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| 1921–25 |
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| Juan Bautista Saavedra became president. By this time Bolivia was producing one quarter of the world's tin supply. The largest tin mining concerns were owned by three Bolivian families: the Hochschilds, Patiños, and Aramayos, known collectively as La Rosca. This period was marked by massive development of the tin industry, some public improvements, and flotation of large loans in the U.S. By the mid-1920s, Bolivia (having had no foreign debt in 1908) owed $40 million to foreign creditors. Americans controlled Bolivia's mining and customs bureaus and had claims on more than half of the government's revenue. Civil unrest grew as miners created a large anarcho-syndicalist union movement, which was only fueled by army massacres of striking workers in 1918, 1919, and 1923. | 1 |
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| 1925, May 2 |
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| José Cabino Villanueva, president. His election was annulled (Sept. 1) by congress because of fraud. Villanueva fled the country. | 2 |
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| 1926–30 |
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| Hernando Siles became president. | 3 |
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| 1927 |
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| Women's Labor Federation founded. | 4 |
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| 1928–29 |
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| Dispute between Bolivia and Paraguay over the Chaco region. | 5 |
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| 1929 |
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| Settlement of the Tacna-Arica question. Bolivia definitively lost Atacama but obtained the right to use the Chilean-built railway between La Paz and Arica. | 6 |
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| 1930, May 28 |
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| Overthrow of President Siles, whose regime had become unpopular through economic depression, a fall in the price of tin, closing of the mines, and resulting labor unrest. A brief military rule, led by Gen. Carlos Blanco Galinda, followed. | 7 |
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| 1931 |
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| Daniel Salamanca was elected president. Salamanca outlawed unions. | 8 |
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| 1932–35 |
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| The CHACO WAR, between Bolivia and Paraguay. The war was fought over the eastern lowlands of Bolivia, known as the Chaco Boreal. Thousands of workers and peasants from both countries died in the bloody conflict, which was fueled by a belief in rich oil deposits in the region. Bolivia lost 20,000 square miles of territory in the conflict but retained some of the land richest in oil. | 9 |
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| 1934, Dec |
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| President Salamanca was overthrown by a military coup, following serious defeats of the Bolivian forces. The vice president, Luis Tejada Sorzano, assumed the presidency. | 10 |
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| 1936, May 17 |
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| Urban trade unionists and miners, in cooperation with returned veterans of the Chaco War, led a broad-based general strike that toppled the government. The “Veterans of the Chaco” would become an important voice for social change in Bolivia in subsequent years. Tejada Sorzano was replaced by a joint civil-military junta under David Toro, who then established a dictatorship. Measures to promote economic revival were adopted (virtual state monopoly over the petroleum industry; confiscation of Standard Oil properties, March 1937; efforts to control mining and banking). Toro's policies aroused much opposition. | 11 |
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| 1937, July 14 |
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| Toro was driven from office by fellow army officers. | 12 |
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