Bolivia has a seemingly very counterintuitive population distribution, but that was even more so some decades ago, before the agribusiness progress made the lower lands of Santa Cruz de la Sierra much more attractive to migrants and brought a lot of people to that region.
Look the population density of the administrative units of Bolivia:
Generally people avoid high-density settlement in high mountainous zones very far from the sea, without a good supply of oxygen, much higher to establish long-distance trade with other societies – especially if those lands aren’t more humid and/or full of easily arable terrains. In Bolivia, all of that seem to be no major problem:
Very high mountains and plateaus with not quite dry grasslands, shrublands and dry forests is where most people really live. People are concentrated far from the largest rivers, far from lowlands, far from the larger urban centers of the neighboring countries. Historically, it was close to the mountains and high plateaus, close to the steep and dry valleys that you would find a lot more people, more trade and a lot more civilization. It’s not like the Ethiopian highlands, that despite its heights are far greenier and undisputably more livable and favorable to agriculture (the indispensable vehicle to high-density settlement) than many arid and semi-arid lands nearby.
Personally, I think that’s a very interesting and unusual demographic distribution.
To us Brazilians Bolivia feels like a very distant place, a very remote and profoundly different-looking land with very different-looking people. Part of that is caused by the abysmal lack of economic and sociocultural integration between Brazil and its neighbors, particularly those outside the Southern Cone (Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay). However, part of it is certainly because the Andean region creates a totally different landscape, climate and society that is far and difficult to reach, almost like a land of fantasy that should feel close to us, but is like a parallel dimension where it’s totally normal to feel cold in the tropics.
Picture Source Wikipedia
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