrections (1780-82) ; early in the 19th the provinces of Rio de la Plata and Peru aided the Bolivians in their struggle for independence (July 1809 to Au gust 1825). General Santa Cruz was in com mand of the expeditions from Lima which failed to drive out the Spanish troops in 1823. But in the following year General Sucre, marching from the same country at the head of an army encouraged by the victory of Ayacu cho, was favored by a rising in all the principal towns. By February 1825 La Paz was in the power of the revolutionists, and in March the Spaniards lost their only remaining stronghold, the province of Potosi.
Deputies of the various provinces met at the capital, and before the dissolution of this as sembly (6 Oct. 1825) independence was de clared The constitution adopted then (subse quently modified in important respects) was prepared by General Bolivar, and in accord with the views entertained by the great Liberator at this period in his career, when he was master of Colombia and Peru as well, it vested the supreme authority in a President chosen for life. The first incumbent was General Sucre, who accepted the presidency for the space of two years only, and took the further precaution to retain 2,000 Colombian soldiers for his pro tection. In 1827 he and his Colombians were actually expelled from the country.