By 1825 the issue of nationhood became a paramount concern for all the newly independent governments of Latin America. While there might have been agreement on the necessity of independence among Latin American creole elites, the form their countries would take after independence was subject to much debate. In Bolivia, the debate about the country's future was complicated by the presence of a large indigenous population and a growing and militarised mestizo element General Manuel Isidoro Belzu served as President of the Republic of Bolivia from 1848 to 1855. Due to his protectionist economic policies and populist rhetoric, Belzu attracted extensive support from Bolivia's nascent working class and large indigenous population. His ability to forge popular urban and rural support bases enabled him to challenge the political domination of the creole elite. Belzu not only represented the potential power of the masses but a real attempt at nation-building and political modernisation. His vision for an independent Bolivia included the promotion of liberal philosophy founded upon the principles of popular sovereignty. The result was a new form of national discourse between the government and the masses. Belzu and what he seemed to represent were a terrifying prospect for the Bolivian oligarchy. For all their liberal rhetoric about progress, they remained bound by their fear of the masses. Even after his death, opposition to Belzu continued in the form of political manipulation of history by civilista writers who denied the period and the president any role in Bolivia's modernisation This study, drawn from government documents, the popular press and personal papers housed in the Archivo y Biblioteca Nacional in Sucre, Bolivia, and from sources in U.S. libraries and archive collections, challenges the long standing Black Legend of Belzu and argues that he continued the process of national construction begun by Bolivia's first president, Mariscal Sucre: a process later liberal governments would not only build upon but claim as their own. This work seeks to recognize Manuel Isidoro Belzu not as an impediment but as a crucial participant in the construction of the modern Bolivian nation
