Blackwell Reference Online

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The official history of pre-revolutionary Bolivia (1870–1950) was grafted on the idea of progress and civilization as the goal for a decent country, culturally homogeneous and politically apt for the exercise of citizenship and individuality. Nevertheless, this discourse was a mask for the underlying colonial nature of Bolivian society. In the western Andean region of the country, landlords owned big latifundia , with serfs in charge of all labor and in control of the technology of production. The colonial–feudal nature of the landed elite was further masked by their alliance with the mining and banking capital, forming what Bolivians know as the rosca or oligarchy: a tight class and caste alliance of landowners, miners, bankers, and big import–export businessmen (all of them linked to foreign capital). Most of the haciendas in the altiplano (high plateau) and valleys were created or expanded after the “Law of Expropriation” (passed on October 5, 1874 and applied fully only after the war with Chile (1879–80), and more intensively during the period between 1881 and 1883). This law abolished the Indian ayllu or corporate community and distributed individual land titles, which were coercively sold to members of the rosca who became partners with mining and other businesses, using their land as an asset. The law included a liberal tax reform – which was never implemented – ... log in or subscribe to read full text