Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
traditional rules of elite politics, the liberal leader
José Manuel Pando
sought an alliance
with the Aymara rebel leader
Pablo Zárate Willka
, promising to protect indigenous lands in
exchange for support against the conservatives. With the help of thousands of Aymara, Pando
defeated the conservatives in bloody fighting in 1899 and took power in what became known
as the
Federal Revolution
. No sooner was this achieved, however, than Pando reneged on
his promises and turned against his Aymara allies, crushing the uprising and executing or
imprisoning its leaders. Nor did Pando's federalism last: once in power, the liberals simply
made La Paz the seat of an equally centralized government (though Sucre remained the cap-
ital in name).
The Federal Revolution ensured the political supremacy of the new tin-mining elite, but
rather than govern themselves they chose to rule indirectly through a class of professional
politicians, a system that became known as
La Rosca
- “The Screw”. Their dominance was
such that, between 1899 and 1920, there was not a single coup attempt. In other respects,
however, politics remained much the same: voting was restricted to a small elite, with the in-
digenous majority completely excluded; a liberal economic policy with low taxes was main-
tained for the benefit of the tin-mining entrepreneurs and major landowners; and the assault
on indigenous landholdings continued.
Perhaps surprisingly, given that there were no restrictions on foreign investment in the
mines, tin mining in the Altiplano during the late 1800s and early 1900s came to be dom-
inated by home-grown capitalists, above all by three tin barons -
Simón I. Patiño
,
Mauri-
cio Hochschild
and
Carlos Aramayo
- who between them owned most of Bolivia's mines.
But when world demand for tin slumped in 1913-14, opposition within the Partido Liber-
al grew, leading to the formation of a splinter
Partido Republicano
. In 1920 the Republic-
ans, led by
Daniel Salamanca
and
Bautista Saavedra
, seized power. Their new government
quickly found itself under pressure, however: a major Aymara uprising erupted on the Alti-
plano, while the mostly indigenous miners had begun to organize trade unions to push for
better conditions. The first
general strike
was staged in 1922, and a year later the army car-
ried out the first of many massacres of striking miners at the Uncía mine near Oruro.
Asthe1920sprogressed,theincreasinglyfactionalRepublicansfacedeconomicdeclineand
growing social unrest. The international price of tin fell, and the government found it diffi-
cult to make payments on its huge foreign loans. Tin production peaked in 1929, and then
plummeted as the
Great Depression
struck Bolivia's economy with a vengeance. Massive
job losses further fuelled labour unrest, while strikes and military intervention at the mines
became ever more frequent.
The Chaco War
By1931thegovernment,ledbyDanielSalamanca,wasconfrontedbywidespreadopposition
and deepening
economic crisis
; it responded by stepping up its oppression of trade unions
