Tarija

Tarija lies in a fertile valley of southern Bolivia, on the Guadalquivir River between the Andean highlands and the eastern foothills. The valley became a Spanish colonial frontier in the sixteenth century, surrounded by lands inhabited by Indigenous peoples including Guaraní communities. Its mild climate and irrigated ground supported farming and vineyards, while the mountain routes connected it to the cities of Upper Peru.

In 1574 Viceroy Francisco de Toledo commissioned Luis de Fuentes y Vargas to found San Bernardo de la Frontera de Tarixa. The new town was intended as a frontier outpost against incursions from the east. Its settlers raised livestock and cultivated the valley, developing an agricultural centre on the routes between the highlands and the southern lowlands. During the wars of independence, the region became a contested frontier between royalist and revolutionary forces. The battle of La Tablada in 1817 was one episode in that struggle, which continued until Spanish rule in Upper Peru ended.