At one time the area today known as Bolivia was part of the Empire of the Inca kings. Their languages, Aymara and Quechua, are still spoken today by a large sector of the population. Not long after they had destroyed the Inca Empire in the 16th century, the Spanish conquerors discovered vast silver deposits in the Andes mountains. They forced the conquered population to dig kilometre-long tunnels deep into the mountains and to build innumerable mines. That is why today Silver Mountain, near the town of Potosí, is a symbol of colonial plundering and of the exploitation of the indigenous population of Latin America. Almost none of this great wealth remained in Bolivia itself. Today it is one of Latin America's poorest countries. Its more modern history is characterised by underdevelopment and political instability. Since independence in the year 1825 the Bolivian people have experienced over 150 coups d'état.

Besides Paraguay, Bolivia is the only Latin American country without access to the sea. The majority of the population lives high up in the Andes, which cover approximately one third of the country's area. Since the 1980s the lowland region around the city of Santa Cruz has increasingly become the driving force behind the Bolivian economy. This is due not only to a modern agricultural sector but also to the illegal cultivation of coca plants. Their leaves are used as the raw material for the production of cocaine.

And even today the earth's rich mineral deposits - especially tin and, more recently, natural gas - are still Bolivia's most important export products.