... On seizing state power in 1864, General Mariano Melgarejo brought about an economic and political restructuring that ushered in the age of full-blown liberalization. One of his key measures was an unprecedented attack on indigenous community lands. In 1866, a decree declared community lands...

... The government of the caudillo strongman General Mariano Melgarejo (1864–71) was the first to expropriate indigenous community lands on a massive scale. It provoked violent resistance in response, and Melgarejo’s creole adversaries teamed with Aymara communities to besiege the city of La Paz...

... investment. In the following passages, from his Notes on the State of Industry, Economy, and Politics in Bolivia (1871), he recounts his rising economic fortunes and alludes to his political vicissitudes. He was exiled from the country by Presidents Belzu, Melgarejo, and Morales, all army generals...

... of the terminology “Christians” and “savages” to describe the two sides in the conflict, the old conquest framework persisted on the frontier of the new nation. The government of the caudillo strongman General Mariano Melgarejo (1864–71) was the first to expropriate indigenous community lands on a massive...

... and alludes to his political vicissitudes. He was exiled from the country by Presidents Belzu, Melgarejo, and Morales, all army generals, and was a fierce opponent of military government. In consistent liberal vein, he also opposed state regulation and taxation, state control of mineral purchasing, as well...

... deemed vacant or unused. Not coincidentally, the Law would not be put into effect until after the 1880 National Convention when the Bolivian state, caught up in the War of the Pacific, sought to fill its empty coffers. But just as Mariano Melgarejo’s prior attempt, in the 1860s, to sell off community...