Santa Cruz makes more than a third of Bolivia's GDP
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia's largest city and Santa Cruz department capital on the Pirai River, anchors a 2.4-million metro (2020) across seven municipalities. Founded in 1561 by Ñuflo de Chavez some 200 kilometers east of today's site, it migrated until settling late in the sixteenth century.
Little is recorded of the area before Europeans, since its peoples moved often and did not write, but pottery and weapons suggest an Arawak group the Spanish called Chané had settled here. Domingo Martínez de Irala explored in 1549. Ñuflo de Chaves, who had reached Asunción with Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541, learned that a rival expedition was under way, hurried to Lima, and persuaded the viceroy to create a province with himself as governor in February 1560; he founded the city on 26 February 1561.
The early decades were precarious. Itatine warriors killed Chaves in 1568, and amid conflict and infighting the authorities in Peru ordered the city moved west. It was refounded on the Guapay river on 13 September 1590 as San Lorenzo de la Frontera, though many settlers stayed at the original site. Over the next two centuries it served as a base for Jesuit missions to Chiquitos and Moxos and as a bulwark against Portuguese bandeirante raids.
In return, Lima granted wide autonomy: a captain general based in the city, two mayors and a four-member council, no imperial taxes, and no mita forced labour. Resentment grew when late-colonial reforms moved the seat of government to Cochabamba, and on 24 September 1810 locals led by Antonio Vicente Seoane ousted the governor. Royalists regained control by 1813, until an Argentine force under Ignacio Warnes, sent by Manuel Belgrano, took the city and, allied with Álvarez de Arenales, defeated royal troops at the Battle of Florida.
The city lies about 400 metres above sea level within sight of the last Andean foothills. Its tropical monsoon climate averages around 25 °C, though cold surazo winds from the Argentine pampas can bring sudden chills, especially in winter.
Source: Santa Cruz de la Sierra
