Bolivia

Bolivia is a landlocked country in central South America, stretching from the high Andes to the Amazon lowlands. La Paz is the seat of government and Sucre the constitutional capital, while Santa Cruz de la Sierra is the largest city. Spanish is the main official language, and 36 indigenous languages, led by Quechua, Aymara and Guaraní, share official status.

The Tiwanaku culture grew up near Lake Titicaca from about 1500 BC and spread its influence across the southern Andes until around AD 1000. The Inca Empire took the western highlands in the 15th century, and Spain made the region, then called Charcas, part of its empire in the 16th century. Potosí, founded in 1545 below the silver mountain of Cerro Rico, became one of the largest cities in the Americas. The call for freedom raised in Chuquisaca, today Sucre, on 25 May 1809 began a long struggle, and Antonio José de Sucre proclaimed the republic on 6 August 1825, naming it after Simón Bolívar.

The revolution of 1952 brought universal suffrage and a land reform. The constitution of 2009 renamed the country the Plurinational State of Bolivia to reflect its many peoples, and it is a unitary republic of nine departments. Soybean meal and oil lead its exports, mining of tin, silver and gold earns much of the rest, natural gas brings in large royalties, and Bolivia holds at least a quarter of the world's known lithium.

Lake Titicaca, shared with Peru, is the highest navigable lake used by commercial boats, and the Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt flat on Earth. Nevado Sajama rises to 6,542 m (21,463 ft), and Madidi and Noel Kempff Mercado are among its national parks. The devil dances of the carnival of Oruro are one of the great folk festivals of South America, and Tiwanaku, Torotoro National Park and the city of La Paz draw many visitors.