O papel das vias de circulação na coesão territorial do Estado Boliviano: da Audiência de Charcas à Bolívia de 1971. / The role of the circulation ways in the cohesion of the Bolivian territory: from the audience of Charcas to Bolivia at 1971.
AUTOR(ES)
Fernando Siliano Reyes
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO
2010
RESUMO
To understand the role played by the circulation ways so as to provide cohesion to the Bolivian territory, one must understand the occupation of the Andean space since the arrival of the Spanish at the pre-Bolivian territory, in the high lands of Potosi. We have also tried to analize the ways built after such occupation, whether for the flow of silver, or for the provisioning of the population orbiting the mining complex. In the course of independent Bolivias history, circulation was one of the mottos in the search for spatial unification with Peru, commanded by General Andrés de Santa Cruz, seeing that it was such an extremely hard task to reach the Bolivian sea coast in the first half of the 19th century, due to the inexistence of techniques which could make the transposition of the Andean scarp less costly. The war against Chile at the end of the 19th century still arouses nationalistic feelings in the Bolivian people today, for the loss of their whole territory facing the Pacific. The amputation of their exit to the sea made the Bolivian government demand that a railroad connecting Bolivia to a port in the Pacific should be built by the winner Chile. Thus, international trading would not be suffocated and consequently, Bolivian economy would not be ruined by their mediterranean condition. The dispute against Brazil for the territory of Acre once again forced Bolivia to come up with a circulatory solution so as to enable the flow of latex, such a coveted raw material in international markets by then. It was agreed that Brazil would build a railroad for the flow of Bolivian commodities along the Amazon watershed. The Chaco War, whose motto was the dispute for oil against Paraguay, was, in fact, another Bolivian attempt to reach the Atlantic through the Paraguay river. The defeat enabled Bolivia to access the Atlantic after the construction of a railroad connecting Santa Cruz de la Sierra to Corumbá, in the borderline with Brazil, and from that point to the Port of Santos. Besides this alternative, Bolivia also used railways to reach the Atlantic through Argentina, up to the Port of Buenos Aires. Bolivias huge defeat in the Chaco War has left scars which culminated in the nationalistic revolution of 1952. The nationalistic government took over all railways and created a state-owned company to manage Bolivian roads. However, North-American interference and stimulus to the construction of highways precluded an effective integration of the Bolivian territory through railroads and, thus, the railway connection between the Atlantic and the Pacific, uniting the Port of Arica in Chile and the Port of Santos in São Paulo.
ASSUNTO(S)
integração integration geopolítica bolivia circulação conflito bolívia geopolitics circulation conflict
