Present-day Bolivia is part of the Tiahuanaco Empire between the second century BC and thirteenth century. After the collapse of this empire, the area is inhabited by the Aymarans. After 1442 the area is conquered by the Inca Empire. The area is settled by Quechuas, allied with the Incas, but the Aymaran culture remains intact.

Spain conquers the area in 1532 on the Inca Empire and adds it as Upper-Peru to its colony of Peru. In 1776 Upper-Peru is added to the vice-royality of Rio de la Plata. Upper Peru is part of the newly independent state of Peru between 1821 and 1825. Independence doesn't bring stability. For nearly 60 years, coups and short-lived constitutions dominate Bolivian politics. Bolivia's weakness is demonstrated during the War of the Pacific (1879-83), when it loses its seacoast and the adjoining rich nitrate fields to Chile. After a rebellion the Partido Liberal (Liberal Party, PL) seizes power. This brings Jaun José Manuel Inocencio Pando Solares (1899-1904), Ismael Montes Gamboa (1904-1909 and 1913-1917), Eliodoro Villazón Montaño (1909-1913) and José Gutiérrez Guerra (1916-1920) to the presidency. This stability ends in 1920 when afer a coup d'etat the conservative Partido Republicano (Republican Party, PR) takes over. Strongman of this regime is Rosa Bautista Saavedra Mallea (1920-1925), succeeded in 1926 by Mariano Hernando Siles Reyes (1926-1930). In 1930 the army takes over. This lasts shortly and in 1931 Daniel Domingo Salamanca Urey (of the PR) becomes president. He is succeeded in 1934 by José Luis Tejada Sorzano (PL). Bolivia's defeat by Paraguay in the Chaco War (1932-35) marks a turning point. Great loss of life and territory discredit the traditional ruling classes, while service in the army produces stirrings of political awareness among the indigenous people.

In 1936 the army grabs power. Germán Busch Becerra becomes the military strongman, succeeded in 1940 by Gualberto Villarroel López. After a revolution in 1943 Bolivia is ruled by president Gualberto Villaroel and the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (Nationalist Revolutionary Movement, MNR), but three years later the military dictatorship is restored. Tomás Monje Gutiérrez becomes the military dictator. Civilian, but conservative rule is restored in 1947, bringing José Enrique Hertzog Garaizábal (1947-1949) and Mamerto Urriolagoitia Harriague (1949-1951) of the Partido de la Unión Republicana Socialista (Socialist Republican Union Party, PURS) to the presidency.

Denied its victory in the 1951 presidential elections, the MNR leads the successful 1952 revolution. Bolivia becomes a presidential democracy. The MNR introduces universal adult suffrage, carries out a sweeping land reform, promotes rural education and nationalizes the country's largest tin mines. Victor Paz Estensorro of the MNR becomes president. His co-partisan Hernán Siles Zuazo is president between 1956 and 1960 and Paz becomes president again between 1960 and 1964. Twelve years of tumultuous rule left the MNR divided. In 1964, a military junta overthrew President Paz Estenssoro at the outset of his third term. General René Barrientos and Alfredo Ovando Candía come to power. Barrientos founds as his political vehicle the FRB = Frente de la Revolución Boliviana (Front of the Bolivian Revolution, FRB). After his death in 1969 Barrientos is succeeded by Luis Siles Salinas and by Juan José Torres in 1970. Alarmed by public disorder, the military, the MNR and others install Hugo Banzer Suarez as president in 1971. Banzer rules with MNR support from 1971 to 1974. Then, impatient with schisms in the coalition, he replaces civilians with members of the armed forces and suspends political activities. He is forced to call elections in 1978 and Bolivia again entered a period of political turmoil. After a coup he is succceeded by Juan Pereda Asbun and later that year by David Padilla Arancibia.

In 1979 there are free elections and a centre-left alliance wins the election. Walter Guevara Arze of the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario Auténtico (Authentic Nationalist Revolutionary Movement, MRNA) becomes interim-president, but the army stages a coup. The leader of the coup, Alberto Natusch Busch is rejected by parliament and that appoints Lydia Gueiler Tejada of the small Partido Revolucionario de la Izquierda Nacionalista (Revolutionary Party of the National Left, PRIN) as interim president. After new elections in 1980, Hernán Siles Zuazo of the MNR-Izquierda (MNR-Left, MNRI) is elected president. The army stages a new coup and Luis García Meza becomes president. The army replaces this president by Celso Torrelio Villa in 1981 and Guido Vildoso Calderón in 1982.

Democracy is restored in 1982 and Siles Zuazo becomes president. In 1985 Víctor Paz Estenssoro of the MNR wins the elections, succeeded in 1989 by Jaime Paz Zamora of the Movimiento de la Izquierda Revolucionaria (Movement of the Revolutionary Left, MIR). He had won the presidential elections in parliament with the support of the Acción Democrática Nacionalista (Nationalist Democratic Action, ADN) of former dictator Hugo Banzer Suárez. In 1993 the candidate of the MNR, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, wins the elections. The MNR loses the elections of 1997, when Banzer of the ADN in an alliance with the MIR is elected. He resigns because of illness in 2001 and is succeeded by Jorge Fernando Quiroga Ramírez. In 2002 the MNR wins the elections and Sánchez de Lozada becomes president again. A 4-year economic recession, tight fiscal situation, and longstanding ethnic tensions creates in 2003 a police revolt that nearly topples the government of President Sanchez de Lozada. The government remains unpopular. After bloody demonstrations Sanchez de Lozada resigns from office. In a constitutional transfer of power, vice president Carlos Mesa assumes the Presidency and promises to hold a binding referendum on the export of Bolivian natural gas.