Chiquitania ("Chiquitos" or "Gran Chiquitania") is a region of

tropical savanna Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands is a terrestrial biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The biome is dominated by grass and/or shrubs located in semi-arid to semi-humid climate regions of subtropical and t ...

s in the

Santa Cruz Department Santa Cruz () is the largest of the nine constituent departments of Bolivia, occupying about one-third (33.74%) of the country's territory. With an area of , it is slightly smaller than Japan or the US state of Montana. It is located in the ...

in eastern

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

Geography

"Chiquitos" is the colonial name for what is now essentially five of the six provinces that make up the Chiquitania, a region in Bolivia's Santa Cruz department. "Chiquitos" refers to a region, not a tribe. Today, the Chiquitania lies within five provinces of

: Ángel Sandoval,

Germán Busch Víctor Germán Busch Becerra (23 March 1903 – 23 August 1939) was a Bolivian military officer and statesman who served as the 36th president of Bolivia from 1937 until his death in 1939. Prior to his presidency, he served as the Chief of t ...

José Miguel de Velasco José Miguel de Velasco Franco (; 29 September 1795 – 13 October 1859) was a Bolivian Officer (armed forces), military officer and statesman who served as the fourth president of Bolivia on four occasions: 1828, 1829, 1839–1841, and 1848. V ...

, Ñuflo de Chávez and Chiquitos province.

Peoples

One of the many tribes inhabiting Chiquitos were the

Chiquitano The Chiquitano or Chiquitos are an indigenous people of Bolivia, with a small number also living in Brazil. The Chiquitano primarily live in the Chiquitania tropical savanna of Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia, with a small number also living in ...

, who still speak the

Chiquitano language Chiquitano (also ''Bésɨro'' or ''Tarapecosi'') is an indigenous language isolate, possibly related to the Macro-Jê languages spoken in the central region of Santa Cruz Department of eastern Bolivia and the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil. Cl ...

today.

Languages

Languages historically spoken in the Chiquitania included: *

* Gorgotoqui (extinct) * Otuke (extinct) * Ayoreo * Guarani Today,

Camba Camba is a word historically used in Bolivia to refer to the indigenous population in the eastern tropical region of the country, or to those born in the area of Santa Cruz, Beni, and Pando. Nowadays, the term "Camba" is used predominantly t ...

Spanish is the main vernacular

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

Missions

A notable feature are the 18th-century

Jesuit reductions The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 by ...

and

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

settlements scattered throughout the region. Six churches still remain in the zone and were selected in 1990 as

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Sites World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

under the name '' Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos''.

Ecosystem

The Chiquitano dry forest is the ecosystem which connects South America's two largest biomes, the Amazon and the

Gran Chaco The Gran Chaco or simply Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semiarid lowland tropical dry broadleaf forest natural region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and a portion o ...

, a dense dry forest of thorn-covered trees and scrub that extends south into Paraguay and Brazil.

References

External links

La gran Chiquitania: The Last Paradise.
{{coord, 18.000, S, 60.000, W, display=title, source:dewiki Geography of Bolivia Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Regions of South America