The Memorandum of 1904, presented here, argued the case for the regional interests of the eastern lowlands. It was written by members of the intellectual and political elite of Santa Cruz who belonged to the Geographic Society, and was directed to the Bolivian National Congress during the period in which the financing and construction of railroads was being debated.¹ In 1904, Bolivia and Chile signed the Treaty for Peace and Friendship, which obliged Chile to build the railroad between Arica and La Paz.² The year before, the Treaty of Petropolis resolved the territorial dispute between Bolivia and Brazil—the...