Bolivian Independence

August 6, 1825

Upper Peru, liberated by Sucre's army after Ayacucho, held a congress in Chuquisaca and declared itself a separate republic rather than rejoin either Peru or Argentina. They named it Bolivia in honor of the Liberator, who accepted the honor graciously and wrote them a constitution that almost nobody followed. The new republic inherited the silver mines of Potosi, once the richest on earth, now largely exhausted.