The Doodle of today celebrates Bolivian Independence Day! Bolivians signed the Declaration of Independence on this date in 1825, putting an end to centuries of colonial rule and 16 years of war with Spain.
The Great Incans, the Aymara, and the Quechua were among the Indigenous ethnic groups who lived in what is now Bolivia until the 16th century. Invading the area in 1532 to take advantage of its abundant silver mines, the Spaniards colonised the entire country by using the labour of the native people.
Indigenous groups received unequal treatment and had limited access to political, economic, and educational possibilities. They also endured social exclusion as mestizos, a new mixed-race population, emerged.
Indigenous and mestizo groups in Bolivia were inspired by the Napoleonic Wars to fight against colonisation in the early 1800s. They organised an uprising in Chuquisaca in 1809 in collaboration with liberation fighters Simón Bolivar and Antonio José de Sucre.
Sixteen years later, on December 9, 1824, in Ayacucho, Sucre won a crucial conflict that led to the Spanish being forced to give up the following day. A congress was called on August 6, 1825, to draught a new constitution and ratify the declaration of independence. Simón Bolivar served as the nation’s first president, and the nation bears his name. The first Spanish colony in South America to achieve independence was Bolivia.
Bolivians celebrate their independence with carnivals, parades, fireworks displays, and other outdoor events. On this national occasion, the red, yellow, and green flag, like the one flying in today’s Doodle, is displayed everywhere in the nation.
Happy Independence Day, Bolivia!