Beni Department - History

History

Beni was a very important center of pre-Columbian civilization known as the hydraulic culture of Las Lomas (the hills), a culture that constructed over 20,000 man-made artificial hills, all interconnected by thousands of square kilometers of aqueducts, channels, embankments, artificial lakes and lagoons as well as terraces. Between about 4000 BC (and probably earlier as this date is taken from ceramics that have been carbon dated) and the 13th Century AD this region was settled by important and organized groups of human societies. Their civil structures were based, both environmentally and economically, on the use of specific environmental characteristics (such as the use of aquatic plants as fertilizer, and enormous fishing systems they constructed). You can still see miles and miles of these channels and man-made hills if you fly low over Beni.

When the Spanish arrived the region had already been in decline for about three hundred years. However, this is where many products that are now used worldwide have their origin, among them tobacco, peanuts, cotton, cassava (manioc), vanilla and sweet potatoes. The Spanish initially were intensely interested in this area. During the first century of colonization, they believed the mythical city of El Dorado (also known as Paititi) could be found in this region. However, they never found this legendary city of gold and they soon lost interest in the area, which would remain marginalized for several centuries after.

Between the 19th and 20th centuries northern Beni became Bolivia's rubber capital. The abundance of rubber trees attracted many people to the region, many of them adventurers and others workers (many of whom were indigenous) to work in the huge rubber plantations that arose. For decades it was one of the most active, dynamic regions of Bolivia. Cachuela Esperanza was an important center for rubber exports as it is located along the shores of the Beni River. It had one of the best equipped hospitals in Bolivia at the end of the 19th Century. But these enormous rubber plantations all but disappeared by the end of the Second World War and today many of them are cattle ranches. There are only some small rubber producers who still use the river to transport their production.