About Peru
HISTORY
THE FIRST SETTLERS
The first settlers reached Peru some 20,000 years ago. They
brought stone tools and were hunter-gatherers, living off game
and fruit. Some of them settled in Paccaicasa, Ayacucho. The
most ancient Peruvian skeletal remains found to date (7000 BC)
show the ancient settlers had broad faces, pointed heads and
stood 1.60 meters tall. The early Peruvians left examples of
cave paintings at Toquepala (Tacna, 7600 BC) and houses in
Chilca (Lima, 5800 BC).
The process of domesticating plants was to lay the foundations
for organized agriculture and the construction of villages and
ceremonial sites. As the regional cultures gradually integrated,
new techniques surfaced such as textile weaving, metallurgy and
jewelsmithy, giving rise to advanced cultures.
The Pre-Incas Cultures
Over the course of 1400 years, pre-Inca cultures settled
along the Peruvian coast and highlands. The power and influence
of some civilizations was to hold sway over large swaths of
territory, which during their decline, gave way to minor
regional centers. Many of them stood out for their ritual
pottery, their ability to adapt and superb management of their
natural resources; a vast knowledge from which later the Inca
empire was to draw.
The first Peruvian civilization settled in Huantar (Ancash) in
around (1200 - 1000 BC). The power of the civilization, based on
a theocracy, was centered in the Chavin de Huantar, temple,
whose walls and galleries were filled with sculptures of
ferocious deities with feline features.
The Paracas culture (200 AD - 600 BC) rose to power along the
south coast, and was to craft superb skills in textile weaving.
The north coast was dominated by the Moche civilization (200 AD
- 600 BC). The culture was led by military authorities in the
coastal valleys, such as the Lord of Sipan. The Moche pots which
featured portraits, and their iconography in general were
surprisingly detailed and showed great skill in design.
The highlands saw the rise of the Tiahuanaco culture (200 AD)
based in the Collao region (which covered parts of modern-day
Bolivia and Chile). The Tiahuanaco were to bequeath a legacy of
agricultural terracing and the management of a variety of
ecological zones.
The Nasca culture (300 AD - 900 BC) were able to tame the
coastal desert by bringing water through underground aqueducts.
They carved out vast geometric and animal figures on the desert
floor, a series of symbols believed to form part of an
agricultural calendar which even today baffles researchers.
The Wari culture (600 AD) introduced urban settlements in the
Ayacucho area and expanded its influence across the Andes.
The refined Chimu culture (1100 - 1500) crafted gold and other
metals into relics and built the mud-brick citadel of Chan Chan,
near the northern coastal city of Trujillo.
The Chachapoyas culture (800 AD) made the best possible use of
arable land and built their constructions on top of the highest
mountains in the northern cloud forest. The vast Kuelap fortress
is a fine example of how they adapted to their environment.
The Incas
The Inca empire (1200 - 1500 BC) was possibly the most
organized civilization in South America. Their economic system,
distribution of wealth, artistic manifestations and architecture
impressed the first of the Spanish chroniclers.
The Incas worshipped the earth goddess Pachamama and the sun god,
the Inti. The Inca sovereign, lord of the Tahuantinsuyo, the
Inca empire, was held to be sacred and to be the descendant of
the sun god. Thus, the legend of the origin of the Incas tells
how the sun god sent his children Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo (and
in another version the four Ayar brothers and their wives) to
found Cuzco, the sacred city and capital of the Inca empire.
The rapid expansion of the Inca empire stemmed from their
extraordinary organizational skills. Communities were grouped,
both as families and territorially, around the ayllu, their
corner of the empire, and even if villagers had to move away for
work reasons, they did not lose their bond to the ayllu. The
Inca moved around large populations, either as a reward or
punishment, and thus consolidated the expansion while drawing
heavily from the knowledge of the cultures that had flourished
prior to the Incas.
The Inca's clan was the panaca, made up of relatives and
descendants, except for the one who was the Inca's successor,
who would then form his own panaca. Sixteenth-century Spanish
chroniclers recorded a dynasty of 13 rulers, running from the
legendary Manco Capac down to the controversial Atahualpa, who
was to suffer death at the hands of the Spanish conquerors.
The Tahuantinsuyo expanded to cover part of what is modern-day
Colombia to the north, Chile and Argentina to the south and all
of Ecuador and Bolivia.
The members of the panaca clans were Inca nobles, headed by the
Inca sovereign. The power of the clans and the Inca was tangible
in every corner of the empire, but the might of the Incas
reached its peak in the architecture of Cuzco: the Koricancha or
Temple of the Sun, the fortresses of Ollantaytambo and
Sacsayhuaman, and above all the citadel of Machu Picchu.
The encounter between two worlds
The encounter between the Inca culture and Hispanic culture
got underway as a result of the Spanish conquest in the early
sixteenth century. In 1532, the troops of Francisco Pizarro
captured Inca ruler Atahualpa in the northern highland city of
Cajamarca. The indigenous population was to dwindle during the
first few decades of Spanish rule, and the Vice-regency of Peru
was created in 1542 after a battle between the conquerors
themselves and the Spanish Crown.
Spain's foothold in the New World was consolidated in the
sixteenth century when Viceroy Francisco de Toledo laid down a
set of rules governing the colonial economy: the mita system
used indigenous labor to operate the mines and produce arts and
crafts. These activities, together with a monopoly over trade,
formed the basis of the colonial economy. But the changeover in
the dynasty and the Borbon reforms in the eighteenth century
sparked dissent among many social sectors. The main indigenous
uprising was led by Tupac Amaru II, which was to set rolling the
Creole movement that led to independence of Hispanic America
from the Spanish crown in the early nineteenth century.
Until the seventeenth century, the Peruvian vice-regency covered
an area stretching from Panama down to Tierra del Fuego.
The missionary work of the Catholic priests blended with ancient
Andean beliefs, forging a fusion of beliefs that still exists
today. The Spaniards also brought along African slaves, who
together with Spaniards and the indigenous population, form part
of the social and racial fabric of Peru.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Peruvian
intellectual writings and colonial art contributed to Spanish
tradition
The birth of the Peruvian State
Peru was declared an independent nation by Jose de San
Martin in 1821, and in 1824 Simon Bolivar put an end to the War
of Independence. However, despite efforts to organize the young
Peruvian republic, in the nineteenth century the country had to
face up to the cost of the struggle: a tough economic crisis and
a tradition of military strongmen who gave civilians little
chance to govern.
By 1860, thanks to income from guano, cotton and sugar, Peru was
able to do without enforced labor imposed on the indigenous
population and African slaves alike. Chinese and European
immigrants swelled the workforce and integrated with Peru's
society. The country was linked up by a railway network, and
during the mandate of President Manuel Pardo, Peru organized its
first civilian government. The first Japanese immigrants were to
arrive at the end of the nineteenth century.
But in 1879, the country found itself at war with Chile. Peru
was defeated and left bankrupt. After another spell of military
regimes, Peru returned to civilian rule, giving rise to a time
called "the Aristocratic Republic". The economy was dominated by
the land-owning elite, and an export-oriented model imposed. The
success of the rubber boom lent fresh splendor to the myth of El
Dorado.
Peru Today
The early part of the twentieth century was marked by a
drawn-out civilian dictatorship headed by President Augusto B.
Leguia. The project to modernize the country, creating works for
a New Fatherland left the State heavily in debt and unable to
deal with the 1929 crash. It was also a time of intellectual
creativity, symbolized by the founder of the APRA party, Victor
Raul Haya de la Torre and Jose Carlos Mariategui, the father of
Socialist beliefs in Peru and the center of intellectual and
artistic thinking in the country during his short life.
After the fall of Leguia, military regimes once again rose to
the forefront, despite apparently having run their course with
the presidencies of Prado in 1939 and Bustamante y Rivero in
1945; but in 1948 a new military government was formed by Manuel
A. Odria. Over the next eight years, major public works were
built amidst severe political repression.
Peru, which has made major efforts to forge friendly relations
with neighboring countries, has managed to overcome long-running
border conflicts. Navigation conditions along the Amazon River
led to agreements with Brazil, until in 1909 the frontier
between the two nations was finally established. After lengthy
debate, the border treaty with Colombia was approved by Congress
in 1927, and Colombians were granted an access route to the
Amazon River. In 1929, after border disputes with Chile
resulting from armed conflict, the will to improve relations led
both nations to sign a treaty whereby the city of Tacna was
returned to Peru.
The border with Bolivia was marked by mutual accord in 1932.
Finally, after several armed conflicts and diplomatic
controversies with Ecuador, Peru in 1999 managed to get the 1942
Rio Protocol to prevail, closing the final chapter of the
dispute over the territory within the Cordillera del Condor
mountain range, shoring up Peru's relations with Ecuador.
In 1968, the armed forces staged a coup d'etat and overthrew
then-President Fernando Belaunde. The first few years of the
military regime stood out from other dictatorships in Latin
America in that Peru's military had socialist sympathies. Led by
General Juan Velasco, the military regime expanded the role of
the State in a bid to solve the problems that had impoverished
the country. Thus the State nationalized the oil industry, the
media and carried out an agrarian reform. Velasco was replaced
by General Francisco Morales-Bermudez, who bowed to public
pressure and called for a Constituent Assembly.
Belaunde was re-elected in 1980, but the deep-lying poverty
spurred the birth of two insurgencies which unleashed a wave of
violence for over a decade. After the government of Alan Garcia
(1985-1990), Alberto Fujimori was elected president in 1990, but
shut down Congress in 1992 and decreed an emergency government.
He was re-elected in 1995 and 2000, but public discontent forced
him to call fresh elections for 2001. Valentin Paniagua was then
chosen to head a caretaker government. In July 2001, Dr.
Alejandro Toledo Manrique took office as the Constitutional
President of the Republic of Peru. The current constitutional
president of Peru is Ollanta Humala (2011-2016).
