User:Juanpdp/Peru
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| República del Perú Republic of Peru |
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| Anthem: Somos libres, seámoslo siempre "We are free, let us remain so forever" |
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| Capital (and largest city) |
Lima |
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| Official languages | Spanish, Quechua 1 | ||||
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| Government | Constitutional republic | ||||
| - President | Alan García Pérez | ||||
| - Prime Minister | Jorge del Castillo | ||||
| Independence | from Spain | ||||
| - Declared | 28 July 1821 | ||||
| Area | |||||
| - Total | 1,285,216 km² (20th) 496,222 sq mi |
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| - Water (%) | 8.80% | ||||
| Population | |||||
| - July 2005 estimate | 27,968,000 (41st) | ||||
| - 2005 census | 27,219,266 | ||||
| - Density | 22/km² (183rd) 57/sq mi |
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| GDP (PPP) | 2005 estimate | ||||
| - Total | $167.21 billion (50th) | ||||
| - Per capita | $5,983 (97th) | ||||
| HDI (2003) | 0.762 (medium) (79th) | ||||
| Currency | Nuevo Sol (PEN) |
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| Time zone | (UTC-5) | ||||
| Internet TLD | .pe | ||||
| Calling code | +51 | ||||
| 1.) Quechua, Aymara and other regional languages are also official in the areas where they are predominant. | |||||
Peru, officially the Republic of Peru (Spanish: Perú or República del Perú pron. IPA [re'pu.βli.ka del pe'ɾu], Quechua: Piruw), is a country in western South America, bordering Ecuador and Colombia to the north, Brazil to the east, Bolivia to the south-east, Chile to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west.
In addition to being known as the cradle of the Inca empire, Peru is the home of many indigenous ethnic groups. It is therefore a country with major historical and cultural standing.
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[edit] History
[edit] Ancient cultures
Archaeological evidence present in sites located in the caves of Piquimachay (Ayacucho), Chivateros, Lauricocha, Paijan, and Toquepala indicate that hunters and gatherers inhabited Peru 20,000 years ago. Some of the oldest notable civilizations appeared ca. 6000 BC in the coastal provinces of Chilca and Paracas and in the highlands province of Callejon de Huaylas.
[edit] The Incas
The Incas created the most vast and powerful empire of pre-Columbian America. The Tahuantinsuyo—which is derived from Quechua for "The Four United Regions"—reached its greatest extension at the beginning of the 16th century. It dominated a territory that included from north to south Ecuador, part of Colombia, the northern half of Chile, and the north-east part of Argentina; and from west to east, from Bolivia to the Amazonian forests.
The empire originated from a tribe based in Cuzco, which became the capital. Pachacuti was the first ruler to considerably expand the boundaries of the Cuzco state. His offspring later ruled an empire by both violent and peaceful conquest.
In Cuzco, the royal city was created to resemble a puma; the head, the main royal structure, formed what is now known as Sacsayhuaman. The Empire's administrative, political, and military center was located in Cuzco. The empire was divided into four quarters: Chinchasuyo, Antisuyo, Contisuyo, and Collasuyo.
Quechua was the official language, imposed on the citizens. It was the language of a tribe neighbouring the original tribe of the empire. Conquered populations—tribes, kingdoms, states, and cities—were allowed to practice their own religions and lifestyles, but had to recognize Inca cultural practices as superior to their own. Inti, the sun god, was to be worshipped as one of the most important gods of the empire. His representation on earth was the "Inca", the Emperor.
The Tahuantinsuyo was organized in dominions with a stratified society, in which the ruler was the Inca. It was also supported by an economy based on the collective property of the land. In fact, the Inca Empire was conceived like an ambitious and audacious civilizing project, based on a mythical thought, in which the harmony of the relationships between the human being, nature, and gods was truly essential.
Many strange and interesting customs were observed, for example the extravagant feast of Inti Raymi which gave thanks to the God Sun, and the young women who comprised the Virgins of the Sun, sacrificial virgins devoted to the Inti. The empire, being quite large, also had an impressive transportation system of roads to all points of the empire called the Inca Trail, and chasquis, message carriers who relayed information from anywhere in the empire to Cuzco.
From the European rationalist perspective, the Inca Empire has been seen like the utopia state. Nevertheless, this pragmatic interpretation tends to forget that the collision between two antithetic Weltanschauungs had a destructive impact on the harmony of the Inca Weltanschauung superiority, who took advantage of the Inca civil war triggered by two pretenders to the throne.
[edit] Colonial Peru (Spanish rule)
Main article: The Viceroyalty of Peru
Francisco Pizarro and his brothers were attracted by the news of a rich and fabulous kingdom. In 1531, they arrived in the country, which they called Peru. (The forms Biru, Pirú, and Berú are also seen in early records.) According to Raul Porras Barrenechea, Peru is not a Quechuan nor Caribbean word, but Indo-Hispanic or hybrid.
At that moment, the Inca Empire was sunk in a five years civil war between two princes, Huáscar and Atahualpa. Taking advantage of this, Pizarro carried out a coup d’état. On November 16, 1532, while the natives were in a celebration in Cajamarca, the Spanish in a surprise move captured the Inca Atahualpa during the Battle of Cajamarca, causing a great consternation among the natives and conditioning the future course of the fight. When Huascar was killed, the Spanish tried and convicted Atahualpa of the murder, executing him by strangulation.
For a period, Pizarro maintained the ostensible authority of the Inca, recognizing Tupac Huallpa as the Inca after Atahualpa's death. But the conqueror’s abuses made this façade too obvious. Spanish domination consolidated itself as successive indigenous rebellions were bloodily repressed. The situation was complicated by a power struggle between the Pizarro family and Diego de Almagro. A long civil war developed, from which the Pizarros emerged victorious at the Battle of Las Salinas.
Despite this, the Spaniards did not neglect the colonizing process. Its most significant milestone was the foundation of Lima in January, 1535, from which the political and administrative institutions were organized. The necessity of consolidating Spanish royal authority over these territories, led to the creation of a Real Audiencia (Royal Audience). In 1542, the Spanish created the Viceroyalty of New Castilla, that shortly after would be called Viceroyalty of Peru. Nevertheless, the Viceroyalty of Peru was not organized until the arrival of the Viceroy Francisco de Toledo in 1572.
Toledo ended the indigenous state of Vilcabamba, executing the Inca Tupac Amaru. He also seeked economic development through commercial monopoly and mineral extraction, mainly from argentiferous mines of Potosí. He exploited the Inca institution called “mita”, that is mandatory public service, to put the native communities under a cruel economic enslavement.
The Viceroyalty of Peru became the richest and most powerful Spanish Viceroyalty of America in the 18th century. The creation of the Viceroyalties of New Granada and Rio de la Plata (at the expense of its territory), the duty exemptions that moved the commercial center from Lima to Caracas and Buenos Aires, and the decrease of the mining and textile production determined the progressive decay of the Viceroyalty of Peru. These events created a favorable climate so that emancipating ideas developed between the Spanish Criollo people, or Creoles.
[edit] Wars of independence
Main article: Independence of Peru
The economic crisis favored the indigenous rebellion from 1780 to 1781. This rebellion was headed by Túpac Amaru II. At this time, the Napoleonic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula and the degradation of the Royal power took place. The Creole rebellion of Huánuco arose in 1812 and the rebellion of Cuzco arose between 1814 and 1816. These rebellions defended the liberal principles sanctioned by the Constitution of Cadiz of 1812.
Supported by the power of the Creole oligarchy, the Viceroyalty of Peru became the last redoubt of the Spanish dominion in South America. This Viceroyalty succumbed after the decisive continental campaigns of Simón Bolivar and Jose de San Martin. San Martin, who had displaced the royalists of Chile after the magnificent battle of the Andes, and who had disembarked in Paracas in 1819, proclaimed the independence of Peru in Lima on July 28, 1821. Three years later, the Spanish dominion was eliminated definitively after the battles of Junín and Ayacucho. Its first elected president, however, wasn't in power until 1827.
[edit] Early republican period
The conflict of interests that faced different sectors of the Creole society and the particular ambitions of the caudillos, made the organization of the country excessively difficult. Only three civilians: Manuel Pardo, Nicolás de Piérola and Francisco García Calderón could accede to the presidency in the first seventy-five years of independent life.
After the splitting of the Alto Peru in 1815, the Republic of Bolivia was created. In 1828, Peru fought a war against Gran Colombia over control of Jaén and Maynas territory called the Gran Colombia-Peru War. After the war, Peru retained control over the territory. This was its first international conflict as a new nation. In 1837, the Peru-Bolivian Confederation was also created but, it was dissolved two years later due to the Chilean military intervention. The Peru-Bolivian Confederation was lead by Andrés de Santa Cruz.
Between these years, political unrest continued, and the Army was an important political force. Peru initiated a period of political and economic stability in the middle of the 19th century, under the General Ramon Castilla's caudillista hegemony. The complete depletion of the guano, main foreign currency source, and the war of the Pacific with Chile because of the dispute of the saltpeter deposits of Tarapacá, caused the economic bankruptcy and activated the social and political agitation of the country.
In 1864, Spain organised a so-called naval science expedition, whose main objective was to recover control of its former colonies. Spain started occupying the Chinchas Islands and arresting Peruvian citizens in 1864, claiming that Spaniards were mistreated on Peruvian ground. After that, the Spaniard Fleet destroyed the Chilean harbour of Valparaiso. Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru signed an alliance to defeat Spain by the end of December 1865. The Spanish Fleet tried to destroy the harbour of Callao, but failed. Main naval battles fought were the Battle of Papudo in 1865, Battle of Abtao and Battle of Callao in 1866.
[edit] War and reconstruction
In 1879, Peru entered the War of the Pacific which lasted until 1884. Bolivia invoked its alliance with Peru against Chile. The Peruvian Government tried to mediate the dispute by sending a diplomatic team to negotiate with the Chilean government, but the committee concluded that war was inevitable. Chile declared war on April 5, 1879. Almost five years of war ended with the loss of the department of Tarapacá and the provinces of Tacna and Arica, in the Atacama region.
After the war, an extraordinary effort of reconstruction began. Political stability was achieved only in the early 1900s. The civilist movement headed by Nicolas de Piérola opposed the military caudillismo that arose from the warlike defeat and the economic collapse. He arrived to power with the 1895 revolution. The reformist character of Pierola’s dictatorship had continuity in Augusto B. Leguía’s.
During Leguia’s government periods (1908–1912 and 1919–1930, this last one was well-known as “the Oncenio”—The eleventh), the entrance of American capitals became general and the bourgeoisie was favored. This politics along with the increase of the foreign capital dependency, contributed to generate opposition focuses between the landowner oligarchy as much as the most progressive sectors of the Peruvian society.
In 1929, Peru and Chile signed a final peace treaty, the Treaty of Ancon by which Tacna returned to Peru and Peru yielded permanently the rich provinces of Arica and Tarapaca, but kept certain rights to the port activities in Arica and decisions of what Chile can do on those territories.
After the world-wide crisis of 1929, numerous brief governments followed one another. The APRA party had the opportunity to cause system reforms by means of political actions, but it was not successful. Represion was brutal in the early 1930's and tens of thousands of "APRISTA" followers were executed or imprisoned. By this time, it begins a sudden population growth and an urbanization increase. During World War II, Peru was the first South American nation to align with the United States and its allies against Germany and Japan.
Between these two periods of time, it should be underlined the constitution of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA). This is a nationalistic movement, populist and anti-imperialist headed by Victor Raul Haya de la Torre in 1924. The communist party was created four years later and it was led by Jose C. Mariategui.
