Since 1827 Bolivia has had 70 presidents or dictators. In 1828 Santa Cruz came into power and was confronted with a revolution the fol lowing year. In 1835, interposing in a quarrel of political factions in Peru, he defeated Gamarra, and named himself protector of that country. Chile refusing to consent to the pro posed union of her neighbors, three years of fighting ensued. Santa Cruz was defeated and exiled in 1839, but his party in Bolivia kept up the agitation and finally conferred the pres idency upon General Ballivian. Meanwhile Gamarra, who had become President of Peru, tried to annex the department of La Paz. He lost his life in this attempt, and then the Boliv ians, in their turn, would have invaded Peru if Chile had not again intervened. Ballivian surrendered his thankless task in 1848. The next President, Belzu, was borne into office on the crest of a wave of revolution; by a revolu tionary storm his • successor, Cordova, was driven from office and from the land. Linares made himself dictator in 1858, and was deposed in 1861. President Acha, his successor, fell from power when his forces were defeated in battle by his political antagonist, Melgarejo (February 1865). The latter may be character ized as a revolutionist until 1865; president from that time until 1869; dictator from 1869 to 1871. Morales, elected in the year last men tioned, was succeeded in 1873 by President Bal livian, who died after a twelvemonth had passed. Frias, next to take office, was deposed two years later by the troops, who proclaimed General Daza President.
In 1879-83 Bolivia and Peru were at war with Chile, and the defeat of the allies stripped from the weakest of the contestants her only possessions on the Pacific. Bolivia became a landlocked country. The national anger vented itself first upon the President, whom the army had lifted up, and who fled to escape assassi nation. But Campero, whom Congress chose to carry on the war, and whopersonally led the Bolivian troops in the field, was wholly unable to oppose Chile's demands alone, and Peru was an ally without power to aid. Bolivia saw herself obliged to acquiesce in an arrange ment which some of her leaders hopefully re garded as provisional and temporary. Her bit of coast line and most of the coveted nitrate of soda deposits in the districts of Cobija and Tarapack,—territory aggregating 70,181 square miles, with about 6,000 inhabitants,— passed into Chile's keeping. (For an account of the War of the Pacific, see CHILE; Piaui).
Coincidentally, the failure in 1879-80, after years of effort, to secure the opening of a com mercial outlet for Bolivian products to the At lantic through the Amazon River and its great tributary, the Madcria, was a severe blow. The American contractors for the Madeira and Mamore Railway of Bolivia and Brazil were deprived of the funds necessary to the prosecu tion of the enterprise by the withdrawal of the loan that had been placed in England in 1872 for the purpose of constructing this much needed road. The undertaking was, neverthe less, brought to a successful conclusion 35 years afterward The Constitution of 28 Oct. 1880 vested the legislative power in a Senate and House of Representatives, and the executive power in a president elected for four years by direct uni versal suffrage. But little or no improvement in the political situation was observed. Presi
dent Campero was succeeded by Gregorio Pacheco, and then came Aniceto Arce (1 Aug. 1888). It was necessary to declare a state of siege in all parts of the republic in the summer of 1890. Attempts were made to overthrow the government, and a number of political leaders were arrested. The election of a suc cessor to President Arce took place 3 May 1892. Violent collisions between the rival factions again compelled the authorities to proclaim a state of siege— which was continued even after the inauguration of the new President, Baptista, on 6 August. Indian revolts also occurred in this year, originating in both the north and the south, and spreading rapidly through the entire country. The barbarous practices of the In dians were, as is usual in this most repulsive species of warfare, matched by the repressive measures of the Bolivian troops.
Chile furnished arms and money to uphold the Baptista government; and the dependence of the country without sea coast upon the coun try all sea coast for a while was painfully evi dent. Bolivia had been placed in a position such that any one of her three powerful neigh bors,— Chile, Argentina or Brazil,— could win her allegiance by conferring substantial favors, or even by a display of international courtesy. Following Chile's diplomatic overtures, Argen tina undertook to open up a way to the sea by a new railroad connecting the Sierra with her river system. Brazil's attitude remained in doubt, until the treaty of 17 Nov. 1903 showed that Acre, competing with Brazil in the pro duction of rubber, was demanded as the price of any concession of a right of way.
When Fernandez Alonzo was elected to the presidency in 1896 his opponents protested that the government had tampered with the returns in such a way as to change the expression of the people's will under the constitutional guar antee of universal suffrage, and an uprising was successful in 1899. The revolutionists, under CoL Jose Manuel Pando, defeated the government forces in a pitched battle; Presi dent Alonzo fled over the Andes into Chile, and reorganization of the government was effected, with Senor Pando at its head. The Pando, Villazon and Montes administrations have de voted themselves to the solution of economic problems, keeping the interests of the country steadily in view and endeavoring with success to stabilize the national policy. Bolivia and Chile signed, in 1904, a treaty of amity that replaced the peace treaty dating from 1884 and removed in large measure Bolivia's fiscal and economic dependence upon Peru and Chile. The French writer, M. P. Walle, says that when President Villazon came into power the country was still suffering from the effects of a long economic crisis, the scarcity of capital being such that the most insignificant transactions were often paralyzed. It was then that Senor Villazon conceived the idea of attracting Euro pean capital for the purpose of establishing a great bank, and thereby stimulating the indus trial and commercial life of the country. The loan of $7,500,000, which was concluded in 1910 under the auspices of the Credit Mobilier Francais, made it possible to found the Bank of the Bolivian Nation. The results obtained are encouraging: in 1915 and 1916 the bank proved to be a source of strength for the vig orous Montes administration.