User:Carwil/1952 Bolivian National Revolution
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The 1952 Bolivian Revolution, popularly known as the National Revolution (RevoluciĆ³n Nacional) marked a major historic shift in Bolivian politics. It inaugurated a period of rule by the Nationalist Revoultionary Movement (MNR), which lasted from April 9, 1952, to November 4, 1964. Over those twelve years, the MNR led a process of modernization which changed the political, economic, and social direction of the country.
The revolution led to several of the largest fundamental changes in public participation in Bolivian life. Firstly, this came through the redistribution of land through an agrarian reform that did away with the regime of landlord rule in the west of the country. Second, the indigenous-peasant majority and women were incorporated for the first time into the national political scene by the establishment of universal suffrage. The state took control of natural resources, nationalizing the largest industry of tin mining, and became central to the Bolivian economy. It was a social revolution that was on a level with the Mexican revolution and which predated the Cuban revoultion. It was carried out amid the Cold War and was the only social revolution which counted on the support of the United States.[1]