Peru
Peru is the fifth most populous country in Latin America (after
Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina). Twenty-one cities have a
population of 100,000 or more. Rural migration has increased the
urban population from 35.4% of the total population in 1940 to an
estimated 74.6% as of 2005.
Most Peruvians are either Spanish-speaking mestizos--a term that
usually refers to a mixture of indigenous and European/Caucasian--or
Amerindians, largely Quechua-speaking indigenous people. Peruvians
of European descent make up about 15% of the population. There also
are small numbers of persons of African, Japanese, and Chinese
ancestry. Socioeconomic and cultural indicators are increasingly
important as identifiers. For example, Peruvians of Amerindian
descent who have adopted aspects of Hispanic culture also are
considered mestizo. With economic development, access to education,
intermarriage, and large-scale migration from rural to urban areas,
a more homogeneous national culture is developing, mainly along the
relatively more prosperous coast. Peru's distinct geographical
regions are mirrored in a socioeconomic divide between the coast's
mestizo-Hispanic culture and the more diverse, traditional Andean
cultures of the mountains and highlands. |
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When the Spanish landed in 1531, Peru's territory was the nucleus of
the highly developed Inca civilization. Centered at Cuzco, the Incan
Empire extended over a vast region from northern Ecuador to central
Chile. In search of Inca wealth, the Spanish conqueror Francisco
Pizarro, who arrived in the territory after the Incas had fought a
debilitating civil war, conquered the weakened people. The Spanish
captured the Incan capital at Cuzco by 1533, and consolidated their
control by 1542. Gold and silver from the Andes enriched the
conquerors, and Peru became the principal source of Spanish wealth
and power in South America.
Pizarro founded Lima in 1535. The viceroyalty established at Lima in
1542 initially had jurisdiction over all of the Spanish colonies in
South America. By the time of the wars of independence (1820-24),
Lima had become one of the most distinguished and aristocratic
colonial capitals and the chief Spanish stronghold in the Americas.
Independence
Peru's independence movement was led by Jose de San Martin of
Argentina and Simon Bolivar of Venezuela. San Martin proclaimed
Peruvian independence from Spain on July 28, 1821. Emancipation was
completed in December 1824, when Venezuelan General Antonio Jose de
Sucre defeated the Spanish troops at Ayacucho, ending Spanish rule
in South America. Spain subsequently made futile attempts to regain
its former colonies, but in 1879 it finally recognized Peru's
independence.
After independence, Peru and its neighbors engaged in intermittent
territorial disputes. Chile's victory over Peru and Bolivia in the
War of the Pacific (1879-83) resulted in a territorial settlement in
which Peru ceded the department of Tarapaca and the provinces of
Tacna and Arica to Chile. In 1929, Chile returned Tacna to Peru.
Following a clash between Peru and Ecuador in 1941, the Rio
Protocol--of which the United States is one of four guarantors
(along with Argentina, Brazil and Chile)--sought to establish the
boundary between the two countries. Continuing boundary
disagreements led to brief armed conflicts in early 1981 and early
1995, but in 1998 the governments of Peru and Ecuador signed an
historic peace treaty and demarcated the border. In late 1999, the
governments of Peru and Chile likewise implemented the last
outstanding article of their 1929 border agreement. Peru and Chile
still dispute the sea boundary. |
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