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HISTORY OF PERU


Civilizations before 200 BC

The ChavÃn culture, dating from around 900 BC, has long been considered the first civilization of south America. But in recent decades archaeologists have revealed far earlier centralized societies in the Norte Chico region of Peru, along the Supe river. Aspero was the first of many such sites to be discovered, and Caral is the largest. Sophisticated architecture (pyramids and raised platforms) suggests complex societies, and carbon-14 dating reveals that they were in existence by around 3000 BC - contemporary with the beginnings of civilization in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

The much later ChavÃn de Hu?ntar, a ceremonial site 10,000 feet above sea level in Peru's Cordillera Blanca, has temple architecture characterized by huge raised platforms. They are formed from massive blocks of dressed stone, in the beginning of a long Peruvian tradition. The ChavÃn culture subsequently spreads through much of the Andean region. One of its characteristics is stone sculpture of fantastic beasts, of which serpents, birds and jaguars often provide the component details.

Mochica and Nazca: 200 BC - AD 600

After the decline of ChavÃn de Hu?ntar, the Andean region develops several more localized cultures. Of these the two most distinctive are the Mochica in the north and the Nazca to the south.

The Mochica, centred upon Moche on the north coast of Peru, are known in particular for brilliantly realistic pottery sculpture - usually depictions of human heads (possibly even portraits), functioning as jugs with stirrup-shaped spouts emerging from the top. The Mochica are also ambitious builders. The so-called Temple of the Sun at Moche is a stepped pyramid with a height of 41 metres. It is constructed entirely of unfired bricks, dried in the sun.

Contemporary with the Mochica, but inhabiting a desert region along the southern coast of Peru, are the Nazca. They are noted for their brightly coloured pottery and for sophisticated textiles, with vivid embroidery.

The most remarkable aspect of their culture is the so-called Nazca Lines. These are drawings executed on a massive scale on the coastal plane. Sometimes purely geometrical, sometimes formal versions of bird or animal shapes, the images are achieved by removing the brown surface of the plain to reveal lighter soil beneath. The purpose of these vast drawings (best viewed in a way the Nazca never saw them, from the air) remains unknown.

Tiwanaku and Wari: AD 400-1000

In about the 5th century AD the centre of civilization in the Andean region shifts from the coastal plain to the highlands. The most impressive of the highland cities is Tiwanaku (also spelt Tiahuanaco), near Lake Titicaca in what is now Bolivia. It is well established by about AD 400, and begins to dominate large areas of the surrounding territory from about 550.

Shortly after this date a rival empire develops in the highlands further to the north, around the city of Wari. Of the two, Wari has a shorter period of prosperity. It declines by about 800, whereas Tiwanaku remains an important local power until early in the 11th century.

Sican and Chim?: AD 800 - 1470

After the heyday of the first two highland empires of the Andes, Tiwanaku and Wari, the coastal regions recover the leading role in the region. Descendants of the Mochica develop a culture known as Sican, in the Lambayeque area of northern Peru.

Their main city is Bat?n Grande, a pilgrimage centre with several monumental pyramids, which has yielded numerous golden tomb treasures in recent years to the archaeologists (and previously to grave robbers). The site seems to have been abandoned in the 12th century after a great flood.

During the Sican period a greater and more extensive culture is evolving a little way down the coast, again among descendants of the Mochica inhabitants of these regions. Known as the Chim?, these people develop a great city from about AD 900. They call it Chan Chan.

Chan Chan is the largest of the ruined cities of the Andean civilizations. Its walls enclose an area of about eight square miles, within which there are ten or more huge rectangular palace compounds - known as ciudadelas.

The ciudadelas are almost like self-contained townships, with their own public buildings, water supply and even burial arrangements in addition to accomodation for the residents - probably the members and followers of one powerful family in each ciudadela.

Elsewhere in the city are numerous signs of production and trade. The two main Andean crafts are extensively practised here, metal being worked by men while the women are in charge of the spinning and weaving of cloth. Caravanserais in the city, capable of housing several hundred people, cater for the caravans of llamas arriving with wool and metal ores for sale and exchange.

The prosperity of Chan Chan within its own immediate region is based on elaborate systems of irrigation in the coastal plain, but it also has a large commercial empire. In the 13th and 14th century the influence of the Chim? extends over the entire length of modern Peru, from Ecuador in the north to Chile in the south.

But this is the last coastal civilization of the south American Indians, in a tradition going back more than 2000 years to ChavÃn de Hu?ntar. Between 1465 and 1470 the Chim? are overwhelmed by a highly organized people from the Andean highlands. They become incorporated in the empire of the Incas.

Cuzco and the Incas: 15th century AD

In the early 15th century the town of Cuzco is a small place, the headquarters of one of many competing tribes within the region which was once ruled from Tiwanaku. But in about 1438 a younger son of the ruler defeats the neighbouring Chanca people, usurps power, gives himself the resounding title Pachacuti ('transformer of the earth') and begins an astonishing process of military expansion. The policy is continued by his son, Topa Inca (also sometimes called Tupac Inca).

By the end of two long reigns (about fifty-five years in all) the Cuzco dynasty, known as the Incas, are in loose control of an empire stretching from Quito in modern Ecuador to the Maule river in Chile - a distance of nearly 2500 miles.

The Inca state: AD 1428 - 1532

The structure of Inca society resembles a blueprint for a utopia, drawn up by a political theorist concerned for the physical well-being of the citizens but with no interest in the higher ideals of liberty or equality. Since most human beings share this sense of priorities, the people living under Inca rule seem to have been tolerably content.

Land is allotted by the state to peasant families, to till for their own needs. In return the state levies tax in the form of labour. Male heads of households take their turn working in fields reserved for the Inca administration, building roads and bridges, or serving in the army.

Such a system of serf labour has been commonplace in many societies. Under the Incas it appears not to be done in an atmosphere of coercion. Indeed there is evidence that work is frequently accompanied by much festivity. Chicha, a beer made from maize, plays a major part in life.

Another Inca system familiar elsewhere is that of the mitmakuna. These are entire communities of families, moved often hundreds of miles to new regions where they will form a secure settlement, on Inca principles, in a region which might otherwise be unruly. This is similar to ancient Roman colonies.

More unusual are two groups known as mamakuna and yanakuna. These are women and men selected early in their lives to serve the state.

The mamakuna, more numerous than their male counterparts, live in segregated communities. The most beautiful among them may find a place in the emperor's harem; others may be given away by the state in dynastic marriages. But their main functions are religious and economic. They are priestesses in the state cult of the sun; they are the spinners and weavers of the superb Inca textiles for which the society is famous; and they seem also to have been largely responsible for the brewing of the maize beer known as chicha.

The male yanakuna serve the Inca rulers and other high members of the society in various ways, and unlike the mamakuna they seem to have been free to marry. Their main task is caring for the Inca's herds of animals. This spreads the yanakuna throughout Inca society, for most llamas belong to the state - and the llama, larger than the related alpaca, is the only beast of burden in Peru.

With the yanakuna on the roads and in the market places, and the mamakuna in temples and workshops in the cities, these lifetime servants of the state are like an elementary civil service. Their presence is as much a sign of Inca control in a region as the characteristic Inca architecture.

Inca architecture: 15th - 16th century AD

The Incas share with another much earlier civilization, that of Mycenaean Greece, a habit of building with massive blocks of masonry. But the precision of the Peruvian masons puts all others to shame. In their capital at Cuzco, or in subject cities where they wish to emphasize their presence, the Incas leave their trade mark in great slabs of stone, often of eccentric shape, fitting together with an uncanny and beautiful precision.

The modern city of Cuzco has grown upon and around its Inca origins. But Inca masonry can still be seen, underpropping churches or flanking streets, as a reminder of the great builders of the 15th century.

To the north of Cuzco, on the open hillside, are the three vast polygonal ramparts of Saqsawaman - a structure once believed to be an Inca fortress, but more probably a temple to the sun and an arena for state rituals.

Even more mysterious, in the jungle at the far end of the Urubamba valley, is the long-lost city of Machu Picchu. Its site is as dramatic as the story of its rediscovery. High on an inaccessible peak in the jungle, the Inca masons somehow contrive to place their vast dressed stones, even in this remote spot, with wonderful exactitude.

Inca sun rituals: 15th - 16th century AD

Like some of the Roman emperors, the Incas identify themselves with the sun. And like the Japanese royal house, they even persuade their people that they are the living descendants of the monarch of the heavens.

The most sacred idol in the Inca pantheon is a great golden disc representing the sun. It is known as Punchao, which means daylight or dawn. Great religious ceremonies, sometimes lasting several days, are based upon the pattern of dawn and dusk, day and night. The Inca, as the sun's representative on earth, presides over the rituals.

One of the most important festivals in the Inca year is the eight-day feast which celebrates the harvesting of the maize crop. Each day a ritual chanting begins with the rising of the sun, grows to a crescendo at noon, and diminishes to silence again by dusk. Burnt offerings of llamas and libations of maize beer are made to the sun god. The Inca and his court are in their most splendid robes, encrusted in gold and silver. The effigies of the Inca's ancestors are also present - with retinues of female attendants.

One of the last enactments of this colourful festival, so much more gentle than the contemporary Aztec sun rituals, is witnessed and described in 1535 by a young Spanish priest.

A glimpse of Inca treasure: AD 1527-1532

Two small Spanish ships, commanded by Bartolom» Ruiz, sail southwards in the Pacific in 1527 towards Peru. Their journey brings them across the equator (they are the first Europeans to cross the line in this ocean). The Spaniards are surprised to come across an ocean-going raft, made of balsa wood and fitted with cotton sails, with a crew of twenty.

When they seize the raft, its rich contents also astonish them (the ornaments and textiles are described later in glowing terms to the Spanish king). The people who sent out this trading vessel are clearly worth meeting. Ruiz takes the precaution of keeping three of the crew to be trained as interpreters.

This chance encounter is the first contact between Europeans and the fabulously wealthy empire of the Incas. And the glimpse of Inca treasure can only inflame Spanish greed.

The leader of the expedition (not aboard on the reconnaissance by Ruiz) is Francisco Pizarro. The winter of 1527 is spent on a swampy uninhabited island. The conditions are so appalling that by the spring Pizarro is left with only thirteen companions. They sail on southwards. At Tumbes they reach their first Inca city. Two of Pizarro's men go ashore. Their reports confirm that this is indeed a rich and civilized society.

It takes Pizarro eighteen months, mainly spent at the royal court in Spain, to drum up sufficient support for a voyage of conquest. The great Cortes happens to be at the Spanish court at the same time. He offers personal encouragement, and the example of his own astonishing achievement in Mexico inspires ambitious young Spaniards to join the new cause.

Ennobled, and granted the status of governor of a notional Spanish province along the Peruvian coast, Pizarro leaves Spain with a small fleet in January 1530. At the end of the year, in December, his expedition sails south from Panama.

Unlike the speedy advance of Cortes into Mexico in 1519, Pizarro's progress south is slow through the tropical terrain of Ecuador. Nearly two years have passed by the time he establishes a small Spanish settlement, which he calls San Miguel, near Piura in the coastal plain of northern Peru.

From here at last, in September 1532, he marches out to attack the vast empire of the Incas. His army by now consists of 62 horsemen and 106 foot soldiers. Yet within ten months, in one of history's most dramatic and gruesome stories, Pizarro and his small band of adventurers massacre the Inca court, seize untold wealth in gold, and finally murder Atahualpa to rule in his place.

Lima and the Spanish empire: AD 1535-1818

After the murder of Atahualpa, in July 1533, the Spanish conquistadors under Francisco Pizarro rapidly complete their conquest of the Inca empire. In November of that year they capture and sack the Inca capital of Cuzco, high in the Andes.

The Spaniards, unlike the Incas, depend for their survival on contact by sea with the rest of the world. They need a coastal capital. In 1535 Pizarro chooses a site a few miles inland on the Rimac river. Here he lays out the city which becomes Lima. Its trading link with the outer world is through a natural harbour, just south of the river's mouth, at Callao.

Lima prospers greatly as the capital of the viceroyalty of Peru and as the trading centre for the entire Spanish empire in south America. Through this city and its port the silver from Potosà finds its way to Spain (up the coast to Panama and then on mule trains across the isthmus to be shipped from Portobelo). But Lima is also the point of transit for a very much wider range of South American goods.

Because of the obsessively protective mercantile system of the Spanish empire, even the overseas trade of Buenos Aires on the Atlantic coast is handled by authorized merchants in the viceregal capital at Lima on the Pacific.

This changes in the 18th century, when two new viceroyalties are created in south America. Lima loses modern Ecuador and Colombia to the viceroyalty of New Granada and the entire Spanish region east of the Andes to the viceroyalty of La Plata. The century also brings physical disaster. In 1746 an earthquake destroys much of Lima; an ensuing tidal wave engulfs Callao.

It is therefore a greatly reduced Peru which confronts the challenge of the independence movement which sweeps through the continent in the early 19th century. Even so, the centuries of privilege have made Peru the most conservative region in Spanish south America. Here, if anywhere, the Spanish authorities can hold out against rebellion.

In 1813 Spanish troops, campaigning east through the Andes, defeat Argentinian rebel forces in the region which is now eastern Bolivia - and in doing so convince the Argentinian general Jos» de San MartÃn that Peru must be conquered before independence can be securely established. This perception begins the ten-year process which leads eventually to the end of Spanish rule in Peru.

San MartÃn strikes through Chile, the impoverished province which forms the southern extremity of the viceroyalty of Peru. In control here by 1817, San MartÃn builds up a Chilean navy for an invasion of Peru. To help him in his task he invites to Chile a British admiral, Thomas Cochrane, famous for his unconventional genius as a naval commander.

San MartÃn and Peru: AD 1818-1821

Cochrane, an eccentric Scottish nobleman, has made a dashing reputation for his exploits at sea during the Napoleonic wars but he has been dismissed from the British navy because of financial fraud. He accepts the Chilean invitation and arrives at Valparaiso in November 1818.

The Chilean navy consists of just seven ships, ranging from fifty to fourteen guns. The Spanish fleet on the Pacific coast is more than twice as powerful, but over the next two years Cochrane harries the enemy and attacks coastal forts in Peru until the advantage changes. His most famous exploit is stealing from Callao harbour, one dark night in November 1820, the Esmeralda - the largest and fastest frigate in Spain's Peruvian fleet.

Ten days previously Cochrane's squadron has landed near Lima an invading army of 4200 men, transported up the coast from Chile under the command of San MartÃn. The mere news of their arrival causes an entire Spanish battalion of 650 local Creoles to change sides and come over to the rebel cause. In this atmosphere, and to the fury of Cochrane, San MartÃn decides to wait for a Spanish withdrawal from Lima rather than attack the capital city directly.

Eventually, on 6 July 1821, the royalist garrison begins a retreat inland to a more secure position in the Andes. San MartÃn enters Lima on July 9 and proclaims Peruvian independence (on July 28) with himself as 'Protector'.

The next stage in the story of Peru is also a turning point in the careers of the two leaders of the American independence movement. While San MartÃn is attempting to secure his hold over Peru, Sim€n BolÃvar is pressing south through Ecuador to complete his conquest of New Granada. Between the two liberators lies the important harbour of Guayaquil. Each wants it for his own territory. They converge on the town in 1822. BolÃvar gets there first. San MartÃn arrives two weeks later, on July 25.

Over the next two days, with appropriate intervals for feasting, dancing and the toasting of liberty, the two men deliberate in private.

The Guayaquil Conference: AD 1822

BolÃvar and Peru: AD 1823-1824

Although unwilling to collaborate with San MartÃn, BolÃvar has many reservations about advancing into Peru. There is much unrest and rivalry in his first liberated republic, Gran Colombia, and he considers for a while making terms with the Spanish in Peru so that he can concentrate his energies further north. But the congress of the new Peruvian republic, endangered by Spanish forces, begs for his assistance.

In September 1823 BolÃvar arrives in Lima, to a tremendous civic welcome. It has been agreed in advance that he is to have not only command of the army but 'dictatorial political authority' throughout the republic. He pledges himself to deliver a 'free and sovereign Peru'.

The Spanish forces are based in what are considered almost impregnable regions in the mountains east of Lima, but BolÃvar and his talented chief of staff, Antonio Jos» de Sucre, successfully confront them there. Together they win a victory at Junin on 6 August 1824. BolÃvar leaves the rest of the campaign to Sucre, who goes on to win the decisive engagement at Ayacucho on December 9.

After Ayacucho the Spanish army surrenders, along with the viceroy himself who was commanding in the field. This success completes the liberation of almost the entire Spanish empire in south America. The exception is Upper Peru, beyond Lake Titicaca. Again BolÃvar entrusts this final task to Sucre.

Sucre and Bolivia: AD 1825-1827

The republican victory at Ayacucho leaves only one Spanish army at large, in the high Andean territory of Upper Peru. Sucre moves into this region early in 1825 and defeats the Spanish in April at Tumusla.

Upper Peru has been administered from Lima in the early centuries of Spanish rule, although geographically - lying mainly east of the Andes - it has more obvious links with Buenos Aires. The republican governments in both cities are eager to incorporate this region, with its famous mines at PotosÃ, but locally a spirit of independence prevails. When Sucre convenes a congress in July 1825 to consider the region's future, the vote is for a separate state.

In honour of their liberators the delegates propose to name the new republic after Boliv?r and to rename as Sucre the historic city (Chuquisaca) in which they are meeting.

The nation is duly proclaimed on 6 August 1825 as Rep?blica BolÃvar, soon to be better known to the world as Bolivia. BolÃvar himself drafts a constitution. When it is adopted, in 1826, Sucre is elected president for life. Prudently he accepts a term of only two years, but the violence of political life in this new and remote republic means that he does not complete even this modest term. Already in 1827 there are several uprisings, in one of which Sucre is wounded. He resigns as president and returns to his home in Ecuador.

Triangular conflicts: AD 1835-1884

During the first few decades of their existence as the independent nations of Peru, Bolivia and Chile, the three Andean provinces of the old viceroyalty of Peru engage in two bouts of war.

The issue on the first occasion is a straightforward attempt at dominance by a typical Latin American caudÃllo. Andr»s Santa Cruz establishes himself from 1828 as dictator in Bolivia - after failing in an attempt in the previous year to be elected president of Peru. In 1835 he takes steps to correct this error of judgement by the Peruvians. He marches into Peru with an army from Bolivia.

During 1836 Santa Cruz successfully wins control in Peru and proclaims a new Peruvian-Bolivian confederation with himself as president. But the potential strength of this new neighbour alarms Chile, which goes on the offensive. Three years of warfare end in a Chilean victory. In 1839 Santa Cruz is thrown out of both Peru and Bolivia.

The next serious conflict between the three nations is by contrast entirely economic in origin. In the 1860s valuable deposits of nitrates are discovered in the Atacama desert. This region is so arid that it has previously been considered useless except as Bolivia's only access to the sea (the coast around Antofagasta is at first included in the newly independent republic of Bolivia).

A mutual distrust of Chile causes Peru and Bolivia in 1873 to make a secret alliance which later drags them both into war. In 1878 Bolivia attempts to impose increased taxes on Chilean enterprises in Bolivian territory, following this with a threat of expropriation. Chile, retaliating in February 1879, seizes the port of Antofagasta. By April all three nations are at war.

Two Chilean naval victories over Peru later in the year (off Iquique in May and Angamos in October) are followed by an invasion. In January 1880 Chilean forces take Lima. They remain in the city until a treaty is signed in 1883 at Anc€n. A separate truce follows a year later between Chile and Bolivia.

The outcome of this conflict, known as the War of the Pacific, is a disaster for both Bolivia and Peru. Bolivia cedes to Chile its Pacific coastline and the nitrate-rich province of Antofagasta, while Chile in return merely agrees to build a railway from La Paz to the coast and to guarantee the unrestrained passage of Bolivian goods to certain ports. Peru loses the equally valuable minerals of the Tarapac? province, stretching up the coast north of Antofagasta.

With this increase in territory, and the prestige of its two successive victories, Chile replaces Peru as the main Pacific power in south America.

Leguia and Haya: AD 1903-1968

The strong man or caudÃllo of Peru during the early 20th century is Augusto Bernardino LeguÃa y Salcedo, but his harsh rule during the 1920s brings to the fore another important strand of Peruvian politics in the significant left-wing figure of Victor Ra?l Haya de la Torre (son of a wealthy family who first comes to prominence as a radical student leader).

LeguÃa is minister of finance from 1903 to 1908, when he is elected president. He serves until 1912 and takes power again in a coup in 1919. During the 1920s he rules as a dictator. The first public clash between his regime and Haya comes in 1923, when Haya organizes a mass secular demonstration to protest against the Peruvian republic being dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Haya is jailed and is then deported, after going on hunger strike. In exile he founds APRA (the Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana), whose members - working in secret cells to foment revolution - become known as the Apristas.

In 1930 LeguÃa is overthrown in a coup, and in the following year Haya returns to Peru to campaign as a presidential candidate. When the vote appears to have gone Haya's way, he is jailed by the military (he is released in 1933 after a rival military coup). Over the next thirty years Haya is sometimes in hiding, sometimes openly leading his party. From 1949 to 1954, in a famous diplomatic crisis, he claims asylum in the Colombian embassy in Lima.

The popular vote tends to remain high for Aprista candidates, and in the 1962 presidential election Haya himself wins by a narrow margin on the first ballot. But there is by now a familiar pattern in Peruvian political life. Whenever a left-wing candidate seems close to success, the army takes control. It does so in 1962 and again in 1968, when the perennial Haya seems once more to have a serious chance of victory in the forthcoming presidential election.

The inevitable effect is to make the left-wing opposition even more radical. The Peruvian government (civilian from 1980) has to cope with the effects of increasingly violent terrorism.

Shining Path and MRTA: to AD 2000

Two left-wing guerrilla groups emerge in Peru during the late 1970s. One is a Maoist organization using the name Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path). The other (reviving the Inca name Tupac Amaru, long associated with revolution against Spanish rule) calls itself the Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru (MRTA). Over the years terrorist acts and open warfare between guerrillas and government forces are believed to have resulted in as many as 30,000 deaths.

This unsettled state of affairs prompts dramatic changes in 1992. Alberto Fujimori, elected president of Peru in June 1990, dissolves congress in April 1992 and begins to rule by decree. At the same time increased anti-terrorist measures result in the capture of the leaders of both guerrilla groups.

In October 1993 a new constitution is endorsed in a national referendum. In the resulting elections, in April 1995, Fujimori is again elected president and his party (Cambio 90-Nueva MayorÃa) wins a slender majority in the single-chamber congress. He repeats his success in 2000, in an election widely condemned as fraudulent, when he wins an unprecedented five-year term as president. The result is followed by riots in the streets and arson attacks on government buildings.

Four months later, in September, Fujimori astonishes his country and the world by suddenly resigning (under the shadow of a bribery scandal) and fleeing to Japan.

During Fujimori's previous term, Peru's terrorists make a dramatic reappearance. On 17 December 1996, grabbing the attention of the entire world's press, fourteen MRTA guerrillas burst in upon a pre-Christmas party in the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima and take hostage 460 guests and staff.

The siege ends 126 days later when Peruvian troops storm the building and release the remaining hostages. All fourteen guerrillas are killed; one hostage dies later of wounds.