Peru Facts

Peru Facts and History

South America

Perú – The land of the Incas

Even before the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) in 1492, several high cultures existed in this country. It was not least the legendary wealth of the Incas that spurred the Spaniards’ eagerness to conquer Peru.

From here they temporarily administered the continent. The country is rich in remnants of pre-Columbian cultures that are still surrounded by a mysterious myth. But the landscape is also often of breathtaking beauty.

The capital of the country is Lima. However, visitors to the city should refrain from participating in the traffic with a rental car. Otherwise, anyone who is used to the German traffic regulations can quickly become “crazy”!

It should be noted that in 2011, during excavations in the Peruvian desert, Begic researchers found the remains of an ancient whale that was over 40 million years old, and which had probably been in the water as well as on land – i.e. lived amphibiously.

Note

In November 2016, three part-time Goruma employees traveled to Bolivia and Peru for around four weeks.

There were absolutely no problems, they were neither threatened, sexistically harassed nor robbed. On the contrary: They found friendly, curious and open-minded people everywhere.

They also had the impression that the police were discreetly looking at tourists in order to protect them a little.

Name of the country República del Perú(German Republic of Peru)
Form of government Presidential Republic
Geographical location on the Pacific coast of South America – following the course of the Andes
National anthem “Somos libres, seámoslo siempre”
National holiday 28/29 July (independence on July 28, 1821)
Population Approx. 33 million residents (Credit: Countryaah: Peru Population)
Ethnicities 47% indigenous population37% mestizo

13% European

minorities: Africans, Japanese, Chinese and mulattos

Religions Roman Catholic: 95%Protestant Church: 3%

In addition, natural religions exist among the indigenous population.

Languages Spanish, Quechua, Aymará
Capital Lima with approx. 8 million residents
Surface 1,285,216 km²
Highest mountain Huascarán with an altitude of 6,768 m
Longest river Río Ucayali with a length of about 2,700 km
Largest lake Lake Titicaca with an area of 8,300 km²
International license plate PE
National currency New sol = 100 céntimos
Time difference to CET – 6 h
International phone code +51
Mains voltage, frequency 220 volts and 60 hertz
Internet TLD (Top Level Domaion) .pe

Peru: history

Prehistoric times

The Central American area was probably settled around 24,000 BC. In today’s Mexico. Numerous finds from the northeastern Mexican highlands testify to a collecting economy that began in the fifth millennium BC. In the cultivation of cultivated plants. 2,000 BC Sedentary soil cultivation emerged with small village communities. Mainly corn, beans, pumpkin and chilli were grown.

According to Abbreviationfinder website, South America was settled from the north via the Central American land bridge. Finds from the time 7,000 to 12,000 BC are certain. From today’s Peru. The culture of Huaca Prieta is considered to be the oldest South American culture based on agriculture. Since around 6,000 BC Cultivated plants can be detected in the central highlands of Ayacucho. Between 12,000 and 300 BC The Chavín culture expanded into South America. Their mark was the worship of a jaguar deity. The beginning of the processing of metals also falls during this period. Art and craft skills developed particularly in the cultures of Paracas Necrópolis, Mochica, Nazca and Tiahuanaco in the so-called classical period up to AD 600.

Then the kingdom of the Chimú came into being. This people was subjugated by the Incas around 1450. Their territory became part of the huge Inca Empire, which had been established in just 100 years (1438 – 1532) and stretched from the highlands of Peru and Ecuador to southern Colombia and far into Chileextended into it. The Inca were an Indian people belonging to the Quechua language group. The Inca Empire was founded around 1200 AD by the legendary Manko Cápac, who supposedly led his tribe from Lake Titicaca to Cuzco. The city became the metropolis of a modern central state. The Inca empire probably comprised more than 12 million people in over a hundred ethnic groups. 20,000 kilometers of paved roads and precise stone architecture testify to impressive manual skills and organizational achievements. The state structure was geared towards the priest-king, who was regarded as the son of the sun god (Inti). Under him stood the priestly caste and the nobility.

After the death of the ruler Huayna Capac in 1527 or 1528, there was a war of succession between his sons Huáscar, who relied on the traditional elite of Cuzco, and Atahualpa, who knew the army behind him. The latter emerged victorious from the fights.

Rule of the Spaniards from 1532 to 1821

In 1532 Franzisco Pizarro (1475 – 1541) landed with 183 men on the north coast of Peru. The turmoil in the Inca empire after the death of the ruler Huayna Capac through the war of succession of his sons and a serious epidemic that broke out among the Inca made it easier for the Spaniards to conquer the empire despite the numerical superiority of the Indians. Atahualpa, one of Capac’s two sons, had defeated his brother Huáscar’s troops and massacred renegade allies. The Spaniards were waiting for him on the way back to his residence in Cajamarca. He was captured by the Spanish and executed. Pizarro occupied the old Inca capital Cuzco and had Atahualpa’s half-brother, Manco Capac II, crowned under the protectorate of the Spanish king.

On January 6, 1535, Pizarro founded the city of Lima. He fended off an Indian revolt under Manco Capac II, who withdrew to the mountains of Vilcabamba, where he resided as the “shadow king”. The last ruler of the occupied Inca Empire was Tupac Amarú. He no longer had any power and fought against the Spanish occupiers. In 1572 he was captured and publicly executed in Cuzco.

In 1543 the Viceroyalty of Peru was founded with Lima as its capital. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the empire encompassed all of Spanish South America including Panama. Pizarro’s attempt to gain independence from the Spanish crown ended with his capture and execution in 1548.

In the cities, especially Lima, Cuzco and Quito, a Creole culture developed in the period that followed, which achieved a great development in architecture and painting. Numerous universities were founded by Dominicans and Jesuits in particular and reflected the late bloom of Spanish scholasticism. The country was rich in valuable mineral resources, especially silver and mercury. The highland Indians were forced to mine the natural resources by cruel means. At the height of Peruvian silver mining in the 17th century, the country was the largest supplier of silver in the world. In addition to mining, there was a strongly developed agriculture in Peru, especially on the coast, especially wine and sugar cultivation.

In the 18th century, the vast viceroyalty of Peru was divided up to ensure better administration and military protection against attacks by European powers. In 1739 the viceroyalty of New Granada was created through the spin-off of today’s states of Colombia, Venezuela and Panama. In 1776 the areas of today’s Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina were spun off and the viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata was founded. In the course of administrative reforms, taxes and duties increased. This aroused the resentment of the Peruvian population and led from 1780 to 1782 to an uprising under the leadership of JG Condorcanqui, who called himself Tupac Amarú II. The uprising was put down.

1821 to 1900

The struggle for independence against the Spanish crown had raged in South America since 1810. Nevertheless, Peru initially remained the center of Spanish rule. Only after the arrival of the Argentine general José de San Martín (1778 – 1850) in Lima was the independence of Peru proclaimed on July 28, 1821. The Spaniards were not finally defeated until 1824 at Junín by the troops of Simon de Bolívar (1783 – 1830) and at Ayacucho by the troops of General AJ de Sucre. In the following period, Bolívar ruled, who joined Peru in 1823 to the newly founded Greater Colombia. But already in 1829 his rule and the affiliation of Peru to Greater Colombia ended. A period of bloody civil wars between conservatives and liberals ensued.

In 1836 the Bolivian dictator A. Santa Cruz forced Peru to unite with Bolivia into a federal state. After the intervention of Argentina and Chile, this forced union was dissolved again in 1839. Peru regained its independence. Finally, President Ramón Castilla ensured orderly conditions in troubled Peru. He abolished the Indian tribute, introduced compulsory schooling and created various laws for an economic upswing, which were mainly sponsored by foreign companies. In 1864 the Spaniards wanted to recapture Peru and occupied some islands. War broke out between Peru and Spain. In 1879 Peru was also involved in a war against Chile (Saltpeter War). After the Chileans occupied Lima, Peru lost its saltpetre provinces of Arica, Cede Tacna and Tarapacá to them. Only after a referendum in 1929 did the provinces return to Peru.

After the war, foreign investors, above all British and North American companies, lent the indebted state a lot of money and in return received substantial shares in the export economy and control over the state railways.

1900 to 1980

In the early years of the 20th century, especially during Bernadino Legúias (1863-1932) tenure, the influence of US investors increased. Resistance to it was formed in the APRA (A llianza P opular R evolucinaria A mericana) under its chairman Victor Raul Haya de la Torre (1895 – 1979). Their program, which included the unity of Latin America, the nationalization of foreign companies, and social justice and equal rights for the Indians of Peru, came into conflict with the military. In 1930, against the backdrop of the Great Depression, the military overthrew President Legúia and had the APRA banned.

During the Second World War, Peru viewed itself as an opponent of Germany from 1942 onwards. A conflict broke out between Peru and Ecuador in 1940 when Peru claimed territories in the upper Amazon. At the Rio de Janeiro Conference in 1942, the conflict was resolved in favor of Peru.

In 1948 there was a military uprising under General Manuel Arturo Odría (1897-1974), who became president in 1950 as the leader of a military junta. He succeeded in largely stabilizing the economy and currency. Resistance formed in the country against his military dictatorship, which among other things led to a renewed ban on the APRA. He was forced to allow free elections, from which Manuel Prado y Ugarteche (1889-1967) emerged victorious in 1956. In 1962 the APRA candidate Raúl Haya de la Torre won, but the military did not recognize the election result. As the winner of the scheduled new election, Fernando Belaunde Terry (1912 – 2002) of the Acción Popular began an agrarian reform. In 1968 he was overthrown by a military coup. The commander in chief of the armed forces Juan Velasco Alvarado (1910-1977) was appointed as the new president. His radical structural reforms led to the nationalization of part of industry and agriculture as well as foreign banks. A coup against him in 1975 brought General Francesco Morales Bermúdez (born 1921) to power. Many of Alvarado’s measures were withdrawn in favor of the private sector.

After 1980 to the 21st century

Economic difficulties with high inflation and unemployment as well as increasing domestic political tensions led Peru into a serious crisis in the early 1980s with an escalation of violence between the state and the guerrillas. In 1970 an organization called Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path, officially: Communist Party of Peru) was founded, which based on Maoist principles first tried to achieve a new political regulation in the Peruvian province of Ayacucho. In the early 1980s, the group became increasingly violent after going underground. A guerrilla war broke out between supporters of the Shining Path led by Abimael Guzmán (born 1934) and the government. After ten years, the Shining Path controlled large parts of the country. In 1990 Alberto Fujimori (b. 1938) elected President of Peru. He tried to clean up the economy in order to overcome the crisis. He also led a tough fight against the guerrillas, in which many guerrilla supporters and bystanders were killed. In 1992, leading members of the Shining Path, including Abimael Guzmáns, were arrested. Numerous underground fighters followed the call for disarmament with the offer of an amnesty. Nevertheless, there were repeated individual attacks by the guerrillas in the period that followed. In 1996, for example, they occupied the Japanese embassy, when all the hostage-takers, one hostage and two soldiers were killed by the Peruvian army. in which many guerrilla supporters and bystanders were killed. In 1992, leading members of the Shining Path, including Abimael Guzmáns, were arrested. Numerous underground fighters followed the call for disarmament with the offer of an amnesty. Nevertheless, there were repeated individual attacks by the guerrillas in the period that followed. In 1996, for example, they occupied the Japanese embassy, when all the hostage-takers, one hostage and two soldiers were killed by the Peruvian army. in which many guerrilla supporters and bystanders were killed. In 1992, leading members of the Shining Path, including Abimael Guzmáns, were arrested. Numerous underground fighters followed the call for disarmament with the offer of an amnesty. Nevertheless, there were repeated individual attacks by the guerrillas in the period that followed. In 1996, for example, they occupied the Japanese embassy, when all the hostage-takers, one hostage and two soldiers were killed by the Peruvian army.

In 1992, Fujimori dissolved parliament and suspended the constitution. The following new constitution gave the president extensive power. He established a “government of emergency and national restructuring,” which was synonymous with dictatorial rule. In 2000, Fujimori was dismissed from office for corruption and human rights violations and was arrested in Santiago while attempting to enter Chile. Alejandro Toledo (born 1946) has been President of Peru since 2000. At the end of August 2003, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission convened in 2001 presented its final report on the human rights violations committed in Peru for 20 years.

In the runoff election on June 6, 2011, the left-wing socialist Ollanta Humala (born 1963) defeated his rival candidate Keiko Fujimori with 50.7%, who received 49.3% of the vote. In the previous election in April 2011, he had received 31.1% of the vote, which made the runoff election on June 6th necessary. Humala lost in the election five years ago to Alan Garcia, whom he now succeeds in office.

Peru Facts