Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
Gootenberg, Paul | Larson, Brooke | Roxborough, Ian | Thomson, Sinclair.
Date
2013-12-01
Keywords
Bolivia, Cold War, Economic thought, Labor, Resource nationalism, Revolution | History
Department
Department of History.
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/77735
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
Natural resource extraction and resource nationalism are central to understanding recent protests around the world. These mobilizations have important precedents in mid-twentieth-century Bolivia. The quest for national control over natural resources--particularly tin and oil--was the central factor uniting urban sectors in the years before and after the 1952 Bolivian Revolution, which brought to power the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR) party. Focusing on La Paz, this dissertation examines the contours of popular economic thought and the conflicts among urban popular sectors, the MNR regime, and the United States to define economic policy. Natural resources were the key locus of contention in the country, and debates about their use shed light on conflicting ideas about economic development, wealth distribution, and governance. While most MNR leaders favored a relatively conservative " revolution," urban popular sectors like factory workers, students, and war veterans articulated more radical visions. By the late 1950s these voices began accusing the MNR of betraying the promises of 1952, particularly the pledge to use Bolivia's resources for economic development and social welfare. The alienation of the MNR's urban supporters facilitated the party's ouster by the army in 1964. The project also reappraises the Cold War in Bolivia and, by extension, the rest of the Third World. U.S. officials' main concern was not Soviet-style Communism but Bolivian revolutionary nationalism, which sparked fears of economic nationalism (especially in the minerals and hydrocarbons sectors), material redistribution, and an independent foreign policy. Extensive U.S. " informal diplomacy" activities sought to supplant Bolivians' resource nationalism and suspicions of private enterprise with faith in capitalism. This mission aligned with that of MNR officials, who also sought to contain popular radicalism after 1952. Yet U.S. and MNR efforts were only partly successful. I challenge prior historiography on the revolution by showing how popular resistance left an enduring imprint in both economic policy and political culture long after 1964. Popular mobilization in twenty-first-century Bolivia testifies not only to Bolivia's persisting social and economic problems but also to the inability of past Bolivian governments and their foreign allies to extinguish deep-seated beliefs about natural resources, social justice, and democracy. | 336 pages
Recommended Citation
Young, Kevin, "Blood of the Earth: Natural Resources, Economic Visions, and Revolution in La Paz, Bolivia, 1927-1971" (2013). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 3522.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/3522