Santa Cruz - History

Santa Cruz is not a new city. Founded in 1561 by a band of Spanish explorers working their way northwest form Paraguay under the leadership of Nuflo Chavez , it was one of the first Spanish cities in Bolivia. From the date of its founding until the 1950's the town enjoyed autonomous isolation from the rest of the nation, with the exception of a few boom years. The first brief period of prosperity came in the late 1800's when rubber from the Amazon's rubber trees was harvested. This first boom quickly turned to a bust when cheaper Asian rubber entered the world market. Santa Cruz supplied the rest of the colony with cotton, rice, sugar and fruit. It was a prosperous city until the late 1800's. Then, transport routes opened up between Peru's sea ports and La Paz, making imported products cheaper than those transported by mule from Santa Cruz.

The town experienced another growth spurt during the Chaco war against Paraguay in the 1930's. When the war ended and the soldiers who had survived the war returned home, the city once again returned to isolation where it remained until the popular revolution in 1952.

The new revolutionary government of the MNR under the leadership of Victor Paz Estenssoro immediately began a program to expand into the department of Santa Cruz by offering cheap land and support to those highlanders who would "March to the East" and colonize the tropical plains. Highlanders began to flock to the lowlands on the new highway which connected Santa Cruz and Andean Valley city of Cochabamba. The paved two lane highway was the first link between Santa Cruz and the highlands in the history of the city. While migrants poured into Santa Cruz by way of the new highway, tropical resources and agricultural products flowed out. Goods were also carried for export on world markets by way of the new railroad links to Brazil and Argentina.

In a push to develop the nation's economy, the government implemented a plan to cash in on the resources of the east and have them generate wealth for the entire nation. With the aim of expanding the national economy and developing the country, the government began a program of import substitution that relied heavily on the exploitation and development of resources in the region, particularly agro-business cash crops of sugar, Rice, and cotton, tropical lumber, minerals, and petroleum and natural gas.

In the 1950's Santa Cruz was connected through roads and highways with other major centers. Also the completion of the railway line to Brazil in the mid-1950s opened trade routes to the east. Tropical agriculture (sugar, rice, cotton, and soybean plantations) prospered and the city entered a period of expansion and economic growth that continues to the present day. The city is connected by railways with Brazil and Argentina, and by road with Cochabamba, the Chaco, and Trinidad.