Background
Ismael Montes Gamboa was born in Corocoro (later known as La Paz), Bolivia, on October 5, 1861.
government official politician president
Ismael Montes Gamboa was born in Corocoro (later known as La Paz), Bolivia, on October 5, 1861.
When Ismael Montes was 16, he graduated from the National College of Ayacucho in La Paz. As a young man, he attended the Greater University of Andres to study law. In 1879, during the administration of Hilarión Daza, he interrupted his legal education to enlist in his country's army to fight against Chile in the War of the Pacific (1879–83), which involved a dispute between Chile and Bolivia over control of a part of the Atacama Desert on the Pacific coast of South America. He finally received his law degree on June 12, 1886.
When the War of the Pacific began, Ismael Montes enlisted in the army and in 1884, after having reached the rank of captain, left the army to continue his law studies. In 1886 he began a political career as a national representative from La Paz. With the Liberal Party’s “Federal Revolution” of 1898. he became minister of war in the administration of President José Manuel Pando.
In 1909 Montes engineered the election of his successor. Dr. Eliodoro Vil- lazón. In August 1913 Montes secured his own reelection. In 1917 Montes was appointed minister to France and remained there until 1928. Returning to Bolivia, he supported the Chaco War until his death.
A member of the country's Liberal Party, Montes ran an administration of political and social reform.
Though the fighting ended in 1883, territorial issues would continue right up until Montes's first term as president, when the war would "officially" end. At the heart of the conflict were valuable mineral resources contained on the disputed territory as well as control of the Pacific coast.
The coup, which would eventually lead to Montes's ascendancy to the presidency, was caused by resentments that developed during the long rule of the Conservatives, as well as regionalism and federalism issues.
The Liberty Party gained important support from the rich tin-mining entrepreneurs in and around La Paz.
The weakened Bolivian economy led to some civil strife, which gave rise to Liberal opposition in the form of the new Republican Party in 1914.
The overthrown Conservative Party had been greatly weakened.
But the downturn in the economy and a continued loss of national territory increased support for the Republican Party, who charged the Liberals with abuses of power.
The Republicans seized power in a bloodless coup in 1920, which brought to an end one of the most stable periods in Bolivia's turbulent history. After he had finished his second term, Montes was appointed minister to Great Britain and France, acting as Bolivia's delegate to the League of Nations.