UN General Assembly
1952

68. The arrival of the conquistadores in the territory now occupied by Bolivia disrupted the agrarian economy of the Incas and transformed it into a mining economy, while the feudal system was imposed in the rural areas. That is how, during the colonial period, the legend of the wealth of Potosi spread far and wide in America and Europe. But, paradoxically, that very wealth contributed to the poverty of the producing nation. This apparent contradiction was due to the fact that the silver shamelessly extracted at the cost of the lives of millions of Indian serfs helped to finance imperial Spain's plans for domination.