incredible shrinking country

taken from the Book Of Facts
written by Readers Digest


two disastrous wars and one near-war have cost Bolivia more then half the territory to which it laid clam when it became independent in 1825.
in the1879-83 war of the pacific, Chile annexed Bolivia's pacific seacoast, along with the port of Antofagasta and the neighboring Brazil was narrowly avoided, Bolivia was forced to cede the rubber-producing Acre territory to Brazil finally after the 1932-5 Chaco War with Paraguay, Bolivia lost three quarters of the southern Chaco region which it calmed.
it also abandoned hope of an outlet of its own to the Atlantic along the Paraguay river, at a point where the river is navigable for large vessels.
despite having no coastline, Bolivia still has a nave of some 4000 men.
they are confined, to the calm waters of Titicaca high in the Andes and to rivers on the fringes of the Amazon basin.