Bolivia, officially the Republic of Bolivia (Spanish: República de Bolivia, IPA [re'puβlika ðe bo'liβi̯a], Quechua: Bulibiya, Aymara: Wuliwya), is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil on the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina on the south, and Chile and Peru on the west.
Main article: History of Bolivia
The Andean region probably has been inhabited for some 5,000 years. Beginning about the 2nd century B.C., the Tiwanaku culture developed at the southern end of Lake Titicaca. This culture, centered around and named for the great city of Tiwanaku, developed advanced architectural and agricultural techniques before it disappeared around A.D. 1200, probably because of extended drought (some legends of the Aymará, who claim descendance from the inhabitants of Tiwanaku, indicate that Lake Titikaka rose and flooded the city, causing dispersal of the survivors). Roughly contemporaneous with the Tiwanakan culture, the Moxos in the eastern lowlands and the Mollos north of present-day La Paz also developed advanced agricultural societies that had dissipated by the 13th century A.D. In about 1450, the Quechua-speaking Incas entered the area of modern highland Bolivia and added it to their empire. They controlled the area until the Spanish conquest in 1538.
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