Qualla: Upper Peru https://qualla.com/upper-peru en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/6/s/9/p/upper-peru-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Upper Peru https://qualla.com/upper-peru Upper Peru: Introduction https://qualla.com/upper-peru/ Photo credit Public domain. For most of the colonial era, the name meant silver. Upper Peru — Alto Peru in Spanish — was the administrative territory governed by the Real Audiencia of Charcas, encompassing the governorships of Potosi, La Paz, Cochabamba, Chiquitos, Moxos, and Charcas. The name itself originated in Buenos Aires toward the end of the eighteenth century, after the Audiencia was transferred from the Viceroyalty of Peru to the newly created Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata in 1776. What had been a highland appendage of Lima became the strategic interior of a new colonial entity centered on the Atlantic coast. That administrative reshuffling would shape the wars, rivalries, and border disputes that followed for the next half century.

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]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/s/9/p/upper-peru-wp/6s9p-upper-peru-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Upper Peru: The Silver That Built an Empire https://qualla.com/upper-peru/ Photo credit Jenny Mealing, CC BY 2.0. Upper Peru's importance to Spain was measured in ore. The silver mines of Potosi, discovered in 1545, had once produced so much wealth that the city briefly rivaled the population of London and Paris. By the time the territory was reassigned to the Rio de la Plata viceroyalty, Po...

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Image: Jenny Mealing | CC BY 2.0

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/s/9/p/upper-peru-wp/6s9p-upper-peru-the-silver-that-built-an-empire.mp3 0:06 2 full Upper Peru: Caught Between Revolutions https://qualla.com/upper-peru/ Photo credit Oxfire35789, CC BY-SA 4.0. By 1821, the Spanish colonial empire in South America was fracturing. The armies of Simon Bolivar and Antonio Jose de Sucre, having already liberated Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador, were advancing toward Upper Peru from the north. From the south, Buenos Aires had launched three...

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Image: Oxfire35789 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/s/9/p/upper-peru-wp/6s9p-upper-peru-caught-between-revolutions.mp3 0:06 3 full Upper Peru: The Chiquitos Affair https://qualla.com/upper-peru/ Photo credit Ferjamesd, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Brazilian annexation of Chiquitos was a strange episode even by the standards of South American independence politics. Emperor Pedro I of Brazil had not been informed. Only three of Mato Grosso's seven council members were present when the treaty was passed, and the expeditio...

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Image: Ferjamesd | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/s/9/p/upper-peru-wp/6s9p-upper-peru-the-chiquitos-affair.mp3 0:06 4 full Upper Peru: Birth of Bolivia https://qualla.com/upper-peru/ Photo credit Alejandro René Gonzáles Estrada, Public domain. Between 1823 and 1828, Colombian troops under Marshal Sucre occupied Upper Peru as part of the Campaigns of the South. The new Republic of Bolivar, named in honor of the Liberator, was widely regarded as a satellite of Gran Colombia. But the territory it encompassed carried the w...

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Image: Alejandro René Gonzáles Estrada | Public domain

]]> Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/s/9/p/upper-peru-wp/6s9p-upper-peru-birth-of-bolivia.mp3 0:06 5 full