Hunefeldt C., Harris B. A Brief History of Peru

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ver the past few decades many publications have enriched our

understanding of Peru’s history, and I’ve used much of this

research published in English and Spanish to help compile the present

volume. My gratitude goes to all those colleagues from whom I have

drawn—their work is immense. In particular I want to thank my

Peruvian colleagues, whose work preceded mine and who were already

making efforts to assemble a general history of Peru, ranging from Jorge

Basadre’s work of the 1980s to that of Franklin Pease and María

Rostworowski on the Inca and the colonial period and to Carlos

Contreras’s, Marcos Cueto’s, and Nelson Manrique’s general republican

histories of Peru. In many ways their work has been a crucial guide to

this volume. Also important to the preparation of this book have been

the publications of Argentinean historian Tulio Halperin-Donghi,

including his history of contemporary Latin America, as well as work

by Frederick B. Pike, who as early as 1967 wrote the ﬁrst comprehen-

sive general history of Peru in English, and Peter F. Klaren’s history of

Peru published in 2000. Without the insistence and persistence of edi-

tor Edward Purcell, the Peru project would never have become a part of

the series on national histories. Special thanks to him.

Introduction

he arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese colonizers to the New

World in the 15th century began a series of drastic changes in most

of the territory we nowadays call Latin America. The changes were most

dramatic in those areas where high civilizations, namely the Aztec, the

Maya, and the Inca, had established cities, built large-scale infrastruc-

tures, and developed hierarchical societies. As the Spaniards occupied

and extended their control over more and more of the Inca Empire, they

introduced their way of life and their religion. The result was, and con-

tinues to be, a process that produced in modern Peru a fusion of differ-

ent cultures, characterized by the emergence of new racial mixtures and

an ongoing search for economic, political, and social progress.

Peru is a rich country that stretches along a section of the Paciﬁc

coast of South America and reaches eastward over the Andean moun-

tain spine to encompass a large section of Amazon basin rain forest. It

holds many natural resources, spread across one of the world’s most

diverse and extreme ecological landscapes, with altitudes ranging from

the sea level up to 20,000 feet. To the north are the countries of

Ecuador and Colombia; to the east lie Brazil and Bolivia; and directly to

the south, Peru borders Chile.

The great majority of Peru’s population of around 28 million people

lives in the coastal zone, where to seaward the cold waters of the

Humboldt current have created rich offshore ﬁshing beds but are also

subject to the severe climate disruptions caused by the notorious El

Niño phenomenon. Much of today’s economic activity, from farming to

oil production, occurs along the coast, which historically was the

source of great wealth from such resources as deposits of nitrates and

bird guano, used worldwide for fertilizer.

To the east the coast gives way to the high mountains of the Andes.

This region, known as the sierra, is characterized by an extraordinary

landscape of towering peaks, including the Huascarán at 20,000 feet,

interrupted by deep valleys and softened by areas of high plains called

the altiplano, or puna. The sierra, although dotted with a few cities, is

traditionally the home of much of Peru’s Indian population, many of

whom still live in relatively scattered communities. For many decades

after the arrival of Europeans, the fabulous silver mines of the sierra

produced millions and millions of dollars worth of booty for the

Spanish, and the region has continued—at a reduced level—to be the

source of mineral wealth.

Moving further eastward, the extremes of the sierra give way to the

gentle slopes of the montaña region and eventually to the rain forests

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PERU

xii

Modern Peru

Desaguadero

Moquegua

TUMBES

SAN

MARTÍN

LAMBAYEQUE

AMAZONAS

AYACUCHO

HUANCAVELICA

MOQUEGUA

Pucallpa

Quillabamba

Huancavelica

Ayacucho

Huánuco

Moyobamba

Chachapoyas

Cerro

de Pasco

Goyllarisquizga

Tarapoto

Santa

Lucia

LA LIBERTAD

Tingo

María

APURÍMAC

Nazca

HUÁNUCO

250 kilometers

250 miles

National capital

Departmental capital

City or town

Contemporary national

boundary

Contemporary departmental

boundary

Note: Callao is the capital of the constitutional

province of Callao.

Pacific

Ocean

Lima

Callao

Pisco

Ica

Nazca

Juliaca

Puno

Desaguadero

Puerto

Maldonado

Tacna

Ilo

Moquegua

Matarani

Tumbes

Talara

Sullana

PIURA

TUMBES

CAJAMARCA

SAN

MARTÍN

LAMBAYEQUE

AMAZONAS

LA LIBERTAD

ANCASH

HUÁNUCO

PASCO

UCAYALI

LORETO

CUZCO

APURÍMAC

AYACUCHO

HUANCAVELICA

AREQUIPA

ICA

MADRE DE DIOS

PUNO

MOQUEGUA

TACNA

LIMA

JUNÍN

Piura

Paita

Chiclayo

Yurimaguas

Tarapoto

Pucallpa

Iquitos

Abancay

Cuzco

Quillabamba

Huancavelica

Ayacucho

Arequipa

Huacho

Trujillo

Salaverry

Chimbote

Huánuco

Cajamarca

Moyobamba

Chachapoyas

Moyobamba

Chachapoyas

Cerro

de Pasco

Goyllarisquizga



Tingo

María

Huaráz

Huancayo

Santa

Lucía

Lake

Titicaca

añ

CHILE

ECUADOR

COLOMBIA

BRAZIL

BOLIVIA

SOUTH

AMERICA

SOUTH

AMERICA

PERU

that mark the beginnings of the Amazon River basin, known as the

selva. Almost 60 percent of the total area of Peru is taken up by the

rain for

ests, and much of the region, which stretches from north to

south in a broad band, is still unexplored and thinly inhabited or

exploited.

To the far southeast is magniﬁcent Lake Titicaca, the highest in the

world at 12,000 feet above sea level. Peru shares the lake with Bolivia.

In addition to its physical splendors, a rich historical heritage is

much in evidence in Peru, where, for example, Lima’s port city of

Callao was for three centuries the main Paciﬁc port of the Spanish

Empire and a center for colonial administration. Similarly the splendor

and fascination of the Inca Empire are visible throughout the land, but

nowhere more so than in the former Inca imperial capital of Cuzco,

which holds well-preserved archaeological treasures and is a popular

tourist destination. Beyond Cuzco there is the magniﬁcent Machu

Picchu, as well as other intriguing highland sites. Many archaeological

remains on Peru’s coast and in the Amazon basin also preserve evidence

of a complex and glorious past.

This inspiring history and the availability of abundant and varied

natural resources have stimulated the accomplishments of many mod-

ern Peruvians such as writers, doctors, engineers, and scientists. For

example, Lima has one of the largest and most-renowned research insti-

xiii

INTRODUCTION

A section of the high Peruvian plains known as the altiplano (Photofrenetic/Alamy)

tutes devoted to the study of the potato, a native plant domesticated in

the Andean region. In addition, there has been sophisticated medical

research over the past 100 years, and in general, Peru’s medical research

and teaching centers have a worldwide reputation.

These achievements are genuine; however, it is also true that Peru

has one of the highest rates of social inequality measured in terms of

income, standard of living, and access to resources. The nation’s unem-

ployment and underemployment rates are high, including many people

who work “independently” (that is, they are self-employed) and partic-

ipate in an “informal economy.” Thousands of these people eke out a

living on a hand-to-mouth basis, pay no taxes, and have no social secu-

rity, medical care, water, or electricity. Most of these people live in the

rapidly expanding barriadas, or shantytowns, around Lima.

The nation has also suf

fered from political inequities. After Peru

gained independence from Spain in the early 19th century, the right to

vote was restricted to a small number of literate males who owned

property, and it was not until 1948 that women gained the vote, along

with all males able to sign their names. By contrast, in today’s Peru vot-

ing is an enforced civic obligation.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PERU

xiv

The main square of Lima, the capital of Peru. Lima has been the political and economic center

of the country since the city’s founding as the City of Kings (Ciudad de los Reyes) by Francisco

Pizarro in 1535. The population has increased dramatically in recent decades.

(Alejandro

Balaguer Photo)

The exclusion of illiterate peasants (most of whom lived in remote

provinces) from political life in Peru during most of the republican era

created not only a class rift between a majority of peasants and the rest

of Peru’s population but also reﬂected the nation’s ethnic-racial gap.

Almost immediately after Europeans arrived in Peru there began a

process of racial mixing that has continued over time. Gradually, the

majority of Peruvians became—in the biological sense—mestizos, or the

mixed-race descendants of both European and indigenous forebears.

However, the ethnic and cultural deﬁnitions of mestizo has come to be

more important in Peruvian society than the strictly genetic deﬁnition.

In modern Peru most would consider someone mestizo if he or she

speaks Spanish and adheres to social and cultural patterns of behavior

associated with the more Hispanic side of Peruvian life. This means that

people of purely indigenous genetic background may be regarded as

mestizo because of their language, behavior, and lifestyle. By the same

standard someone who is of mixed genetic background but lives entirely

as an indigenous person (for example, as a small farmer at a remote

highland location, speaking only Quechua, the native language of most

of Peru’s Indian population) will likely be regarded as indigenous—a

so-called cultural Indian, rather than mestizo. This cultural rather than

INTRODUCTION

Alejandro Toledo, nicknamed “El Cholo” because of his Indian background, on the campaign

trail during his successful run for the presidency in 2001. He made a speciﬁc and direct

appeal to the Peruvians common Incan heritage, particularly of Pachacútec, the emperor who

expanded and consolidated the Inca Empire.

(Alejandro Balaguer Photo)

biological deﬁnition has become so widespread in Peruvian society that

the government ceased many decades ago to compile demographic

information on the basis of race.

When Alejandro Toledo ran for president in 2001, he called himself

Peru’s new Pachacútec in his public addresses. Pachacútec Inca

Yupanqui (Pachacuti) was the ruler who, according to early Spanish and

Indian chroniclers, expanded the empire (called Tawantinsuyu, mean-

ing “the realm of the four quarters”) and consolidated Incan predomi-

nance over many other ethnic groups around the mid-15th century.

Pachacútec is regarded as the founder of Inca splendor, well-being, and

success and in the minds of Peruvians is associated with times of inno-

vative change and the inauguration of a new era. Toledo also invoked the

Incan gods and sanctuaries (known as apu) for help in rescuing Peru

om political corruption, economic crisis, and social malaise.

In doing so Toledo shocked the public. It was quite startling to hear

a presidential candidate invoke an ancestral past, hoping to gain the

ears and the votes of modern Peruvians in cities and rural communities.

Journalists, social scientists, and competing presidential candidates

criticized and even ridiculed Toledo’s use of indigenous symbols and

history; however, Toledo won the presidential election. The success of

his rhetoric bespeaks the vitality of a collective memory anchored in the

Inca past and a desire for change. Most of Peru’s history—as will

become clear in the following chapters—is tightly knit to Peru’s large

indigenous populations. The Inca people and a great variety of pre-

Incan cultures are, to a certain degree, still a part of Peru’s present day.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PERU

xvi

Ancient Civilizations

(10,000

.–c.

. 1440)

hat we know about the ancient peoples of America is subject to

doubts and ongoing scrutiny. Most of our scant information

comes from reading the archaeological record, which is by nature frag-

mentary and limited. These conditions hold true in the case of South

America in general and Peru in particular.

The biggest questions about ancient Peruvians are basic—Who were

these people? Where did they come from? How did they live?—and

much speculation surrounds the process by which the American conti-

nents were occupied by humans. The intercontinental movements of

populations, from Asia to North America and from North America to

South America, have usually been explained in terms of theories, each

based on at least a slim set of empirical evidence, but none of it is in

itself complete enough to satisfy scientiﬁc scrutiny.

For example, Spanish chroniclers of the 16th and 17th centuries took

it for granted that native cultures originated locally and that the early

inhabitants of the continent were the descendants of a second Adam and

Eve. Diffusionist theorists in the late 18th and early 19th centuries

described a series of stages they believed explained how and even when

America was peopled. According to these theories, cultural evolution

explained the gradual geographical expansion of human populations,

with the implicit assumption that people who move from one place to

another had a higher cultural status and that, in consequence, the people

upon whom this expansion was imposed were culturally inferior. This

evolutionist view of human movements across spaces and continents

assumed an unproven inferiority (measured, of course, by Western stan-

dards) and tells us little about the interaction between peoples.

More modern scientiﬁc theories concentrate less on religious expla-

nations or invidious comparisons between cultures and rely more on

puzzling out conclusions from what we do know. It is reasonable, for

example, to conclude that ancient peoples came to North America

across a land bridge from Asia and then spread down and across the two

American continents, but almost no evidence has yet been found to

show the timing and mechanisms of this great migration.

It is also reasonable to suppose that relatively early on there were

sailors capable of voyaging long distances along the Paciﬁc coasts and

that there was considerable contact between various peoples as a result.

The spread of common domesticated plants and common technologies,

such as pot making and metallurgy, suggests the existence of trade

routes over a vast territory.

The archaeological record is also clear that several pre-Columbian

cultures reached similar levels of development at almost the same time.

For example, the Chavín who lived in what is today Peru ﬂourished at

the same time as the Olmec of Mexico, and both cultures appear to have

developed similar technologies and levels of social organization.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PERU

Andean Prehistoric Cultures

Time Scale Coast Highlands Titicaca Basin

10,000

. Guitarrero

8000

. Pachamachay

6000

. Paijan Lauricocha

4000

. Waka Prieta Chinchoros

2000

. Salinar Kotosh Chinchoros

1000

. Gallinazo Kotosh Chiripa

500

. Paracas Chavín Pukara

0 Mochica Warpa

Nazca

. 250 Lima Recuay Huaricani

. 500 Pachacamac Tiwanaku

. 750 Huari Huari

. 1000 Chancay Killke Chiribaya

. 1250 Chimú Wanka

. 1500 Inca Inca Aymara

Source: Excerpted and summarized from Moseley (1992, 22–23)

Basing their ideas on recent excavations and ﬁndings, Peruvian

archaeologists have proposed a time line for the evolution of the vari-

ous pre-Inca cultures, from around 10,000

. to the emergence of the

Inca Empire around

. 1500. These civilizations ﬂourished in three

main cultural regions: along the coast, in the highlands, and around the

Titicaca lake basin.

The Chavín

Vestiges of human hunter-gatherer societies in America can be traced

back to about 15,000 and maybe even 30,000 years ago, but the physi-

cal artifacts of such people are few, especially when measured with ﬁnd-

ings from later cultures. The picture of ancient Peru starts to be

somewhat deﬁned with the culture known today as the Chavín, which

may have reached its height around 500

. Peruvian and other muse-

ums hold innumerable archaeological pieces from the Chavín culture

and from other important contemporary cultures, such as the Paracas.

The Chavín culture is well known for its artistry and mastery in stone

sculpture, and the Paracas, for its pottery and textiles. Chavín art

apparently inﬂuenced many succeeding cultures, and the designs are

still borrowed and reproduced in modern jewelry and textiles.

The center of Chavín culture—which may have been primarily reli-

gious rather than political—appears to have been at the site of a large

temple, known now as Chavín de Huántar, located in the northern

highlands of modern-day Peru. There are other, similar temple sites in

the region, but the one at Chavín de Huántar is the largest and most

elaborate that has survived relatively intact. The quality of the architec-

ture and the decorative arts of the temple are impressive, and the entire

complex demonstrates sophistication and a high degree of social and

economic organization. The main temple is constructed and dressed

with precisely cut stones, and there is evidence that the facade was dec-

orated with intricately carved ﬁgures, which were mounted to project

from the walls, depicting eagles, serpents, jaguars, and mythical mon-

sters. The Chavín de Huántar complex, as well as other such temple

sites, demonstrate clearly that the Chavín were able to draw on and

focus a huge bank of human and economic resources.

The Mochica

None of the early Peruvian cultures controlled a territory as large as the

Inca culture would during the 15th century, and still little is known

ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS