Bolivia

Note: For the background on how this magnificent poem came to be written, see my article How to Write Poetry.

Landlocked Bolivia, erstwhile home of the Incas,
Bordered by Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile and Peru,
Named after Simón Bolívar, who liberated it from Spain in 1825.

But before the Spanish and the Incas came the Tiwanakan culture, which
Developed at the southern end of Lake Titicaca, the world's highest
Commercially navigable lake, located 3821m above sea level.

During most of the Spanish colonial period, the territory was called Upper Peru
Or Charcas, and was under the authority of the Viceroy of Lima.
Bolivian silver mines produced much of the Spanish empire's wealth.

After independence followed nearly 60 years of coups and short-lived constitutions.
Bolivia's weakness was demonstrated during the War of the Pacific (1879–1883),
When it lost its sea coast and the adjoining rich nitrate fields to Chile.

In the Twentieth Century, the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement emerged.
Denied victory in the 1951 elections, it lead the successful 1952 revolution.
Under President Víctor Paz Estenssoro came many reforms and human right violations.

An increasingly divisive conflict has been the Bolivian Gas War, a dispute over
The exploitation of Bolivia's large natural gas reserves in the south of the country.
Protesters forced the resignation of President Sánchez de Lozada in 2003.

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