Lots of History to Learn
The elevations of Peru and Bolivia are the
highest in the Americas, as well as home to the most advanced pre-Columbian
civilization.
Peru is South America’s third largest
country, and is five times the size of Great Britain. Ecuador and Columbia
border Peru on the north, Brazil and Bolivia on the east, Chili on the south,
and the Pacific Ocean borders the west. The country has three distinct
geographical regions: a narrow coastal belt, the Andean Mountain Range, and the
Amazon Basin and rain forest. The Amazon River, east of the Andean Range, and
the world’s widest river, serves as a jungle basin housing sixty percent of the
country’s landscape, but only 5% of the population.
The Andes with its green valleys, snow-capped
peaks, rivers, and hidden ruins run through the country like a spine separating
the desert from the jungle. One half of
Peru’s population live in the Andes
Indian (Quechua, pronounced ketch-u-wa)
makes up 54% of the population, Mestizo (Indian and European mix) makes up 32%
of the population, Spanish 12% and 2% are Black or Asian. Ninety percent of the
population professes to be Catholic. Agriculture employs 33% of the population,
another 27% are in the service industry, and the rest work in mining, and
manufacturing.
The country has a bi-cultural society,
with one sector being the rich white folk, and the other the poor peasant,
translated Indian or indigenous people (campesinos). However, with the
increasing tourist industry Peru is beginning
to have a middle class.
HISTORY
After Columbus’s landfall in 1492, the
Spanish led a rapid expansion and conquered the Caribbean Islands and the Aztec
and Mayan cultures of Mexico and Central America. By 1520 the Spanish were
ready for South America.
In 1532 the Spanish
invaded Peru collapsing the Inca Empire. The Spanish horses and guns were no
match for Incas on foot. The first Spanish stronghold in Peru, established by
Francisco Pizarro, was called San Miguel de Piura, and then the Spanish moved
into the heart of the Inca Empire. By destroying buildings and looting the gold
and other treasures, the Spaniards in effect destroyed all historical records.
However, there were no written
records at that time, as the Incas had no written language.
After the Spanish invasion, churches
replaced the destroyed Inca temples in Cuzco. By 1700 the Spanish colonial
system was well established. In the 16th and 17th
centuries the Spanish resettled many Andeans in towns where they were forced to
work for Spanish landowners. They were converted to Catholicism, and churches
were built over sacred Inca sites. In spite of centuries of repression ayni survived and the Reformation Act of
1975 returned much land to the indigenous people.
By the 19th century the Latin
American colonies were dissatisfied with their lack of freedom and the high
taxation imposed by Spain, and in 1824 Peru became independent.
In 1866 a brief war broke out between
Peru and Spain which Peru won. A bit longer war with Chili over the nitrate
rich fields of the northern Atacama Desert took place 1879-83. Chili won that
one. There was a brief border dispute with Ecuador in 1941. The last 60 years
the government has been military dictatorships with occasional coups. The
biggest problem in recent years has been inflation.
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