History History

The first inhabitants arrived in Peruvian lands at the end of the Wisconsian glaciation (11th century BC) as hunter-gatherers specific to the Ltithic area. From this first civilization remain the rock paintings of Toquepala (near Moquegua) or Lauricocha (Huanuco region) which are not without reminding those, painted in the same period, of Lascaux or Altamira.

Their descendants developed horticulture: sowing and harvesting. Then cotton grew and people braved the ocean on frail reed boats(totora) to fish. Finally, this great leap into modernity culminated in the breeding of camelids whose flesh was consumed and whose wool was woven

Witness of the oldest civilization of America, the archaeological site of Caral is the equivalent in Peru of the pyramids of Egypt and is registered with the world heritage of UNESCO since 2009. This civilization, living from agriculture and fishing, leaves its mark with six pyramids in the middle of an almost white arid desert. The most imposing one rises to 18 meters. This founding civilization allowed the social and cultural complexity of the peoples of the region to develop, which eventually gave birth to Peru.

Chavin is a very advanced and hierarchical society that extends over the entire northern coast and up to Lake Titicaca. The mastery of water allowed for a spectacular development that was enjoyed by a political-religious caste that sat at the top of the social pyramid. From this culture, the grandiose temple of Chavín de Huántar, located in the department of Ancash, remains, with its terraces, its stairs, its sculptures and its stone masks representing fantastic beings. It has been listed as a Unesco cultural heritage site since 1985. We find the chavín influence on the north coast, near Casma, in the beautiful temple of Sechín with walls engraved with enigmatic scenes of carnage.

This civilization is distinguished by its textile pieces now exhibited in the museums of Ica or in the well documented Amano Museum in Lima Miraflores. These cotton fabrics with applications of wool threads, represent mainly fantastic beings, as well as stylized animals and men, in a breathtaking harmony of tones. At that time, the dead were already buried, mummified in cotton bundles, in necropolises in the coastal desert. Trepanning was also practiced. The deformation of the brain (flat, oblique or straight) testifies to a perfect mastery of the operation, no doubt refined over the centuries.

Although confined to the coast, 400 km south of Lima, this culture influenced other peoples as far as the sierra, in Ayacucho. Their great knowledge of hydrography allowed the engineers of the time to build in the desert a network of underground stone canals, still used today, and to develop the intensive cultivation of corn and cotton. The aqueducts of Cantalloc which sink in the dry and desert earth of Nazca are a testimony of it

The Nazca ceramics is of a chromatic richness finding its counterpart in that of the paracas fabrics. The huacos (potteries) represent fantastic beings of the mythology (monsters with hundred legs, two-headed snakes, trophy heads...), on all their surface, what makes them easily identifiable

It is the mystery of the Lines of Nazca which made obviously the fame of this visionary culture. The lines traced in the pampa San José constitute one of the major enigmas of our time. They were discovered in 1939 by an academic of the United States, Paul Kosok.
They are presented in the form of a dense network of zoomorphic figures (spider, monkey, lizard, hummingbird, dog, whale...) and geometrical (spirals, triangles, parallels), that their size (from 15 to 300 m of length for the figures, 10 km for certain lines) makes visible only from the sky.

According to the analysis of ceramics found on the plateau, this gigantic work would have been created between 300 BC and 800 AD. Maria Reiche has devoted her life to deciphering their symbols and meanings.

Born in the valley of the Moche river, near Trujillo, it extends then until Piura in the north and Lima in the south. The Moché or Mochica culture is one of the most remarkable of ancient Peru in terms of architecture, ceramics and goldsmithing. The precision of the scenes, whether engraved on the walls or reproduced on the ceramics, is breathtaking and plunges us into a universe populated by magical beings, exploits, submission and sacrifices that literally take place before our eyes

The most beautiful example of its architectural know-how is given to us by the Huacas del Sol and de la Luna, in the surroundings of Trujillo, of pyramidal form and built entirely out of adobe. The famous erotic huacos, exposed in the Larco Herrera museum of Lima, are of mochica origin, as is the Señor de Sipán, discovered in 1987 and which represents one of the most important finds of ancient Peru. In his tomb a work of extraordinary finesse as for the metals and precious stones. They are exposed with a very beautiful setting in light and in perspective in the Museo Tumbas Reales located in Lambayeque. The museums of the north are among the most modern of the country and we regret that they are still so few.

Ayacucho is the crucible of the Tiwanaku-Wari Empire, the most powerful, between 900 and 1200, before the advent of the Incas. It reigns over all the Andean South and the South coast. Paracas and Nazca, for example, are subjected by the Tiwanaku-wari Empire. As their conquests progressed, the Huaris built cities characterized by a monumental architecture in rough stone, surrounded by high walls as shown by the Wari ruins a few kilometers from Ayacucho.

The Wari art, taking over that of Tiahuanaco (originating from the shores of Lake Titicaca, it influenced other cultures as far as Bolivia and the north of Argentina and Chile), owes its fame to the stone sculptures reproducing anthropomorphic deities. The most typical ceramic is that of the "kero", ritual glass that the Incas took over and which has survived to this day. We also owe them the first network of roads that would later be amplified to become the Qhapaq Ñan Inca

It is thought that they are the descendants of migrants from the Cordillera who gradually adapted to this Amazonian environment of mountainous and cloudy jungle. They radically modified the landscape to build their cultures using the technique of scorched earth which still persists today. They reigned over approximately 400 km2 from the Marañon River to the Abiseo River where the Gran Pajaten citadel is located, still covered by jungle and inaccessible. Another of their architectural works is the citadel of Kuélap, a village of round huts made of gathered stones and dominating the valley. We also owe them impressive funerary sites such as the sarcophagi of Karajia or the 219 mummies of the Laguna de los Condores which were discovered in April 1997 and exposed in the beautiful museum of Leymebamba. Numerous cliffs or caves are marked with the jump of their cave paintings in the valley of Utcubamba. These proud warriors conquerors of a geography of the impossible finally give in to the conquests of Túpac Inca Yupanqui.

Heir to the Mochica culture, the Chimú empire, at its peak, stretched from Tumbes to the north of Lima, on about 1000 km of coastline. Until its conquest by the Incas, the empire knew a harmonious development, thanks, in particular, to the irrigation ensured by a system of channels which collects water in the Andes. Chan Chán, the capital, is the largest earthen city in the world. Itsadobe walls are decorated with friezes and bas-reliefs in which geometric figures or animals such as fish are endlessly multiplied. It is estimated that most of the treasures looted by the Spanish conquerors were of Chimú origin

Little sister of the Chimú empire: the Lambayeque or Sican culture is also an heir of the Mochicas. The goldsmith's trade of this people is so rich that it influences all the old Peru; the gold objects visible in the museums come in their quasi-totality from the region occupied by the Chimú and the Lambayeque. We owe to the latter the knife of sacrifice, the tumi, so characteristic with its blade in half-moon in gold or copper, whose guard is constituted by the figure of Naylamp, masked half-god presenting to the back two small wings. Located 35 km north of Chiclayo, the site of Tucume also called Valley of the Pyramids (there are 26), combines the successive influences of the Lambayeque (1000 AD), Chimú (1365 AD) and Inca (1471 AD) cultures

Manco Cápac, the first Inca ruler, born - according to legend - on the shores of Lake Titicaca, founded Cusco to make it the capital of his territory. The next two monarchs, Sinchi Roca and Lloque Yupanqui, subjugated small independent kingdoms.

The Inca territory strengthens its position in the whole Cusco valley with four semi-legendary rulers. Mayta Cápac is a great warrior. He subdued the Kollas and established the quipus system. Cápac Yupanqui subdues the bold Omasuyus (north of La Paz, in Bolivia) and defeats the formidable armies of Macha, who will become the most feared soldiers of the empire. Inca Roca created schools for the nobility and had the Quechua language adopted as the official language of the empire. Yahuar Huacac quickly disappeared.

Master of the valley of Cuzco, it begins a period of expansion in the Andes. He pushed his conquest to the current Tucuman (Argentina). It is also to him that we owe the palace of Nustas, as well as a 600 km long canal in Huancavelica (Peru). In 1438, he suffered a bitter defeat against one of his peoples, the Chancas.

The beginning of the expansion of the Incas is located under the reign of Pachacútec (or Pacha Kutiy Inqa Yupanki in Quechua "the one who transforms the world"), who subdued the neighboring peoples after having defeated the formidable Chancas of Ayacucho. From this victory the Incas will undertake dazzling conquests that will bring the borders of the empire to Colombia, in the north and, in the south, to half of Chile and Argentina today. Erecting an empire named Tahuantinsuyu, he reorganized the administration of the conquered cities. His reign saw the construction of temples and palaces in Cusco, as well as the city of Machu Picchu.

Tupac Yupanqui, son of Pachacutec, extended the empire to the present Ecuador and penetrated to the Río Maure, in the present Chile. He built the imposing fortress of Saqsayhuaman to protect Cusco from possible invasions. A daring military man and a great builder, he reigned for nearly half a century.

During the reign of Huayna Cápac, the empire was at the height of its territorial expansion: 900,000 km2 stretching from the Ancasmayo river in Colombia to the Acatama desert in Chile. He devoted 17 years to the total conquest of Ecuador. He conquered Quito and married the daughter of the defeated sovereign, Cachas. From their union Atau Wallpa (better known as Atahualpa) was born. Huayna Cápac is warned of the presence of the Spaniards on the northern coasts, at the same time that epidemics and earthquakes fall on the kingdom: the threat is growing.

The emperor died of smallpox, a viral disease introduced to the territory by the Europeans. His death triggered a war of succession between his two sons, Atahualpa and Huáscar. Huáscar is supported by the nobility of Cusco, from which he is descended by his mother, while Atahualpa has the support of the one of Quito (current capital of Ecuador from which his mother is originating). Meanwhile Pizarro returned to Spain to ask Charles V to finance a new expedition to the Incas

In 1532, the Spaniards landed in Tumbes. Attracted by the gold and silver, Pizarro and Almagro headed to Cajamarca via the Qhapaq Ñan (the Inca Trail of the Sierra). They were accompanied by 168 men, 37 horses and 4 cannons. At that moment, Atahuapla had just subdued Huáscar's troops in Huanacopampa, the latter having been taken prisoner. The Spaniards took advantage of the civil war within the empire to make alliance with four kingdoms (huanca, chanca, canary and chachapoya).

Pizarro installs his cannons all around the hills of Cajamarca. Atahualpa, son of the Sun, rich of a numerous army, is not wary. When the Inca is carefully trapped, Pizarro emits a signal that seals the fate of the world forever. The confusion and surprise are total, the Incas do not offer much resistance, Atahulpa is taken prisoner. The Tahuantinsuyo died on November 16, 1532.

While Pizarro had promised him his life in exchange for a lot of gold, the Inca was tried, condemned and strangled. Atahualpa had already taken charge himself, since his captivity, to have his brother Huascar executed. The "cuarto del rescate", where the Inca collected twice silver and once gold up to the height of his raised arm was not enough to save him. The total loot reached 1,326,439 gold pesos, 171 conquistadores only (Father Valverde, 65 horsemen and 105 infantrymen) shared it.

Pizarro, Soto and Almagro enter the legendary Cusco without any resistance. A young nobleman of the city is placed at the head of the empire, Manco Inca

Pizarro founded the Ciudad de los Reyes, the City of Kings, which would become the city of Lima.

During the year 1538 Pizarro had Almagro executed for claiming the title of governor of Cusco. Almagro's son assassinated Pizarro in his home in Lima on June 26, 1541. Having become master of Cusco, the latter was defeated a year later by the army of Cristóbal Vaca de Castro, a former ally of Pizarro.

In order to put an end to the internal quarrels between conquistadors, Spain imposed its law by creating Peru. This colony extends from the isthmus of Panamá to Patagonia.

The new viceroy of Peru, Francisco de Toledo, set up the mita, a forced labour for all Indians aged between 15 and 50. The system lasted until its final abolition in 1812 in Cadiz. The natives, evangelized by force, were deprived of their beliefs and customs. Diseases, brought by the conquistadores and unknown until then, decimated entire populations. The Inca Empire, rich in minerals and precious metals, became a field of intensive extraction of natural wealth. The gold and silver mines worked at full speed, sending galleons full of ingots and looted treasures to the metropolis. Potosi, now in Bolivia, provided the silver, Huancavelica, the mercury

Túpac Amaru, one of the sons of Manco Cápac II, took up his late father's fight against the Spaniards in Vilcabamba. Captured by Francisco de Toledo, he was executed in the main square of Cusco.

From the 17th century onwards, new social actors appeared: mestizos, resulting from mixed marriages or rape, and Blacks who came from Africa as slaves. The latter built the cities of the coast, notably Lima, and it is in these regions that their descendants live today. The latifundos, large rural properties, functioned according to a semi-feudal slave system. In 1777 the Spanish king Charles III increased taxes and customs duties. The Indian, mestizo and black populations were forbidden from accessing positions in the public service. These measures met with strong opposition. The native population was decimated from about 6 million in 1500 to 1.5 million sixty years later and some 700,000 at the beginning of the 19th century

In November 1780, the last great Inca revolt broke out as a result of the injustices and cruelties of the colonists. Túpac Amaru II claimed to be the direct descendant of Túpac Amaru, the last Inca emperor of Vilcabamba. He launched a "Great Rebellion" against the Spanish occupier and demanded, among other things, the end of the exploitation of the Indians and the abolition of black slavery. On May 18, 1781 Túpac Amaru II, as well as his family and supporters, were tortured and then beheaded in the Plaza de Armas of Cusco.

Proclamation of the independence of Peru. At the beginning of the 19th century, the whole of Latin America rose up against Spain, and the countries became independent. The revolt was this time the work of the Creoles and not only of the natives. In Peru, the stronghold of the Spanish rulers on the continent, freedom was won by the patriotic armies commanded in the south by General San Martín, promoter of Argentine independence, and in the north by the troops of Simón Bolívar, father of the emancipation of Gran Colombia (Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador and present-day Colombia). Proclaimed on July 28, 1821, the independence of Peru became effective after the victory of Ayacucho, in 1824.

The Spanish royalist army capitulates after its defeat in Ayacucho against the Venezuelan general Simon Bolivar. It is the end of the viceroyalty of Peru and the beginning of the independence of the South American countries.

The commercial exploitation of saltpetre and especially guano allowed a handful of owners to become rich and the country to equip itself with infrastructures. A commercial and banking system was then set up, under British influence. It was also during this period that Marshal Castilla put an end to slavery on December 3, 1854. 100,000 Chinese emigrated to the New World between 1850 and 1875, providing a new workforce. The economic expansion that marked the beginning of the 20th century came at a price: an unequal society from which mestizos and natives were rejected. All the powers were centralized in Lima, which provoked a rivalry that continues to this day between the people of the Cordillera and the coast, and between whites, mestizos and indigenous people. Augusto Leguía was president from 1919 to 1930, and his name is often associated with Peru's entry into modernity.

War of the Pacific: although allied with Bolivia, Peru is defeated by Chile.

The dictatorships of Manuel Odria (1948-1956), Fernando Belaúnde Terry (1963-1969) and then Generals Velasco Alvarado (1968-1975) and finally Francisco Morales Bermudez (1975-1980) followed

The ideas of planning and social welfare provided by the state, as practiced in the countries of the East, animated the movement of generals who, around General Velasco Alvarado, deposed President Belaúnde Terry in 1968. The government of Velasco Alvarado, described as "revolutionary", sought to free itself from communist and capitalist models. It immediately began to nationalize oil, then strategic economic sectors such as steel and mining, and implemented agrarian reform, expropriating the large latifundos to install cooperatives. Non-aligned and close to the USSR, Velasco's Peru found itself at odds with the hostility of the United States. General Francisco Morales Bermuda took over. Urbanization accelerated, coupled with the phenomenon of "marginalization" of new migrants in shanty towns or pueblos jovenes which still exist today

On May 17, 1980, in Chushi, in the Ayacucho region, a small group burned the electoral lists and ballot boxes. The Shining Path had just entered the political scene. The elections brought Fernando Belaúnde Terry to power for the second time. The economic crisis is accentuated along with the violence caused by Shining Path terrorism.

Alan García Peréz, aged 35, became president of the country with 53% of the vote: the APRA (American Popular Revolutionary Alliance) fulfilled a sixty-year-old dream. Great hopes were awakened... until the crisis returned. Inflation began to rise again and public finances began to accumulate deficits. In 1988, inflation was 1,789%, and the following year it was 2,777%. The Shining Path began to strike outside its Andean strongholds, and Lima experienced the anguish of terrorist attacks. We are finally taking the measure of a conflict that until then terrorized the populations of the interior, cornered between the guerrilla and the armed repression.

Alberto Fujimori, relying on the military, launched a civil coup in April 1992, dissolved Congress and gave himself full powers to "fight terrorism". In 1993 Peru adopted a new constitution and returned to the international scene.

Supported by the poorest, Alberto Fujimori defeated a heavyweight in world politics in the 1995 elections: Javier Peréz de Cuellar, former UN Secretary

In September 2000, the "Montesinos affair" broke out, an incredible saga of video tapes recorded while high dignitaries were receiving bribes to favour certain companies. Fujimori resigned by fax from Japan and hastened to take back Japanese nationality, thus becoming untouchable for Peruvian justice. He was succeeded by Valentin Paniagua as interim president.

Election of the first indigenous president, Alejandro Toledo. He was particularly known for his "peaceful resistance" against the third mandate of the Fujimori government. On July 28, 2000, he led the national protest called La Marcha de los Cuatro Suyos. Although he pursued a strong economic policy and opened Peru to free trade, rumors of corruption and a chaotic personal life ended his term in office with 8% popularity. His Belgian wife, Eliane Karp, has always supported him and even got him his nickname of "cholo sano y sagrado". Since February 2017 under an international arrest warrant, he was arrested in the United States on July 16, 2019 but no extradition in sight. He was released on bail on March 19, 2020.

After 5 years in exile, Alberto Fujimori was arrested in Chile. He was sentenced on April 7, 2009 to 25 years in prison by the Court of Lima for: violation of human rights (during his presidency), embezzlement in the Montesinos affair (7 years) as well as corruption (of opposition deputies, journalists) and illegal wiretapping (of opponents and other political figures, 6 years).

Alan García won the presidential election. Despite the serious economic crisis into which he had plunged the country during his first term in office between 1985 and 1990, he was re-elected and implemented a more pragmatic policy.

The socialist president Ollanta Humala wins the second round of the presidential election against Keiko Fujimori (daughter of the deposed dictator). In 2013, two years ahead of schedule, Peru reached the objectives set by the United Nations concerning the reduction of the infant mortality rate and the poverty line in the country. Social measures were introduced such as Pension 65 (minimum old age pension), an increase in the minimum wage and scholarship programmes (Beca 18). Unfortunately, corruption cases marred the end of his mandate. Ollanta Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, spent several months in preventive prison in the Odebrecht scandal. The trial is still to come. Humala has nevertheless run for office in 2021

Pedro Pablo Kuzcinsky, a shrewd politician and former Wall Street banker, won the presidential election by a hair's breadth, but was soon blocked by a Congress with a large Fujimorist majority. In the first round of the presidential elections, Keiko Fujimori came out on top with 39.7% of the vote. A nice surprise is the 3rd place of Veronika Mendoza who represents the Frente Amplio, a kind of left front. With a French mother and a Peruvian father, this convinced Cusquenian is shaking up a frozen political landscape but will not succeed in confirming her position in 2021.

The scandal that led to former President Lula being sentenced to nine and a half years in prison in Brazil is shaking up the entire political class. Odebrecht is a Brazilian construction company that paid bribes in exchange for public contracts in many Latin American countries. Toledo, the Humala couple, Alan Garcia and soon PPK himself were implicated. Before Keiko Fujimori also fell.

President Pedro Pablo Kuzcinski pardons Alberto Fujimori to try to save his presidency. On February 20, 2018, the former dictator is referred to court on charges related to the 1992 murder of six villagers. On October 3, 2018, Judge Hugo Nuñez cancels the pardon granted to him in 2017 and orders his immediate arrest. He is hospitalized in the aftermath. On 24 January 2019, he was re-incarcerated and has since been held under special conditions related to his fragile health.

PPK renounces the presidency following pressure from the fujimorist majority Congress. He has been in preventive prison since April 19, 2019, a sentence that is being carried out at home due to his fragile health.

Vice President Martin Vizcarra takes the reins of power and enters into a frontal war against the Congress in an attempt to impose substantive reforms. Vizcarra, who is less well known on the political scene, is trying to claim to be the voice of the people who are tired of corruption. The Covid crisis initially served his communication purposes.

Two-time ex-president Alan García, indicted in the Oderbrecht scandal, shot himself in the head on the floor of his home at the very moment that the Public Prosecutor's Office teams came to arrest him. His party, APRA, offered him a martyr's funeral. At the age of 69, García bade farewell with panache: "I leave my children the dignity of my decisions, my companions a signal of pride and my adversaries my corpse as a mark of contempt...".

President Martín Vizcarra dissolves the Congress of the Republic for the de facto denial of a question of confidence.

Extraordinary parliamentary elections lead to the formation of the new congress to complete the legislature until 26 July 2021. The results left a certain bitterness. Fuerza Popular (Fujimorist party) lost its leadership position but FREPAP (radical evangelist movement) emerged with 15 elected members

^1st case of Covid detected in Peru, on March 16th the borders are closed. The state of emergency is decreed coupled with a strict immobilization which will last until July 1st, 2020, that is 107 days. The schools are closed and the education proposed under virtual mode. In the end, it resumed only at the beginning of the school year in March 2022, depriving many children of two full years of normal schooling and deepening the inequality gap. In spite of everything, on August 27, 2020 the WHO announced that Peru is the country with the highest mortality per capita in the world due to Covid-19. Too weak health system, economic precariousness, inescapable promiscuity, the reasons combine to explain the more than 200 000 deaths in the four corners of the country.

Congress declared President Martín Vizcarra's term of office vacant for permanent moral incapacity. Suspected of corruption while serving as regional governor of Moquegua, he is the fourth president to leave office since the beginning of the Republic.

The dismissal of Vizcarra by an equally corrupt Congress provoked huge demonstrations in Lima and other large cities. On November 10 Manuel Merino swore in as President of the Republic, the demonstrations left 112 people injured and two dead, two students, Inti and Brian. On November 15, Merino resigned.

Francisco Sagasti entered the scene with an image of reconciliation and probity. His government signed the agreements for the arrival of the vaccine on the national territory generating a real breath of hope while it was learned that 487 high ranking civil servants (including the ex-president Vizcarra) had been secretly vaccinated. Sagasti is keeping his promise to carry out the presidential elections on April 11, 2021, although many would have liked him to have stayed ahead of a bleak scenario.

A trial is being held into the policy of forced sterilization practised in the 1990s under the Fujimori government. None of those responsible for these practices has yet been convicted. It is estimated that 270,000 indigenous people were affected.

Pedro Pablo Castillo, a teacher and trade unionist from Cajamarca, won the presidential election on the wire. With 18 candidates the 1st round give a final result that nobody had seen coming: a face to face Pedro Castillo/Keiko Fujimori which reopens all the wounds. Keiko Fujimori spent 16 months in preventive detention for corruption but was able to go out to lead her campaign, the heavy heritage of her father still weighed. Castillo won the campaigns and the popular vote vote after vote. Associated with the Marxist-Leninist Peru Libre party, his victory caused concern in privileged circles and a rise in the dollar. With 37 representatives in Congress (out of 130), his majority is fragile and subject to alliances. In November 2021, a first motion of vacancy was debated in Congress for corruption, influence peddling and illegal use of funds to finance his campaign in the Junin region. The tug of war between the presidential and legislative branches lasted for a year, discrediting the political class more and more

On December 7, 2022, Pedro Castillo announced the dissolution of the parliament against the constitutional rules. Very quickly dropped by his ministers and the forces of order, he was finally deposed and arrested 3 hours later and had to face justice. His vice-president Dina Boluarte took the reins of power with a speech of reconciliation but the road is long until 2026 and certainly full of surprises. It is the first president of the Peruvian political history. During the last thirty years, only two heads of state (interim) have not been worried by the justice...