# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Peru

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​PERU (apparently from Biru, a small river on the west coast of Colombia, where Pizarro landed), a republic of the Pacific coast of South America, extending in a general N.N.W.-S.S.E. direction from lat. 3° 21′ S. to about 18° S., with a sea-coast of 1240 m. and a width of 300 to 400 in., exclusive of territories in dispute. Its area in 1006, including Tacna and Arica, and other disputed territories occupied by neighbouring states, was officially estimated at 1,752,422 sq. kilometers, or 676,638 sq. m.; exclusive of these territories, the area of Peru is variously estimated at 439,000 to 480,000 sq. m., the Gotha measurements being 1,137,000 sq. kilometers, or 439,014 sq. m.
With the exception of parts of the Ecuador, Brazil and Bolivia frontiers, all the boundary lines have been disputed and referred to arbitration-those with Colombia and Ecuador to the king of Spain, and that with Bolivia to the president of Argentina, on which a decision was rendered on the 9th of July 1909. There have been misunderstandings with Ecuador in regard to some small areas in the Chira valley, but it may be assumed that the line is fixed between Santa Rosa (3° 21′ S.) on the Gulf of Guayaquil, and the Chinchipe river, a tributary of the Marañon. At the junction of the Cauches with that river, that Ecuadorean line descends the Chinchipe to the Marañon, and the Peruvian ascends to a point where it is intersected by line following the eastern Cordillera northward to the head-waters of the Caquetá or Japurá, which forms the northern boundary down to the Brazilian frontier. This claim covers all eastern Ecuador and a large part of south-eastern Colombia. In 1903 there were encounters between small bodies of Peruvian and Ecuadorean troops on the disputed frontier. After arbitration by the king of Spain had been agreed upon, the question was considered by two Spanish commissions, and modifications favouring Peru were recommended. These became known prematurely, an in May 1910 war was threatened between Peru and Ecuador in spite of an offer of mediation by the United States, Brazil and Argentina under the Hague Convention.
From the Japura southward to the Amazon in 4° 13′ 21″ S., 69° 35′ W., and thence up the Javar or Yavari to its source in 7° 8′ 4″ S., 73° 46′ 30″ W., as determined by a mixed commission, the line has been definitely settled. From near the source of the Javary, or lat. 7° 1′ 17″ S., a line running eastward to the Madeira in lat. 6° 52′ 15″ S., which is half the distance between the mouth of the Mamore and the mouth of the Madeira, divides the Spanish and Portuguese possessions in this part of South America, according to the provisions of the treaty of San Ildefonso of 1777. This line has been twice modified by treaties between Bolivia and Brazil, but without the consent of Peru, which claimed all the territory eastward to the Madeira between the above-mentioned line and the Beni-Madidi rivers, the line of demarcation following the Pablo-bamba, a small tributary of the Madidi, to its source, and thence in a straight line to the village of Conima, on Lake Titicaca. The dispute with Brazil relates to the territory acquired by that republic from Bolivia in 1867 and 1903, and was to be settled, according to an agreement ​ of 1908, by direct negotiation if possible, or, failing this, by arbitration. The decision of the president of Argentina of the 9th of July 1909, in regard to the remainder of this extensive territory, was a compromise, and divided it into two nearly equal parts. The line adopted starts from Lake Suches, the source of a small river of that name flowing into the north of Lake Titicaca, crosses the Cordillera by the Palomani to the Tambopata river, follows that stream to the mouth of the Lanza, thence crosses to the source of the Heath river, which forms the dividing line down to its junction with the Madre de Dios, descends that river to the mouth of the Torosmonas, thence in a straight line north-westerly to the intersection of the Tahuamanu river by the 69th meridian, and thence north on that meridian to the Brazilian frontier. This decision at first gave offence to the Bolivians, but friendly overtures from Peru led to its acceptance by both parties with the understanding that modifications would be made in locating the line wherever actual settlements had been made by either party on territory awarded to the other. With Chile the de jure line is that of the Camarones ravine which separated the old department of Moquegua (including the provinces of Tacna and Arica) from that of Tarapaca. The de facto line is that of the Sama river (usually dry), which opens on the coast a little south of Sama point, near 18° S., Chile retaining possession of the two above-mentioned provinces in violation of the treaty of Ancon, which she forced upon her defeated antagonist.
Physical Geography.—Peru is divided longitudinally into three well-defined regions, the coast, the sierra and the montana. The coast, extending from the base of the Western or Maritime Cordillera to the Pacific Ocean, consists of a sandy desert crossed at intervals by rivers flowing through narrow, fertile valleys. The sierra is the region of the Andes, and is about 250 m. in width. It contains stupendous chains of mountains, elevated plains and table-lands, warm and fertile valleys and ravines. The montana is the region of tropical forests within the valley of the Amazon, and skirts the eastern slopes of the Andes.
The coast has been upraised from the ocean at no very distant geological epoch, and is nearly as destitute of vegetation as the African Sahara. It is watered, however, by fifty streams which cross the desert at intervals. Half of these have their origin in the summits of the Andes, and run with a permanent supply of water into the ocean. The others,The Coast. rising in the outer range, which does not reach the snow-line and receives less moisture, carry a volume of water to the sea during the rainy season, but for the rest of the year are nearly dry. The absence of rain here is ascribed to the action of the lofty uplands of the Andes on the trade-wind and to the influence of the cold Humboldt current sweeping northward along the west coast of the continent. The south-east trade-wind blows obliquely across the Atlantic Ocean until it reaches Brazil. By this time it is heavily laden with vapour, which it continues to bear along across the continent. depositing it and supplying the sources of the Amazon and La Plata. When the wind rises above the snow-capped Andes, the last particle of moisture is wrung from it that a very low temperature can extract. Passing the summit of that range, it rushes down as a cool and dry wind on the Pacific slopes beyond. Meeting with no evaporating surface, and with no temperature colder than that to which it is subjected on the mountain-tops, this wind reaches the ocean before it becomes charged with fresh moisture. The constantly prevailing wind on the Peruvian coast is from the south, which is a cold wind from the Humboldt current. As it moves north it becomes gradually warmed and takes up moisture instead of depositing it as rain. From November to April there are usually constant dryness, a clear sky, and considerable, though by no means oppressive, heat. From June to September the sky is obscured for weeks together by fog, which is often accompanied by drizzling rain called garua. At the time when it is hottest and driest on the coast it is raining heavily in the Andes, and the rivers are full. When the rivers are at their lowest, the garua prevails on the coast. The climate of various parts of the coast, however, is modified by local circumstances.
The Western Cordillera, overhanging the Peruvian coast, contains a long line of volcanic mountains, most of them inactive, but their presence is probably connected with the frequent and severe earthquakes, especially in the southern section of the coast. Since 1570 seventy violently destructive earthquakes have been recorded on the west coast of South America, but the register is incomplete in its earlier part. The most terrible was that of 1746, which destroyed Callao, on the 28th of October, and there were 220 shocks in the following twenty-four hours. The town was overwhelmed by a vast wave, which rose 80 ft.; and the shocks continued until the following February. On the 13th of August 1868 an earthquake nearly destroyed Arequipa, and great waves rolled in upon the ports of Arica and Iquique. On the 9th of May 1877 nearly all the southern ports were overwhelmed.
The deserts between the river-valleys vary in extent, the largest being more than 70 m. across. On their western margin steep cliffs generally rise from the sea, above which is the tablazo or plateau, in some places slightly undulating, in otheis with ridges of considerable height rising out of it. The surface is generally hard, but in many places there are large accumulations of drifting sea-sand. The sand usually forms isolated hillocks, called medanos, of a half-moon shape, having their convex sides towards the trade wind. They are from 10 to 20 ft. high, with an acute crest, the inner side perpendicular, the outer with a steep slope. Sometimes, especially at early dawn, there is a musical noise in the desert, like the sound of distant drums, which is caused by the eddying of grains of sand in the heated atmosphere, on the crests of the medamos.
Apparently the deserts are destitute of all vegetation yet three kinds of herbs exist, which bury themselves deep in the earth, and survive long periods of drought. One is an amaranthaceous plant, whose stems ramify through the sand hills; the other two are a Martyma and an Aniseia, which maintain a subterranean existence during many years, andCoast Flora. only produce leafy stems in those rare seasons when sufficient moisture penetrates to the roots. In a few hollows which are reached by moisture the trees of the desert find support, the algarrobo (Prosopis horrida), a low tree of very scraggy growth, the vichaya (Capparis crotonoides) and the zapote del perro (Colicodendrum scabridum), mere shrubs. Near the Cordillera and on its lower slopes a tall branched cactus is met with, and there are Salzcormas and Salsolas near the coast. But, when the mists set in, the low hills near the coast bordering the deserts, which are called lomas, undergo a change as if by magic. A blooming vegetation of wild flowers for a short time covers the barren hills. Near Lima one of the low ranges is brightened by the beautiful yellow lily called amancaes (Ismene Amancaes). The other flowers of the lomas are the papita de San Juan (Begonia geranifolia), with red petals contrasting with the white inner sides, valerians, the beautiful Bomarea ovata, several species of Oxalis, Solanum and crucifers. But this carpet of flowers is very partially distributed and lasts but a short time.
The valleys form a marvellous contrast to the surrounding desert. A great mass of pale-green foliage is usually composed of the algarrobo trees, while the course of the river is marked by lines or groups of palms, by fine old willows (Salix humboldtiana), fruit-gardens, and fields of cotton, Indian corn, sugar-cane and alfalfa (lucerne). In some valleys there are expanses of sugar-cane, in others cotton, whilst in others vineyards and olive-yards predominate. The woods of algarrobo are used for pasture, cattle and horses enjoying the pendulous yellow pods.
For purposes of description the coast-region of Peru may be divided into five sections, beginning from the north: (1) the Piura region; (2) the Lambayeque and Trujillo section; (3) the Santa valleys; (4) the section from Lima to Nasca; (5) the Arequipa and Tacna section.Sections of the Coast.
(1) The great desert-region of Piura extends for nearly 200 m. from the Gulf of Guayaquil to the borders of the Morrope Valley, and is traversed by three rivers—the Tumbes, Chira and Piura, the two former receiving their waters from the inner Cordillera and breaking through the outer range. It is here that the coast of South America extends farthest to the westward until it reaches Capes Blanco and Pariña, and then turns southward to the Bay of Paita. The climate of Piura is modified by the lower latitude, and also by the vicinity of the forests of Guayaquil. Fog and garua are much less frequent than in the coast-region farther south, while rain sometimes falls. At intervals of three or four years there are occasional heavy showers of rain from February to April. (2) The second section of the coast-region includes the valleys of the Morrope, the Chiclayo, and Lambayeque, the Sana, the jequetepeque, the Chicama, Moche, Viru and Chao. With the intervening deserts this section extends over 200 m. All these valleys, except Morrope and Chao, are watered by rivers which have their sources far in the recesses of the mountains, and which furnish an abundant supply in the season when irrigation is needed. (3) The third section, also extending for 200 m., contains the valleys of Santa, Nepena, Casma, Huarmey, Fortaleza, Pativilca, Supé and Huaura. The river Santa, which rises in the lake of Conococha, 12,907 ft. above the sea, and has a length of 180 m., is remarkable for its long course between the outer and central ranges of the Andes, in a. trough known as the “Callejon de Huaylas,” 100 m. in length. It then breaks through in a deep gorge, and reaches the sea after a course of 35 m. over the coast-belt, and after fertilizing a rich valley. The Santa and Nepeña valleys are separated by a desert 8 leagues in width, on the shores of which there is a good anchorage in the bay of Ferrol, where the port of Chimbote is the terminus of a railway. The Nepeia, Casma, Huarmey, Fortaleza and Supé rivers rise on the slope of an outer range called the Cordillera Negra, and are consequently dry during the great part of the year. Wells are dug in their beds, and the fertility of the valleys is thus maintained. The Pativilca (or Barranca) river and the Huaura break ​ through the outer range from their distant sources in the snowy Cordillera, and have a perennial supply of water. There are 9 leagues of desert between the Nepena and Casma, 16 between the Casnia and Huarmey, and 18 between the Huarmey and Fortaleza. The latter desert, much of which is loose sand, is called the Pampa de Mata Cavallos, from the number of exhausted animals which die there Between the Supé and Pativilca is the desert called the Pampa del Medio Mundo. (4) The next coast-section extends for over 300 m., from Chancay to Nasca, and includes the rivers of Chancay or Lacha, of Carabayllo, Rimac, Lurin, Mala, Canete, Chrncha, Pisco or Chunchanga, Ica and Rio Grande. Here the maritime range approaches the ocean, leaving a narrower strip of coast, but the fertile valleys are closer and more numerous. Those of Larabayllo and Rimac are connected, and the view from the Bay of Callao extends over a vast expanse of fertile plain bounded by the Andes, with the white towers of Lima in a setting of verdure. Lurin and Mala are smaller valleys, but the great vale of Canete is one green sheet of sugar-cane; and narrow strips of desert separate it from the fertile plain of Chincha, and Chricha from the famous vineyards of Pisco. The valleys of Ica, Palpa, San Xavier and Nasca are rich and fertile, though they do not extend to the sea; but between Nasca and Acarr there is a desert 60 m. in width. (5) The Arequipa and Tacna section extends over 350 m. and comprises the valleys of Acari, Atequipa, Atico, Ocoña, Majes or Camana, Qurlca, with the interior valley of Arequipa, Tambo, Ilo or Moquegua, Ité or Locumba, Sanra, Tacna, and Azapa or Arica. Here the Western Cordillera recedes, and the important valley of Arequipa, though on its western slope, is 7000 ft. above the sea and 90 m. from the coast. Most of the rivers here have their sources in the central range, and are well supplied with water The coast-valleys through which they flow, especially those of Majes and Locumba, are famous for their vineyards, and in the valley of Tambo there are extensive olive plantations.
The coast of Peru has few protected anchorages, and the headlands are generally abrupt and lofty. These and the few islands are frequented by sea-birds, whence come the guano-deposits, the retention of ammonia and other fertilizing properties being due to the absence of rain. The islets 05 the coast are all barren and rocky.Islands.
The most northern is Foca, in 5° 13′ 30″ S., near the coast to the south of Parta. The islands of Lobos de Tierra and Lobos de Afuera (2) in 6° 27′ 45″ S. and 6° 56′ 45″ S. respectively, are off the desert of Sechura, and contain deposits of guano. The two Afuera islands are 60 and 36 m. respectively from the coast at the port of San José The islets of Macabi, in 7° 49′ 20″ S., also have guano deposits, now practically exhausted. The two islets of Guafiape, surrounded by many rocks, in 8° 34′ S., contain rich deposits. Chao rises 450 ft. above the sea, off the coast, in 8° 46′ 30″ S. Corcobado is in 8° 57′ S. La Viuda is off the port of Casma, in 9° 23′ 30″ S.; and Tortuga is 2 m. distant to the north. Santa Islet lies off the bay of Cosca, in 9° 1′ 40″, and the three hrgh rocks of Ferrol in 9° 8′ 30″ S. Farther south there rs the group of islets and rocks called Huaura, in 11° 27′ S., the chief of which are El Pelado, Tambillo, Chiquitana, Bravo, Quitacalzones and Mazorque. The Hormigas are in 11° 4′ S. and 11° 58′, and the Pescadores in 11° 47′ S. The island of San Lorenzo, in 12° 4′ S., is a lofty mass, 41/2 m. long by 1 broad, forming the Bay of Callao; its highest point is 1050 ft. Off its south-east end lies a small but lofty islet called Fronton, and to the south-west are the Palomitas Rocks. Horadada Islet, with a hole through it, is to the south of Callao Point. Off the valley of Lurin are the Pachacamac Islands, the most northern and largest being half a mile long The next, called San Francisco, is like a sugar-loaf, perfectly rounded at the top. The others are mere rocks. Asia Island is farther south, 17 m. north-west of Cerro Azul, and about a mile in circuit. Pisco Ba contains San Gallan Island, high, with a bold cliff outline, 21/2 m. long by 1 broad, the Ballista Islets, and farther north the three famous Chincha Islands, whose vast guano deposits are now exhausted. South of the entrance to Pisco Bay is Zarate Island, and farther south the white level islet of Santa Rosa. The Infiernillo rock is quite black, about 50 ft. high, in the form of a sugar-loaf, a mile west of the point of Santa Maria, which is near the mouth of the Ica river. Alacran is a small islet off the lofty “morro” of Arica. All these rocks and islets are barren and uninhabitable. The more common sea-birds are the Sula variegata or guano-bird, a large gull called the Larus modestus, the Pelecanus thayus, and the Sterna Ynca, a beautiful tern with curved white feathers on each side of the head. The rarest of all the gulls is also found on the Peruvian coast, namely, the Xema furcatum. Sea-lions (Otaria forsteri) are common on the rocky island sand promontories.
The region of the Cordilleras of the Andes is divided into puna, or lofty uninhabited wilderness, and sierra, or inhabitable mountain slopes and valleys. This great mountain-system, running south-east to north-west, consists of three chains or cordilleras The two chains, which run parallel and near each other on the western side, are of identical origin, and have Sierra. been separated by the action of water during many centuries. On these chains are the volcanoes and many thermal springs. The narrow space between them is for the most part, but not always, a cold and lofty region known as the puna containing alpine lakes—the sources of the coast-rivers. The great eastern chain, rising from the basin of the Amazon and forming the inner wall of the system, is of distinct origin. These three chains are called the Western or Maritime Cordillera, the Central Cordillera and the Andes. Paz Soldan and other Peruvian geographers give the name of Andes, par excellence, to the Eastern Cordillera.
The Maritime Cordillera of Peru has no connexion with the coast ranges of Chile, but is a continuation of the Cordillera Occidental of Chile, which under various local names forms the eastern margin of the coastal desert belt from Atacama northward into Peru. It contains a regular chain of volcanic peaks overlooking the coast region of Tarapaca. Chief among them are the snowy peak of Lirima (19,128 ft.) over the ravine of Tarapaca, the volcano of Isluga overhanging Camina, the Bolivian peak of Sajama, and Tocora (19,741 ft.) near the Bolivian frontier. In rear of Moquegua there is a group of volcanic peaks, clustering round those of Ubinas and Huaynaputina. A great eruption of Huaynaputina began on the 15th of February 1600 and continued until the 28th. But generally these volcanoes are quiescent. Farther north the Misti volcano rises over the city of Arequipa in a perfect cone to a height of over 20,013 ft., and near its base are the hot sulphur and iron springs of Yura. The peak of Sarasara, in Parinacochas (Ayacucho) is 19,500 ft. above the sea, and in the mountains above Lima the passes attain a height of more than 15,000 ft. In latitude 10° S. the maritime chain separates into two branches, which run parallel to each other for 100 m., enclosing the remarkable ravine of Callejon de Huaylas—the eastern or main branch being known as the Cordillera Nevada and the western as the Cordillera Negra. On the Nevada the peak of Huascan reaches a height of 22,051 ft. The Huandoy peak, above Carhuaz, rises to 21,088 ft.; the Hualcan peak, overhanging the town of Yungay, is 19,945 ft. hrgh; and most of the peaks in this part of the chain reach a height of 19,000 ft. During the rainy season, from October to May, the sky is generally clear at dawn, and the magnificent snowy peaks are clearly seen. But as the day advances the clouds collect. In most parts of the Peruvian Andes the line of perpetual snow is at 16,400 ft.; but on the Cordillera Nevada, above the Callejon de Huaylas, it sinks to 15,400 ft. This greater cold is caused by the intervention of the Cordillera Negra, which intercepts the warmth from the coast. As this lower chain does not reach the snow-line, the streams rising from it are scanty, while the Santa, Pativilca and other coast-rivers which break through it from sources in the snowy chain have a greater volume from the melted snows. At the point where the river Santa breaks through the Cordillera Negra that range begins to subside, while the Maritime Cordillera continues as one chain to and beyond the frontier of Ecuador.
The Central Cordillera is the true water-parting of the system. No river, except the Marañon, breaks through it either to the east or west, while more than twenty coast streams rise on its slopes and force their way through the maritime chain. The Central Cordillera consists mainly of crystalline and volcanic rocks, on each side of which are aqueous, in great part jurassic, strata thrown up almost vertically. In 14° 30′ S. the central chain is connected with the Eastern Andes by the transverse mountain-knot of Vilcanota, the peak of that name being 17,651 ft. above the sea. The great inland basin of Lake Titicaca is thus formed. The central chain continues to run parallel with the Maritime Cordillera until, at Cerro Pasco, another transverse knot connects it with the Andes in 10° 30′ S. lat. It then continues northward, separating the basins of the Marañon and Huallaga; and at the northern frontier of Peru it is at length broken through by the Marañon flowing eastward.
The Eastern Andes is a magnificent range in the southern part of Peru, of Silurian formation, with talcose and clay slates, many quartz veins and eruptions of granitic rocks. Mr Forbes says that the peaks of Illampu (21,709 ft.) and Illimani (21,014 ft.) in Bolivia are Silurian and fossiliferous to their summits. The eastern range is cut through by six rivers in Peru, namely, the Marañon and Huallaga, the Perene, Mantaro, Apurimac, Vilcamayu and Paucartambo, the last five being tributaries of the Ucayali. The range of the Andes in south Peru has a high plateau to the west and the vast plains of the Amazonian basin to the east. The whole range is highly auriferous, and the thickness of the strata is not less than 10,000 ft. It is nowhere disturbed by volcanic eruptions, except at the very edge of the formation near Lake Titicaca, and in this respect it differs essentially from the Maritime Cordillera. To the eastward numerous spurs extend for varying distances into the great plain of the Amazons.
The Andes lose their majestic height to the northward; and beyond Cerro Pasco the eastern chain sinks into a lower range between the Huallaga and Ucayali. But throughout the length of Peru the three ranges are clearly defined.
For purposes of description the sierra of Peru may be divided into four sections, each embracing portions of all three ranges. The first, from the north, comprises the upper basins of the Marañon and the Huallaga, and is 350 m. long by 100 broad. The second extends from the Knot of Cerro Pasco to Ayacucho, about 200 m., including the Lake ofSections of Sierra. Chinchay-cocha and the basin of the river Xauxa. The third or Cuzco section extends 250 m. to the Knot of Vilcañota with the basins of the Pampas, Apurimac, Vilcamayu and Paucartambo. The fourth is the basin of Lake Titicaca.
​ Lake Junin, or Chinchay-cocha, in the second section, is 36 m. long by 7 m. broad, and 13,232 ft. above the sea. Its marshy banks are overgrown with reeds and inhabited by numerous waterfowl. From this lake the river Xauxa flows southwards through a populous valley for 150 m. before entering the forests. Lalce Titicaca (see Bolivia), in the fourth or most southern section, is divided between Peru and Bolivia. It receives a number of short streams from the ranges shutting in the upper end of the valley; the largest is the Ramiz, formed by the two streams of Pucara and Azangaro, both coming from the Knot of Vilcanota to the north. The Suches, which has its source in Lake Suches, falls into Lake Titicaca on the north-west side, as well as the Yllpa and Ylaye. The principal islands are Titicaca and Coati (at the south end near the peninsula of Copacabana), Campanaria (9 m. from the east shore), Soto and Esteves. There are two other lakes in the Collao, as the elevated region round Titicaca is called. Lake Arapa, a few miles from the northern shore of Titicaca, is 30 m. in circumference. Lake Umayo is on higher ground to the westward. The lake in Peru which is third in size is that of Parinacochas on the coast watershed, near the foot of the snowy peak of Sarasara. It is 12 m. long by 6 broad, but has never been visited and described by any modern traveller. The smaller alpine lakes, often forming the sources of rivers, are numerous.
The great rivers of the sierra are the Marañon, rising in the lake of Lauricocha and flowing northward in a deep gorge between the Maritime and Central Cordilleras for 350 m., when it forces its way through the mountains at the famous Pongo de Manseriche and enters the Amazonian plain. The Huallaga rises north of Cerro Pasco, and, passin Huanuco, flows northwards on the other side of the Central Cordillera for 300 m. It breaks through the range at the Pongo de Chasuta and falls into the Marañon. he other great rivers are tributaries of the Ucayali. The Pozuzu, fiowin eastviard from the Knot of Cerro Pasco, joins the Pachitea, wilrich is the most important northern affluent of the Ucayali. The Xauxa, becoming afterwards the Mantaro, receives the drainage of Xauxa, Huancavelica and Ayacucho. The southern valleys of this part of the sierra furnish streams which form the main rivers of Pampas, Pachachaca and Apurimac. These, uniting with the Mantaro, form the Ené, and the Ene and Perené (which drains the province of Tambo) form the Tambo. The Vilcamayu rises on the Knot of Vilcanota, flows north through a lovely valley, received the Yanatilde and Paucartambo on its right bank, and, uniting with the Tambo, forms the Ucayali. Most of these main streams flow through profound gorges in a tropical climate, while the upper slopes yield products of the temperate zone, and the plateaus above are cold and bleak, affording only pasture and the hardiest cereals.
The great variety of elevation within the sierra produces vegetation belonging to every zone. There is a tropical flora in the deep gorges, higher up a sub-tropical, then a temperate, then a sub-arctic flora. In ascending from the coast-valleys there is firstSierran Flora and Fauna. an arid range, where the great-branched cacti rear themselves up among the rocks. Farther inland, where the rains are more plentiful, is the native home of the potato. Here also are other plants with edible roots—the oca (Oxalis tuberosa), ulluca (Ullucus tuberous), mashua (Tropleolum tuberosum), and learcó (Polymnia sonchifolia). Among the first wild shrubs and trees that are met with are the chilca (Baccharis Feuiltei), with a pretty yellow flower, the Mutisia acuminata, with beautiful red and orange flowers, several species of Senecio, calceolarias, the Schznus molle, with its graceful branches and bunohes of red berries, and at higher elevations the lambras (Alnus acumznata), the sauco (Sambucus perumana), the queriuur (Buddleza mcana), and the Polylepis racemosa. The Buddleza, locally called olwa srlvestre, flourishes at a height of 12,000 ft. round the shores of Lake Titicaca. The most numerously represented family is the Composztae, the grasses being next in number The temperate valleys of the sierra yield fruits of many kinds. Those indigenous to the country are the delicious chirzmoyas, palms or alligator pears, the paccay, a species of Inga, the lucma, and the grana//Zilla or fruit of the passion-flower. Vineyards and sugar-mne yield crops in the warmer ravines; the sub-tropical valleys are famous for splendid crops of maize; wheat and barley thrive on the mountain slopes; and at heights from 7000 to 13,000 ft. there are crops of quinua (Chenopodium quinua). In the loftiest regions the pasture chiefly consists of a coarse glrass (Strpa ychu), of which the llamas eat the upper blades and the s eep browse on the tender shoots beneath. There are also two kinds of shrubby plants, a thorny Composita called “ccanlli” and another, called “tola,” which is a resinous Baccharis and is used for fuel.
The animals which specially belong to the Peruvian Andes are the domestic llamas and alpacas and the wild vicunas. There are deer, called taruco (Cervus antisensis); the viscacha, a large rodent; a species of fox called atoc; and the puma (Felis concolor) and zwumari or lack bear with a white muzzle, when driven by hunger, wander into the loftier regions. The largest bird is the condor, and there is another bird of the vulture tribe, with a black and white wing feather formerly used by the Incas in their head-dress, called the coraquenque or alcamari. The pito is a brown speckled creeper which flutters about the rocks. There is a little bird, the size of a starling, with brown back striped with black, and white breast, which the Indians call yncahualpa; it utters a monotonous sound at each hour of the night. A partridge called yum frequents the long grass. On the lakes there is a very handsome goose, with white body and dark-green wings shading into violet, called huachua, two kinds of ibis, a large gull (Larus serranus) frequenting the alpine lakes in flocks, flamingoes called parihuana, ducks and water-hens. Many pretty little finches fly about the maize-fields and fruit-gardens, and a little green parakeet is met with as high as 12,000 ft. above the sea.
The third division of Peru is the region of the tropical forests, at the base of the Andes, and within the basin of the Amazon. It is traversed by great navigable rivers. The Marañon, having burst through the defile of the Pongo de Manseriche (575 ft. above sea level), Montaña.and the Huallaga through that of Chasuta, enter the forests and unite after separate courses of about 600 and 400 m., the united flood then flowing eastward to the Brazilian frontier. After 150 m. it is joined b the Ucayali, a great navigable river with a course of 600 m. The country between the Huallaga and the Ucayali, traversed by the Eastern Cordillera, is called the Pampa del Sacramento, and is characterized by extensive grassy plains. The forests drained by the Maranon, Huallaga and Ucayali form the northern portion of the Peruvian montana. The southern half of the montaia is watered by streams flowing from the eastern Andes, which go to form the river Madre de Dios or Amaru-mayu, the principal branch of the river Beni, which falls into the Madeira. The region of the Peruvian montana, which is 800 m. long from the Maranon to the Bolivian frontier, is naturally divided into two sections, the sub-tropical forests in the ravines and on the eastern slopes of the Andes, and the dense tropical forests in the Amazonian plain. The sub-tropical section is important from the value of its products and interesting from the grandeur and beauty of its scenery. Long spurs run ofT from the Andes, gradually decreasing in e evation, and it is sometimes a distance of 60 or 80 m. before they finally subside into the vast forest-covered plains of the Amazon basin. Numerous rivers flow through the valleys between these spurs, which are the native home of the quinine-yielding cinchona trees. The most valuable species, called C. Calisaya, is ound in the forests of Caravaya in south Peru and in those of Bolivia. The species between Caravaya and the headwaters of the Huallaga yield very little of the febrifuge alkaloid. But the forests of Huanuco and Huamalios abound in species yielding the grey bark of commerce, which is rich in cinchonine, an alkaloid efficacious as a febrifuge, though inferior to quinine. With the cinchona trees grow many kinds of melastomaceae, especially the Lasiamira, with masses of purple flowers, tree-ferns and palms. In the warm Valleys there are large plantations of coca (Erythroxylon Coca), the annual produce of which is stated at 15,000,000 ℔. The other products of these warm valleys are excellent coffee, cocoa, sugar, tropical fruits of all kinds, and gold in abundance. In the vast untrodden forests farther east there are timber trees of many kinds, incense trees, a great wealth of rubber trees of the Hevea genus, numerous varieties of beautiful alms, sarsaparilla, vanilla, ipecacuanha and copaiba. The abundant and varied fauna is the same as that of the Brazilian forests.
Geology.—The Eastern Cordillera, which, however, is but little known, appears to consist, as in Bolivia, chiefly of Palaeozoic rocks; the western ranges of the Andes are formed of Mesozoic beds, together with recent volcanic lavas and ashes; and the lower hills near the coast are composed of granite, syenite and other crystalline rocks, sometimes accompanied by limestones and sandstones, which are probably of Lower Cretaceous age, and often covered by marine Tertiary deposits. Thus the orographical features of the country correspond broadly with the geological divisions. The constitution of the Mesozoic band varies. Above Lima the western chain of the Andes is composed of porphyritic tuffs and massive limestones, while the longitudinal valley of the Oroya is hollowed in carbonaceous sandstones. From the analogy of the neighbouring countries it is possible that some of the tuffs may be Jurassic, but the other deposits probably belong for the most part to the Cretaceous system. The carbonaceous sandstone contains Gault fossils. Like the similar sandstone in Bolivia, it includes seams of coal and is frequently impregnated with cinnabar. It is in tlhisi sandstone that the rich mercury mines of Huancavelica are worked.
Farther north, in the department of Ancachs, the Mesozoic belt is composed chiefly of sandstones and shales, and the limestones which form so prominent a feature above Lima seem to have disappeared. The Cordillera Negra in this region is in many places cut by numerous dikes of diorite, and it is near these dikes that silver ores are chiefly ​ found In the Cordillera Nevada the Mesozoic rocks which form the chain are often covered by masses of modern volcanic rock. Similar rocks are also found in the Cordillera Negra, but the volcanic centres appear to have been in the Sierra Nevada.
Population.—The first trustworthy enumeration of the people of Peru was made in 1793, when there were 617,700 Indians, 241,225 mestizos (Indian and white inter-mixture), 136,311 Spaniards, 40,337 negro slaves and 41,404 mulattoes, making a total of 1,076,977, exclusive of the wild Indians of the montaña. Viceroy Toledo’s enumeration of the Indians in 1575 gave them a total of 8,000,000, the greater part of whom had been sacrificed by Spanish cruelty. Others had withdrawn into the mountains and forests, and in the native villages under Spanish administration the birth rate had dropped to a small part of what it had been because the great bulk of the male population had been segregated in the mines and on the estates of the conquerors. This tells a story of depopulation under Spanish rule, to which the abandoned terraces (andenes) on the mountain sides, once highly cultivated, bear testimony. Several diverse totals have been published as the result of the census taken in 1876, which is considered imperfect. One estimate places the total at 2,660,881, comprising about 13·8% whites, 57·6% Indians, 1·9% negroes, 1·9% Asiatics, chiefly Chinese, and 24·8% mixed races. In 1996 estimates were made under official auspices (see A. Garland, Peru in 1906, Lima, 1907), which gave the population as 3,547,829, including Tacna (8000). It is believed, however, that this and other larger estimates are excessive. There is no considerable immigration.
The population of Peru is mixed, including whites, Indians, Africans, Asiatics, and their mixtures and sub-mixtures. The dominant race is of Spanish origin, to a considerable extent mixed with Indian blood. The Indians are in great part descendants of the various tribes organized under the rule of the Incas at the time of the Spanish conquest. There are two distinct general types—the coast tribes occupying the fertile river valleys, who are employed on the plantations, in domestic service in the cities, or in small industries of their own, no longer numerous, and the sierra tribes, who are agriculturists, miners, stock-breeders and packers, still comparatively numerous. In addition to these are the tribes of wild Indians of the montaña region, or eastern forests, who were never under Inca rule and are still practically independent. Their number is estimated at 150,000 to 300,000, divided into 112 tribes, and differing widely in habits, customs and material condition. Some live in settled communities and roughly cultivate the soil. Others are hunters and fishermen and are nomadic in habit. Others are intractable forest tribes, having no relations with the whites The sierra or upland Indians, the most numerous and strongest type, belong largely to the Quichua and Aymara families, the former inhabiting the regions northward of Cuzo, and the latter occupying the Titicaca basin and the sierras of Bolivia. These Indians are generally described as Cholos, a name sometimes mistakenly applied to the mestizos, while the tribes of the eastern forests are called Chunchos, barbaros, or simply Indians. The Cholos may be roughly estimated at about 1,800,000 and form by far the larger part of the sierra population. Practically all the industries and occupations of this extensive region depend upon them for labourers and servants.
The mestizos are of mixed Spanish and Indian blood. There are two general classes—the costeños or those of the coast, and the serranos or those of the sierras. The mestizos of the coast are usually traders, artisans, overseers, petty officers and clerks, and small politicians. In the sierras they have the same general occupations, but there are no social bars to their advancement, and they become lawyers, physicians, priests, merchants, officials and capitalists. The African and Asiatic elements furnish only about 2% each of the population The Africans were introduced as slaves soon after the conquest, because the coast Indians were physically incapable of performing the work required of them on the sugar estates All the heavy labour in the coast provinces was performed by them down to 1855, when African slavery was abolished. They have since preferred to live in the towns, although many continue on the plantations. The first Chinese coolies were introduced in 1849 to supply labourers on the sugar estates, which had begun to feel the effects of the suppression of the African slave traffic. At first the coolies were treated with cruelty. The scandals that resulted led to investigations and severe restrictions, and their employment now has become a matter of voluntary contract, usually for two years, in which fair dealing and good treatment are the rule. Many Chinese are also settled in the coast cities. Commercial relations have also been opened with Japan, and a small Japanese colony has been added to the population. The Spanish and African cross is to be seen in the mulattoes, quadroons and octoroons that inhabit the warm coast cities. Other race mixtures consist of the zambos (the African-Indian cross), an Asiatic graft upon these various crosses, and an extremely confusing intermixture of the various crosses, for which the Spanish races have descriptive appellations. The foreign population is chiefly concentrated in Lima and Callao, though mining and other industries have drawn small contingents to other places.
Education.—Universities and colleges were founded in Peru soon after the conquest, and Lima, Cuzco, Arequipa and Chuquisaca (now the Bolivian town of Sucre) became centres of considerable intellectual activity. Something was done for the education of the sons of the Indian “nobility,” schools being created at Lima and Cuzco. The university of San Marcos at Lima is the oldest collegiate institution in the New World, originating in a grant from Charles V. in 1551 to the Dominicans for the establishment of a college in their monastery at Lima. Its present name, however, was not adopted until 1574, two years after its first secular rector had been chosen. The college of San Carlos was founded in 1770, and the school of medicine in 1792. At Cuzco the university of San Antonio Abad was founded in 1598, and the college of San Geronimo at Arequipa in 1616. The instruction given in these institutions was of the religious-scholastic character of that time, and was wholly under the supervision of the Church. Independence opened the way for a larger measure of intellectual and educational progress, especially for the lower classes. As organized under the law of the 5th of December 1905, primary instruction is free and nominally obligatory, and is under the control of the national government. The primary schools are divided into two grades: a free elementary course of two years, and a higher course of three years, in a school called the “scholastic centre,” in which learning a trade is included. There were 1508 elementary schools and 862 scholastic centres in 1906. There are, besides these. a large number of private schools, which in 1906 carried about 22,000 pupils on their rolls, or three times the number in the public primary schools. To provide teachers six normal schools have been established, two of which (one for males and one for females) are in Lima. For intermediate or secondary instruction there are 23 national colleges for boys in the various departmental capitals, and three similar colleges for girls, in Ayacucho, Cuzco and Trujillo. In these the majority of pupils were under the direction of Belgian and German instructors. The private schools of this grade are still more numerous, and there are a number of special schools that belong to the same category. For higher instruction there are four universities: the Universidad Mayor de San Marcos at Lima, and three provincial institutions at Arequipa, Cuzco and Trujillo. All these have faculties of letters and law, and San Marcos has in addition faculties of theology, medicine, mathematics and science, philosophy and administrative and political economy. The professional schools include a school of civil and mining engineering at Lima (created 1876), a military school at Chorrillos under the direction of French instructors, a naval school at Callao, nine episcopal seminaries (one for each diocese), a national agricultural school in the vicinity of Lima (created 1902), and a few commercial schools. There is also a correctional school at Lima devoted to the education and training of youthful delinquents.
Science and Literature.—Towards the end of the 18th century scientific studies began to receive attention in Peru. M. Godin, a member of the French commission for measuring an arc of the meridian near Quito, became professor of mathematics at San Marcos in 1750; and the botanical expeditions sent out from Spain gave further zest to scientific research. Dr Gabriel Moreno (d. 1809), a native of Huamantanga in the Maritime Cordillera, studied under Dr Jussieu, and became an eminent botanist. Don Hipolito Unanue, born at Arica in 1755, wrote an important work on the climate of Lima and contributed to the Mercurio peruano. This periodical was started in 1791 at Lima, the contributors forming a society called “amantes del pais,” and it was completed in eleven volumes. It contains many valuable articles on history, topography, botany, mining, commerce and statistics An ephemeris and guide to Peru was begun by the learned geographer Dr Cosme Bueno, and continued by Dr Unanue, who brought out his guides at Lima from 1793 to 1798. In 1794 a nautical school was founded at Lima, with Andres Baleato as instructor and Pedro Alvarez as teacher of the use of instruments. Baleato also constructed a map of Peru. ​ A list of Peruvian authors in viceregal times occupies a long chapter in the life of St Toribio by Montalvo; and the bibliographical labours of the Peruvian Leon Pinelo are still invaluable to Spanish students. The most prolific author of colonial times was Dr Pedro de Peralta y Barnuevo, who wrote more than sixty works, including an epic poem entitled Lima fundada.
The topographical labours of Cosme Bueno and Unanue were ably continued at Lima by Admiral Don Eduardo Carrasco, who compiled annual uides of Peru from 1826. But the most eminent Peruvian geographer is Dr Don Mariano Felipe Paz Soldan (1821–1886), whose Geografia del Peru appeared in 1861. His still more important work, tile Diccionario geografico estadistico del Peru (1877), is a gazetteer on a most complete scale. In 1868 appeared his first volume of the Historia del Peru independiente, and two others have since been published. His Historia de la guerra del Pacifico is the Peruvian version of that disastrous war. The earlier history of Peru has been written in three volumes by Sebastian Lorente (d. 1884). Mariano Rivero has discussed its antiquities; and Manuel Fuentes has edited six volumes of memoirs written by Spanish viceroys But the most valuable and important historical work by a modern Peruvian is General Mendiburu’s (1805–1885) Diccionario historico-biografico del Peru, a monument of patient and conscientious research, combined with critical discernment of a high order. As laborious historical students, Don José Toribio Polo, the author of an ecclesiastical history of Peruvian dioceses, and Don Enrique Torres Saldamando the historian of the Jesuits in Peru, have great merit. Among good local annalists may be mentioned Juan Gilberto Valdivia, who has written a history of Arequipa, and Pio Benigno Mesa, the author of the Annals of Cuzco.
The leading Peruvian authors on constitutional and legal subjects are Dr José Santistevan, who has published volumes on civil and criminal law, Luis Felipe Villaran (subsequently rector of the university at Lima), author of a work on constitutional right, Dr Francisco Garcia Calderon (once president of Peru), author of a dictionary of Peruvian legislation, in two volumes; Dr Francisco Xavier Mariategui, one of the fathers of Peruvian independence; and Dr Francisco de Paula Vigil (1792–1875), orator and statesman as well as author, whose work, Defensa de los gobiernos, is a noble and enlightened statement of the case for civil governments against the pretensions of the court of Rome. Manuel A. Fuentes, an able statistician and the author of the Estadistica de Lima, has also written a manual of parliamentary practice. Perhaps the most important work on Peru of modern times is that of the Italian savant Antonio Raimondi (1825–1890), who spent the greater part of his life in studying the topography and natural resources of the country. Only four volumes had been published at the time of his death, but he left a mass of papers and manuscripts which the government has put in, the hands of the Geographical Society of Lima for publication. His great work is entitled El Peru: estudios mineralogicos, &c. (3 vols., Lima, 1890–1902), and one separate volume on the department of Ancachs. Peruvian literature since the independence has also attained high merit in the walks of poetry and romance. The Guayaquil author, Olmedo, who wrote the famous ode on the victory of Junin, and the Limenians Felipe Pardo and Manuel Segura are names well known wherever the Spanish language is spoken. Both died between 1860 and 1870. The comedies of Segura on the customs of Lima society, entitled Un Paseo a Amancaes and La Saya y Manto, have no equal in the dramatic literature of Spanish America and few in that of modern Spain. From 1848 date the first poetical efforts of Arnaldo Marquez, who is distinguished for his correct diction and rich imagination, as is Nicolas Corpancho for his dramas and a volume of poems entitled Brisas, Adolfo Garcia for a beautiful sonnet to Bolivar, which was published at Havre in 1870, in his one volume of poems, and Clemente Althaus for his productivity and style. Pedro Paz Soldan was a classical scholar who published three volumes of poems. Carlos Augusto Salaverry is known as one of Peru’s best lyrical poets, and Luis Benjamin Cisneros for his two novels, Julia and Edgardo. Trinidad Fernandez and Constantino Carrasco were two poets of merit who died young, the principal work of the latter being his metrical version of the Quichua drama, Ollantay. José Antonio Lavalle and Narciso Arestegui are chiefly known as novelists. In his youth Ricardo Palma published three books of poems, entitled Armomas, Verbos y Gerundios and Pasionarias, and then, since 1870, devoted his great literary talents to writing the historical traditions of Peru, of which six volumes were published. At the outbreak of the war with Chile he was vice-director of the national library at Lima, which was wantonly pillaged by the Chilean forces. After the evacuation of Lima by the Chileans Palma devoted his life to the recovery of his scattered books and the acquisition of new collections, and he had the satisfaction before his death of re-opening the library, which had obtained about 30,000 volumes, or three-fourths of the number on its shelves before the Chilean invasion.
Of the aboriginal inhabitants of Peru much has been written. The important work of Mariano Eduardo Rivero, of Arequipa, assisted by J. J. von Tschudi, on the antiquities of Peru (Antiguedades peruanas, Vienna, 1841, Eng. trans., New York, 1853) has been followed by other investigators into the language, literature, customs and religion of the Incas. The best known of these are José Sebastian Barranca, the naturalist and antiquary, José Fernandez Nodal, and Gavino Pacheco Zegarra of Cuzco, who published translations of the Inca drama of Ollantay, and Leonardo Villar, of Cuzco.
Among Peruvian naturalists since the advent of the republic, the most distinguished have been Mariano Eduardo Rivero, the geologist, mineralogist and archaeologist, and his friend and colleague Nicolas de Pierola, authors of Memorial de ciencias naturales. The Lima Geographical Society (founded in 1888) is perhaps the best and most active scientific organization in the republic. Its special work covers national geographical exploration and study, archaeology, statistics and climatology, and its quarterly bulletins contain invaluable information. The society receives a government subsidy, and its rooms in the national library in Lima are the principal centre of scientific study in Peru. It had an active membership of 163 in 1906, besides 172 honorary and corresponding members. The historical institute of Peru, also at Lima, is charged by the government, from which it receives a liberal subsidy, with the work of collecting, preparing and publishing documents relating to Peruvian history, and of preserving objects of archaeological and historic character. Its museum, which is of great historical and artistic value and includes a collection of portraits of the Peruvian viceroys and presidents, is in the upper floors of the Exposition Palace. Another subsidized national society is the athenæum, which was founded in 1877 as the “literary club,” and reorganized in 1887 under its present title. Its purpose is to foster learning and literary effort, and it is a popular and prominent feature in the intellectual life of the country.
Religion.—According to the constitution of 1860 “the nation professes the apostolic Roman Catholic religion; the state protects it, and does not permit the public exercise of any other.” There is a certain degree of tolerance, however, and the Anglican and some of the evangelical churches are permitted to establish missions in the country, but not always without hostile demonstrations from the Catholic priesthood. There are Anglican churches in Lima and Cuzco, belonging to the diocese of the Bishop of the Falkland Islands; but their existence is illegal and is ignored rather than permitted. In its ecclesiastical organization Peru is divided into nine dioceses: Lima, which is an archbishopric, Arequipa, Puno, Cuzco, Ayacucho, Huanuco, Huaraz, Trujillo and Chachapoyas. These dioceses are subdivided into 613 curacies, presided over by curas, or curate vicars. Each diocese has its seminary for the education of the priesthood, that of Arequipa being distinguished for its influence in church affairs. Arequipa, like Cordoba and Chuquisaca, is a stronghold of clericalism and exercises a decisive influence in politics as well as in church matters. There are a number of fine churches in Lima and in the sees of the various dioceses. Monasteries and nunneries are numerous, dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries, but their influence is now less potent than in those days and the monastic population is not so large. In modern times many of the convents ave been devoted to educational work especially for girls, which is an obstacle to the successful development of a public school system in the country.
Political Divisions.—The empire of the Incas was divided into four main divisions, Chinchay-suyu to the north of Cuzco, Anti-suyu to the east, Colla-suyu to the south and Cunti-suyu to the west, the whole empire being called Ttahuantin-suyu, or the four governments. Each was ruled by a viceroy, undei whom were the “huaranca-camayocs,” or officers ruling over thousands, and inferior officers, in regular order, over 500, 100, 50 and 10 men. All disorders and irregularities were checked by the periodical visits of the tucuyricocs or inspectors. The Spanish conquest destroyed this complicated system. In 1569 the governor, Lope Garcia de Castro, divided Peru into corregimientos under officers named corregidors, of whom there were 77, each in direct communication with the government at Lima. An important administrative reform was made in 1734, when Peru was divided into 7 intendencias, each under an officer called an intendente. These intendeucias included about 6 of the old corregimientos, which were called partidos, under officers named subdelegados. Thus the number of officers reporting direct to Lima was reduced from 77 to 7, a great improvement. The republic adopted the same system, calling the intendencias departments, under a prefect, and the partidos provinces, under a sub-prefect. Peru is divided into 18 departments, 2 littoral provinces, and what is called the constitutional province of Callao. This is exclusive of Tacna and its 3 provinces. The departments, which contain 98 provinces, with their areas, capitals and estimated populations of 1906, are as follow: the ​
list being arranged to show the coast, sierra and montaña divisions:—
Apart from the departmental capitals there are few towns of size and importance. The so-called coast towns are commonly at some distance from the seashore, and their shipping ports are little more than a straggling collection of wretched habitations in the vicinity of the landing-stage and its offices and warehouses. Callao (q.v.) is a noteworthy exception, and Paita and Pisco are something more than the average coast village. Near Lima, on the south, there are three bathing resorts, Chorrillos, Miraflores and Barranco, which have handsome residences and large populations in the bathing season. North of Lima is the port and bathing resort of Ancon, in an extremely arid locality but having a fine beach, a healthy climate and a considerable population in the season. The towns of the coast region are usually built on the same general plan, the streets crossing each other at right angles and enclosing squares, or quadras. In the sierra there is the same regular plan wherever the site is level enough. High-pitched red tiled roofs take the place of the flat roofs of the coast. The upper storey often recedes, leaving wide corridors under the overhanging eaves, and in the “plazas” there are frequently covered arcades. In addition to the capitals of the departments, Tarma (about 4000) and Xauxa, or Jauja (about 3000), are important towns of this region. In the montaña there are no towns of importance other than the capitals of the departments and the small river ports.
Communications.—The problem of easy and cheap transportation between the coast and the interior has been a vital one or Peru, for upon it depends the economic development of some of the richest parts of the republic. The arid character of the coastal zone, with an average width of about 80 m., permits cultivation of the soil only where water for irrigation is available. Only in the sierra and montaña regions is it possible to maintain a large population and develop the industries upon which their success as a nation depends. During colonial times and down to the middle of the 19th century pack animals were the only means of transportation across the desert and over the rough mountain trails. Railway construction in Peru began in 1848 with a short line from Callao to Lima, but the building of railway lines across the desert to the inland towns of the fertile river valleys and the Andean foot-hills did not begin until twenty years later. These roads added much to the productive resources of the country, but their extension to the sierra districts was still a vital necessity. Under the administration (1868–1872) of President José Balta the construction of two transandean and several coastal zone railways was begun, but their completion became impossible for want of funds. Balta’s plans covered 1281 m. of state railways and 749 m. of private lines, the estimated cost to be about £37,500,000—a sum far beyond the resources of the republic. The two transandean lines were the famous Oroya railway, running from Callao to Oroya (1893), which crosses the Western Cordillera at an elevation of 15,645 ft., and later on to Cerro de Pasco (1904), the Goillarisquisga coal mines (1904) and Hauri (1906); and the southern line from Mollendo to Lake Titicaca, which reached Arequipa in 1869, Puno in 1871 and Checcacupe (Cuzco branch) in 1906. Surveys were completed in 1909 for an extension of the Oroya line from a point on its Cerro de Pasco branch eastward to the Ucayali, and another transandean line frequently discussed is projected from Paita across the Andes to Puerto Limon, on the Marañon—a distance of 410 m.
The most important means of communication in the republic is that of its river system, comprising, as it does, the navigable channels of the Marañon, or upper Amazon, and its tributaries. It is officially estimated that this system comprises no less than 20,000 m. of connected riverways navigable at high water for all descriptions of boats, or 10,000 m. for steamers of 20 to 2 ft. draught, which is reduced to 5800 m. at low water. The rivers forming this system are the aranon from Puerto Limon to Tabatinga on the Brazilian frontier (484 m.), the Japurá, Putumayo, Javary, Napo, Tigre, Huallaga, Ucayali, Pachitea, Juruá, Purús, Acre, Curaray and Aguarico all navigable over parts of their courses for steamers of 4 to 8 ft. draught in periods of high water. As for the Marañon, it is claimed that steamers of 20 ft. draught can ascend to Puerto Limon at all seasons of the year. The inclusion of the upper waters of the Brazilian rivers jurua, Purus and Acre is pro forma only, as they are wholly under Brazilian jurisdiction. tactically the whole of the region through which these rivers run—the montaña of Peru—is undeveloped, and is inhabited by Indians, with a few settlements of whites on the river courses. lts chief port is Iquitos, on the Marañon, 335 m. above the Brazilian frontier and 2653 m. from the mouth of the Amazon. It is visited by ocean-going steamers, and is the centre of the Peruvian river transportation system. The second port in importance is Yurimaguas, on the Huallaga, 143 m. from the mouth of that river and 528 m. from Iquitos, with which it is in regular communication. There are small ports, or trading posts, on all the large rivers, and occasional steamers are sent to them with supplies and to bring away rubber and other forest products. Of the rivers farther south, which discharge into the Amazon through the Madeira, the Madre de Dios alone offers an extended navigable channel, together with some of its larger tributaries, such as the Heath and Chandless. Of a widely different character is the navigation of Lake Titicaca, where steamers ply regularly between Puno and Guaqui, the latter on the south-east shore in railway connexion with La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. This is one of the most remarkable steamer routes in the world, being 12,370 ft. above sea-level The lake is 165 m. long and from 70 to 80 m. wide and has a number of small Indian villages on its shores.
There are two submarine cable lines on the Peruvian coast—the (American) Central and South American Co. extending from Panama to Valparaiso, and the (British) West Coast Cable Co., subsidiary to the Eastern Telegraph Co., with a cable between Callao and Valparaiso. The inland telegraph service dates from 1864, when a short line from Callao to Lima was constructed, and state ownership from 1875, when the government assumed control of all lines within the republic, some of which were subsequently handed over to private administration. They connect all the important cities, towns and ports, but cover only a small part of the republic. The cost of erecting and maintaining telegraph lines in the sierra and montaña regions is too great to permit their extensive use, and the government is seeking to substitute wireless telegraphy. From Puerto Bermudez, on the Pachitea or Pichis river, the terminus of a government road and telegraph line, a wireless system connects with Massisea on the Ucayai and thence with Iquitos, on the Marañon—a distance of 930 m. by steamer, which is much shortened by direct communication between the three radio graphic stations. This service was opened to Iquitos on the 8th of July 1908, the first section between Puerto Bermudez and Massisea having been pronounced a success. The Peruvian telegraph system connects with those of Ecuador and Bolivia. The use of the telephone is general, 5236 m. being in operation in 1906. The postal service is unavoidably limited and deflective, owing to the rugged character of the country, its sparse population, and the large percentage of illiterates. On the coast, however, in and near the large cities and towns, it compares well with other South American countries. Peru belongs to the international postal union, and had in 1906 a money order and parcels exchange with seven foreign states. A noteworthy peculiarity in the foreign mail service is that an extra charge of 2 cents for each letter and 1 cent for each post-card is collected when they are sent across the isthmus of Panama. No charge is made for the transmission of newspapers within the republic. The letter rate is 5 cents silver for 15 grams, or 10 cents to foreign countries in the postal union.
Commerce.—Owing to political disorder, difficulty in land communications, and the inheritance of vicious fiscal methods from Spanish colonial administration, the commercial development of Peru has been slow and erratic. There are many ports on the coast, but only eight of them are rated as first class, viz. Paita, Eten, Pacasmayo, Salaverry, Callao, Pisco, Mollendo and Ilo, five of which are ports of call for foreign coasting steamers. The inland port of Iquitos, on the Marañon, is also rated as first class, and enjoys special privileges because of its distance from the national ​ capital. The second-class ports are Tumbez, Talara, Pimentel, Chimbote, Samanco, Casma, Huacho, Cerro-Azul, Tambo de Mora, Lomas and Chala,’ on the coast, Puno on Lake Titicaca, and Leticia on the Amazon near the western mouth of the Javary. Callao (q.v.) is the chief port of the republic and monopolizes the greater part of its foreign trade. Its harbour one of the best on the west coast of South America, has been greatly improved by the port works begun under the administration of President Balta, Paita and Chimbote have good natural harbours, but the others, for the most part, are open roadsteads or unsheltered bays. Mollendo is a shipping port for Bolivian exports sent over the railway from Puno. There were 12 foreign steamship lines trading at Peruvian ports in 1908, some of them making regular trips up and down the coast at frequent intervals and carrying much of its coastwise traffic. Foreign sailing vessels since 1886 have not been permitted to engage in this traffic, but permission is given to steamships on application and under certain conditions. The imports were valued in 1907 at 55,147,870 soles (10 soles = £1 stg.) and the exports at 57,477,320 soles—the former showing a considerable increase and the latter a small decrease in comparison with 1906. The exports consist of cotton, sugar, cocaine, hides and skins, rubber and other forest products, wool, guano and mineral _products. The most important export is sugar, the products of the mines ranking second. The largest share in Peru’s foreign trade is taken by Great Britain, Chile ranking second and the United States thire
Products.—Although her mining industries have been, the longest and most widely known, the principal source of Peru's wealth is agriculture. This seems incompatible with the arid character of the country and the peculiar conditions of its civilization, but irrigation has been successfully employed in the fertile valleys of the coast.
Agriculture.—Sugar-cane is cultivated in most of the coast valleys, and with exceptional success in those of the Canete, Rimac, Chancay, Huaura, Supe, Santa, Chicama, Pacasmayo and’ Chiclayo. Some of the large estates are owned and worked by British subjects. The industry was nearly ruined by the Chileans in 1880, but its recovery soon followed the termination of the war and the output has been steadily increasing. At the outbreak of the war the production was about 80,000 tons; in 1905 the production of sugar and molasses amounted to 161,851 metric tons, of which 134,344 were exported. In 1906 the total production reached 169,418 metric tons, Next in importance is cotton, which is grown along the greater part of the Peruvian coast, but chiefly in the departments of Piura, Lima and Ica. Four kinds are produced: rough cotton or “vegetable wool,” sea island, brown or Mitafifi, and smooth or American. Production is steadily increasing, the export having been 8000 metric tons in 1900, 17,386 in 1905 and 20,000 in 1906. Local consumption required about 2300 tons in 1905. Rice is an important crop in the inundated lands of Lambayeque and Libertad. It is a universal article of food in Peru, and the output is consumed in the country. Maize is another important food product which is generally cultivated along the coast and in the lower valleys of the sierra. In some places two or three crops a year are obtained. It is the staple food everywhere, and little is exported. It is largely used in the manufacture of chicha, a fermented drink popular among the lower classes. Tobacco is grown in the department of Piura, and in the moniafa departments of Loreto, Amazonas and Cajamarca. ‘The local consumption is large and the export small. Another montafia product is coffee, whose successful development is prevented by difficult transport. A superior quality of bean is produced in the eastern valleys of the Andes, especially in the Chanchamayo valley. Cacao is another montafia product, although like coffee it is cultivated in the warm valleys of the sierra, but the export is small. With cheap transport to the coast the production of coffee and cacao must largely increase. Coca (Erythroxylon coca) is a product peculiar to the eastern Andean slopes of Bolivia and Peru, where it has long been cultivated for its leaves These are sun-dried, packed in bales, and distributed throughout the sierra region, where coca is used by the natives as a stimulant. The Cholos are never without it, and with it are able to perform incredible tasks with little food. The common manner of using it is to masticate the dried leaves with a little lime. Cocaine is also derived from coca leaves, and a considerable quantity of the drug is exported. The coca shrub is most successfully cultivated at an elevation of 5000 to 6000 ft. Fruits in great variety are grown everywhere in Peru, but beyond local market demands ther commercial production is limited to grapes and olives Grapes are produced in many of the irrigated valleys of the coast, such as Chincha, Lunahuana, Ica, Vitor, Mayes, Andaray, Mogquegua and Locumba, and the fruit is manufactured into wines and brandies. Excellent clarets and white wines are produced, and the industry is steadily increasing Olives were introduced early in colonial times and are cultivated in several coast valleys, especially in the provinces of Camaná (Arequipa) and Moquegua The fruit is commonly used for the manufacture of oil, which is consumed in the country, and only a small part is exported. Were large markets available, other fruits such as oranges, lemons, mes and bananas would undoubtedly be extensively cultivated In the sierra region, wheat, barley, oats, quinua (Chenopodium quinoa), alfalfa, Indian corn, oca (Oxalis tuberosa) and potatoes are the principal products. Wheat is widely grown but the output is not large. Barley and oats are grown for forage, but for this purpose alfalfa has become the staple, and without it the mountain pack trains could not be maintained. Quinua is an indigenous plant. growing at elevations of 13,900 ft. and more; its grain is an important food among the upland natives. Potatoes are grown everywhere in the sierras, and with quinua are the only crops that can be raised for human food above 13,000 ft. Yuca (Manihot utilissima), known as cassava in the West Indies and mandioca in Brazil, is also widely cultivated for food and for the manufacture of starch. There are good pastures in the sierras, and cattle have been successfully reared in some,of the departments since the early years of Spanish occupation, chiefly in Ancachs, Cajamarca, Junin, Ayacucho, Puno, and some parts of Cuzco. The development alfalfa cultivation is extending the area of cattle-breeding somewhat and is improving the quality of the beefLivestock. produced. The cattle are commonly small and hardy, and, like the Mexican cattle, are able to bear unfavourable conditions. Sheep are reared over a somewhat wider range, exclusively for their wool, The “natives,” or descendants of the early importations, are small, long-legged animals, whose wool is scanty and poor. Since the end of the 19th century efforts have been made to improve the stock through the importation of merinos, with good results. Sheep ranges under the care of Scottish shepherds have also been established in the department of Junin, the stock being imported from southern Patagonia, England and Australia. Goats are raised in Piura and Lambayeque for their skins and fat, and swine-breeding for the production of lard has become important in some of the coast valleys immediately north of Lima. Horses are reared only to a limited extent, although there is demand for them for military purposes. The government is seeking to promote the industry through the importation of breeding mares from Argentina. Mules are bred in Piura and Apurimac, and are highly esteemed for mountain travel. The chief breeding industry is that of the llama, alpaca and vicuña—animals of the Auchenia family domesticated by the Indians and bred, the first as a pack animal, and the other two for their wool, hides and meat. The llama was the only beast of burden known to the South American natives before the arrival of the Spaniards and is highly serviceable on the difficult trails of the Andes. The alpaca and vicuña are smaller and weaker and have never been used for this service, but their fine, glossy fleeces were used by the Indians in the manufacture of clothing and are still an important commercial asset of the elevated table-lands of Peru and Bolivia. The export of wool in 1905 exceeded 3,300,000 ℔. The rearing of these animals requires much patience and skill, in which no one has been able to match the Indian breeders of the Andean plateaus.
The natural products of Peru include rubber, cabinet woods in great variety, cinchona or Peruvian bark and other medicinal Products, various fibres, and guano, There are two kinds of rubber supplied by the Peruvian montaña forests: jebe (also written hebe) or seringa, and caucho—the former being collected from the Hevea guayanensis, or H. brasthensis, and the latter from the Castilloa elastica and some other varieties. The Hevea product is obtained annually by tapping the trees and coagulating the sap over a smoky fire, but the caucho is procured by felling the tree and collecting the sap in a hollow in the ground where it is coagulated by stirring in a mixture of soa and the juice of a plant called vetilla. As the species from which Ceara rubber is obtained (Hancorina speciosa) is found in Bolivia, it is probable that this is also a source of the Peruvian caucho. The Hevea is found along the water-courses of the lowlands, which includes the large tributaries of the Marajion, while the caucho species flourish on higher ground, above 900 ft. elevation. Owing to the export tax on rubber (8 cents per kilogram on jebe and 5 cents on caucho) it is probable that the official statistics do not cover the total production, which was returned as 2539 metric tons in 1905, valued at £913,989. The export of cinchona, or Peruvian bark, is not important in itself, being only 64 tons, valued at £1406 in 1905. The best bark comes from the Carabaya district in south-eastern Peru, but it is found in many localities on the eastern slopes of the Andes. The Peruvian supply is practically exhausted through the destructive methods employed in collecting the bark, and the world now depends chiefly on Bolivia and Ecuador. The forests of eastern Peru are rich in fine cabinet woods, but their inaccessibility renders them of no great value. Among the best known of them are cedar, walnut, ironwood and caoba, a kind of mahogany. Many of the forest trees of the upper Amazon valley of Brazil are likewise found in Peru. The palm family is numerous and includes the species producing vegetable ivory (Phytelephas), straw for plaiting Panama hats (Carludovica palmata), and the peach palm (Guilielma speciosa).
From guano an immense revenue was derived during the third quarter of the 19th century and it is still one of the largest exports. the guano beds are found on the barren islands of the Pacific coast. They were developed commercially during the administration (1845–1851) of President Ramon Castilla,Guano. at the same time that the nitrate deposits of Tarapaca became a ​ commercial asset of the republic. The large revenues derived from these sources undoubtedly became a cause of weakness and demoralization and eventually resulted in bankruptcy and the loss of Tarapaca. The deposits have been partially exhausted by the large shipments of over a half-century, but the export in 1905 was 73,369 tons, valued at £285,729.
Mining.—Mining was the chief industry of Peru under Spanish rule The Inca tribes were an agricultural and pastoral people, but the abundance of gold and silver in their possession at the time of the conquest shows that mining must have received considerable attention. They used these precious metals in decorations and as ornaments, but apparently attached no great value to them. The use of bronze also shows that they must have worked, perhaps superficially, some of the great copper deposits. Immediately following the Spanish invasion the Andean region was thoroughly explored, and with the assistance of Indian slaves thousands of mines were opened, many of them failures, some of them becoming famous There was a decline in mining enterprise after the revolt of the colonists against Spanish rule, owing to the unsettled state of the country, and this decline continued in some measure to the end of the century. The mining laws of the colonial regime and political disorder together raised a barrier to the employment of the large amount of capital needed, while the frequent outbreaks of civil war made it impossible to work any large enterprise because of its interference with labour and the free use of ports and roads. The Peruvians were impoverished, and under such conditions foreign capital could not be secured. In 1876 new mining laws were enacted which gave better titles to minin properties and better regulations for their operation, but the outbreak of the war with Chile at the end of the decade and the succeeding years of disorganization and partisan strife defeated their purpose. Another new mining code was adopted in 1901, and this, with an improvement in political and economic conditions, has led to a renewal of mining enterprise
Practically the whole Andean region of Peru is mineral-bearing—a region 1500 m. long by 200 to 300 m. wide. Within these limits are to be found most of the minerals known-gold, silver, quicksilver, copper, lead, zinc, iron, manganese, wolfram, bismuth, thorium, vanadium, mica, coal, &c. On or near the coast are coal, salt, sulphur, borax, nitrates and petroleum Gold is found in lodes and alluvial deposit; the former on the Pacific slope at Salpo, Otuzco, Huaylas, Yungay, Ocros, Chorrillos, Canete, Ica, Nasca, Andaray and Arequipa, and on the table-lands and Amazon slope at Pataz, Huanuco, Chuquitambo, Huancavelica, Cuzco, Cotabambas, Aymares, Paucartambo, Santo Domingo and Sandia; the latter wholly on the Amazon slope, in the country about the Pongo de Manseriche and at Chuquibamba, both on the upper Maranon, in the districts of Pataz, Huanuco, Aymares and Antabamba (Apurimac), Paucartambo ard Quippicauchi (Cuzco), and Sandia and Carabaya (Puno). The last two are most important and, it is believed, were the sources from which the Incas derived the greater part of their store. The alluvial deposits are found both in the beds of the small streams and in the soil of the small plains or pampas. The Aporoma deposit, in the district of Sandia, is the best known. Long ditches with stone-paved sluices for washing this mineral-bearing material have long been used by the Indians, who also construct stone bars across the beds of the streams to make riffles and hold the deposited grains of gold. Modern methods of hydraulic mining have been introduced to work the auriferous banks of Poto; elsewhere antiquated methods only are employed The upper valley of the Maranon has undeveloped gold bearing lodes. The number of mines worked is small and there is not much foreign capital invested in them. The gold ores of Peru are usually found in ferruginous quartz. The production in 1906 was valued at £170,355.
Peru has been known chiefly for its silver mines, some of which have been marvellously productive. The Cerro de Pasco district, with its 342 mines, is credited with a (production, in value, of £40,000,000 between 1784 and 1889, an is still productive, the output for 1906 being valued at £972,958. The principal silver-producing districts, the greater part on the high table-lands and slopes of the Andes, are those of Salpo, Hualgayoc, Huari, Huallanca, Huaylas, Huaraz, Recuay, Cajatambo, Yauli, Cerro de Pasco, Morococha, Huarochiri, Huancavelica, Quespisisa, Castrovirreyna, Lucanas, Lampa, Caylloma and Puno, but there are hundreds of others outside their limits. Silver is generally found as red oxides (locally called rosicler), sulphides and argentiferous galena. Modern machinery is little used and many mines are practically unworkable for want of pumps. In the vicinity of some of the deposits of argentiferous galena are large coal eds, but timber is scarce on the table-lands. The dried dung of the llama (taquia) is generally used as fuel, as in pre-Spanish times, for roasting ores, as also a species of grass called ichu (Stipa incana), and a singular woody fungus, called yareta (Azorella umbellifera), found growing on the rocks at elevations exceeding 12,000 ft. The methods formerly employed in reducing ores were lixiviation and amalgamation with quicksilver, but modern methods are gradually coming into use. Quicksilver is found at Huancavelica, Conta (Ancachs), and in the department of Puno. The mine first named has been worked since 1566 and its total production is estimated at 60,000 tons, the annual product being about 670 tons for a long period. The metal generally occurs as sulphide of mercury (cinnabar), but the ores vary greatly in richness—from 2% to 20% The annual production has fallen to a small fraction of the former output, its value in 1905 being only £340, and in 1906 £495.
The copper deposits of Peru long remained undeveloped through want of cheap transport and failure to appreciate their true value. The principal copper-bearing districts are Chimbote, Cajamarca, Huancayo, Huaraz, Huallanca, Junin, Huancavelica, Ica, Arequipa, Andahuaylas and Cuzco—chiefly situated in the high, bleak regions of the Andes. The Junin district is the best known and includes the Cerro de Pasco, Yauli, Morococha and Huallay groups of mines, all finding an outlet to the coast over the Oroya railway. These mines are of recent development, the Cerro de Pasco mines having been purchased by American capitalists. A smelting plant was erected in the vicinity of Cerro de Pasco designed to treat 1000 tons of ore daily, a railway was built to Oroya to connect with the state line terminating at that point, and a branch line 62 m. long was built to the coal-mines of Goillarisquisga. The Cerro de Pasco mines are supposed by some authorities to be the largest copper deposit in the world. In addition to the smelting works at Cerro de Pasco there are other large works at Casapalca, between Oroya and Lima, which belong to a British company, and smaller plants at Huallanca and Huinae. The production of copper is steadily increasing, the returns for 1903 ing 9497 tons and for 1906 13,474 tons, valued respectively at £476,824 and £996,055. Of other metals, lead is widely distributed, its chief source being a high grade galena accompanied by silver. Iron ores are found in Piura, the Huaylas valley, Aya, and some other places, but the deposits have not been worked through lack of fuel Sulphur deposits exist in the Sechura desert region, on the coast, and extensive borax deposits have been developed in the department of Arequipa. Coal has been found in extensive beds near Piura, Salaverry, Chimbote, Huarmey and Pisco on the coast, and at Goillarisquisga, Huarochiri and other places in the interior. Both anthracite and bituminous deposits have been found. Most of the deposits are isolated and have not been developed for want of transport. Petroleum has been found at several points on the coast in the department of Piura, and near Lake Titicaca in the department of Puno. The most productive of the Piura wells are at Talara and Zorritos, where refineries have been established. The crude oil is used on some of the Peruvian railways.
The number of mining claims (pertenencias) registered in 1907 was 12,858, according to official returns, each subject to a tax of 30 soles, or £3, per annum, the payment of which secures complete ownership of the property. The claims measure 100×200 metres (about 5 acres) in the case of mineral veins or lodes, and 200×200 metres (about 10 acres) for coal, alluvial gold and other deposits. The labourers are commonly obtained from the Cholos, or Indian inhabitants of the sierras, who are accustomed to high altitudes, and are generally efficient and trustworthy.
Manufactures.—The manufacturing industries of Peru are confined chiefly to the treatment of agricultural and mineral products the manufacture of sugar and rum from sugar cane, textiles from cotton and wool, wine and spirits from grapes, cigars and cigarettes from tobacco, chocolate from cacao, kerosene and benzine from crude petroleum, cocaine from coca, and refined metals from their ores. Many of the manufacturing industries are carried on with difficulty and maintained only by protective duties on competing goods. The Incas had made much progress in weaving, and specimens of their fabrics, both plain and coloured, are to be found in many museums. The Spanish introduced their own methods, and their primitive looms are still to be found among the Indians of the interior who weave the coarse material from which their own garments are made. Modern looms for the manufacture of woollens were introduced in 1861 and of cotton goods in 1874. There are large woollen factories at Cuzco and Lima, the Santa Catalina factory at the latter place turning out cloth and cashmere for the army, blankets, counterpanes and underclothing. There are cotton factories about Lima, at Ica and at Arequipa. Besides the wine industry, an irregular though important industry is the manufacture of artificial or counterfeit spirits and liqueurs in Callao and Lima. There are breweries in Arequipa, Callao, Cuzco and Lima, and the consumption of beer is increasing. There are large cigarette factories in Lima, and others in Arequipa, Callao, Piura and Trujillo. The plaiting of Panama hats from the specially prepared fibre of the “toquilla” palm is a domestic industry among the Indians at Catacoas (Piura) and Eten (Lambayeque). Coarser straw hats are made at other places, as well as hammocks, baskets, &c.
Government.—Peru is a centralized republic, whose supreme law is the constitution of 1860. Like the other states of South America its constitution provides for popular control of legislation and the execution of the laws through free elections and comparatively short terms of office, but in practice these safeguards are often set aside and dictatorial methods supersede all others. Nominally the people are free and exercise ​ sovereign rights in the choice of their representatives, but the ignorance of the masses, their apathy, poverty and dependence upon the great land proprietors and industrial corporations practically defeat these fundamental constitutional provisions. Citizenship is accorded to all Peruvians over the age of 21 and to all married men under that age, and the right of suffrage to all citizens who can read and write, or possess real estate or workshops, or pay taxes. In all cases the exercise of citizenship is regulated by law.
The government is divided into three independent branches, legislative, executive and judicial, of which through force of circumstances the executive has become the dominating power. The executive branch consists of a president and two vice-presidents elected for terms of four years, a cabinet of six ministers of state appointed by the president, and various subordinate officials who are under the direct orders of the president. The president is chosen by a direct popular election and cannot be re-elected to succeed himself. He must be not less than 35 years of age, a Peruvian by birth, in the enjoyment of all his civil rights, and domiciled in the republic ten years preceding the election. The immediate supervision and despatch of public administrative affairs is in the hands of the cabinet ministers-interior, foreign affairs, war and marine, finance and commerce, justice and public instruction, and public works and promotion (fomento). The execution of the laws in the departments and provinces, as well as the maintenance of public order, is entrusted to prefects and sub-prefects, who are appointees of the president. A vacancy in the office of president is filled by one of the two vice-presidents elected at the same time and under the same conditions. Inability of the first vice-president to assume the office opens the way for the second vice-president, who becomes acting president until a successor is chosen, The vice-presidents cannot be candidates for the presidency during their occupancy of the supreme executive office, nor can the ministers of state, nor the general-in-chief of the army, while in the exercise of their official duties.
The legislative power is exercised by a national Congress—senate and chamber of deputies—meeting annually on the 28th of July in ordinary session for a period of 90 days. Senators and deputies are inviolable in the exercise of their duties, and cannot be arrested or imprisoned during a session of Congress, including the month preceding and following the session, except in flagrante delicto. Members of Congress are forbidden to accept any employment or benefit from the executive. Senators and deputies are elected by direct vote—the former by departments, and the latter in proportion to the population. With both are elected an equal number of substitutes, who assume office in case of vacancy.
Departments with eight and more provinces are entitled to four senators, those of four to seven provinces three senators, those of two to three provinces two senators, and those of one province one senator. The deputies are chosen to represent 15,000 to 30,000 population each, but every province must have at least one deputy. Both senators and deputies are elected for terms of six years, and both must be native-born Peruvian citizens in the full enjoyment of their civil rights. A senator must be 35 years of age, and have a yearly income of $1000. The age limit of a deputy is 25 years, and his income must be not less than $500. In both chambers the exercise of some scientific profession is accepted in lieu of the pecuniary income. No member of the executive branch of the government (president, cabinet minister, prefect, sub-prefect, or governor) can be elected to either chamber, nor can any judge or “fiscal” of the supreme court, nor any member of the ecclesiastical hierarchy from his diocese, province or parish, nor any Judge or “fiscal” of superior and first-instance courts from their judicial districts, nor any military officer from the district where he holds a military appointment at the time of election. No country is provided with more and better safeguards against electoral and official abuses than is Peru, and yet few countries suffered more from political disorder during the 19th century. The president has no veto power, but has the right to return a law to Congress with comments within a period of ten days. Should the act be again passed without amendments it becomes law; if, however, the suggested amendments are accepted the act must go over to the next session. Congress may also sit as a court of impeachment—the senate hearing and deciding the case, and the chamber acting as prosecutor. The president, ministers of state and judges of the supreme court may be brought before this court.
Justice.—The judiciary is composed of a supreme court, superior courts and courts of first instance, and justices of the peace, The supreme court is established at the national capital and consists of 11 judges and 2 “fiscals” or prosecutors. The judges are selected by Congress from lists of nominees submitted by the executive. The judges of the superior courts are chosen by the president from the list of nominees submitted by the supreme court. Questions of jurisdiction between the superior and supreme courts, as well as questions of like character between the supreme court and the executive, are decided by the senate sitting as a court. The courts of first instance are established in the capitals of provinces and their judges are chosen by the superior courts of the districts in which they are located. The independence of the Peruvian courts has not been scrupulously maintained, and there has been much criticism of their character and decisions.
The national executive appoints and removes the prefects of the departments and the sub-prefects of the provinces, and the prefects appoint the gobiernadores of the districts. The police officials throughout the republic are also appointees of the president and are under his orders.
Army.—After the Chilean War the disorders fomented by the rival military officers led to a desire to place the administration of public affairs under civilian control, This led to a material reduction in the army, which, as reorganized, consists of 4000 officers and men, divided into seven battalions of infantry of 300 men each, seven squadrons of cavalry of 125 men each, and one regiment of mountain artillery of 590 men, with six batteries of mountain guns. The reorganization of the army was carried out by 10 officers and 4 non-coms. of the French army, known as the French military mission, who are also charged with the direction of the military school at Chorrillos and all branches of military instruction There are a military high school, preparatory school, and “school of application” in connexion with the training of young officers for the army. The head of the mission is chief of staff. Formerly the Indians were forcibly pressed into the service and the whites filled the positions of officers, in great part untrained. Now military service is obligatory for all Peruvians between the ages of 19 and 50, who are divided into four classes, first and second reserves (19 to 30, and 30 to 35 years), supernumeraries (those who have purchased exemption from service in the regular army), and the national guard 35 to 50 years). The regular force is maintained by annual drawings from the lists of young men 19 years of age in the first reserves, who are required to serve four years. The direction of military affairs is entrusted to a general staff, which was reorganized in 1904 on the lines adopted by the great military powers of Europe. The republic is divided into four military districts with headquarters at Piura, Lima, Arequipa and Iquitos, and these into eleven circumscriptions, The mounted police force of the republic is also organized on a military basis.
Navy.—The Peruvian navy was practically annihilated in the war with Chile, and the poverty of the country prevented for many years the adoption of any measure for its rebuilding. In 1908 it consisted of only five vessels. The naval school at Callao is under the direction of an officer of the French navy. In addition to the foregoing the government has a few small river boats on the Marafion and its tributaries, which are commanded by naval officers and used to maintain the authority of the republic and carry on geographical and hydrographical work.
Finance.—The financial record of Peru, notwithstanding her enormous natural resources, has been one of disaster and discredit. Internal strife at first prevented the development of her resources, and then when the export of guano and nitrates supplied her treasury with an abundance of, funds the money was squandered on extravagant enterprises and in corrupt practices. This was followed by the loss of these resources, bankruptcy, and eventually the surrender of her principal assets to her foreign creditors. The government then had to readjust expenditures to largely diminished resources; but the obligation has been met intelligently and courageously, and since 1895 there has been an improvement in the financial state of the country. The public revenues are derived from customs, taxes, various inland and consumption taxes, state monopolies, the government wharves, posts and telegraphs, &c. The customs taxes include import and export duties, surcharges, harbour dues, warehouse charges, &c.; the inland taxes comprise consumption taxes on alcohol, tobacco, sugar and matches, stamps and stamped paper, capital and mining properties, licences, transfers of property, &c.; and the state monopolies cover opium and salt. In 1905 a loan of £600,000 was floated in Germany for additions to the navy, The growth of receipts and expenditures is shown in the following table:—
The revenues of 1896 were only £1,128,714.
The foreign debt began with a small loan of £1,200,000 in London in 1822, and another of £1,500,000 in 1825 of which only £716,515 was placed. At the end of the war, these loans, and sums owing to Chile and Colombia, raised the foreign debt to £4,000,000. In ​ 1830 the debt and accumulated interest owing in London amounted to £2,310,767, in addition to which there was a home debt of 17,183,397 dollars. In 1848 the two London loans and accumulated interest were covered by a new loan of £3,736,400, and the home debt was partially liquidated, the sale of guano giving the treasury ample resources. Lavish expenditure followed and the government was soon anticipating its revenues by obtaining advances from guano consignees, usually on unfavourable terms, and then floating loans. There was another conversion loan in 1862 in the sum of £5,500,000 and in 1864 still another loan of this character was issued, nominally for £10,000,000, of which £7,000,000 only were issued. Then followed the ambitious schemes of President Balta, which with the loans of 1870 and 1872 raised the total foreign debt to £49,000,000, on which the annual interest charge was about £2,500,000, a sum wholly beyond the resources of the treasury. In 1876 interest payments on account of this debt were suspended and in 1879–1882 the war with Chile deprived Peru of her principal sources of income—the guano deposits and the Tarapacá nitrates. In 1889 the total foreign debt, including arrears of interest, was £54,000,000, and in the following year a contract was signed with the Peruvian Corporation, a company in which the bondholders became shareholders, for the transfer to it for 66 years of the state railways, the free use of certain ports, the right of navigation on Lake Titicaca, the exploitation of the remaining guano deposits up to 3,000,000 tons, and thirty-three annual subsidies of £80,000 each, in consideration of the cancellation of the debt. Some modifications were later made in the contract, owing to the government’s failure to meet the annual subsidies and the corporation’s failure to extend the railways agreed upon. This contract relieved Peru of its crushing burden of foreign indebtedness, and turned an apparently heavy loss to the bondholders into a possible profit. In 1910 the foreign debt stood at £3,140,000, composed of (1) Peruvian Corporation £2,160,000; (2) wharves and docks, £80,000; (3) loan of 1905, £500,000, (4) loan of 1906, £400,000.
Currency.—The single gold standard has been in force in Peru since 1897 and 1898, silver and co per being used for subsidiary coinage. The monetary unit is the Peruvian pound (libra) which is uniform in weight and fineness with the British pound sterling. Half and fifth pounds are also coined. The silver coinage consists of the sol (100 cents), half sol (50 cents), and pieces of 20 (peseta), 10 and 5 cents; and the copper coinage of 1 and 2 cents. The single standard has worked well, and has contributed much toward the recovery of Peruvian commerce and finance. The change from the double standard was effected without any noticeable disturbance in commercial affairs, but this was in part due to the precaution of making the British pound sterling legal tender in the republic and establishing the legal equivalent between gold and silver at 10 soles to the pound. The coinage in 1906–1907 was about £150,000 gold and £65,000 silver, and the total circulation in that year was estimated at £1,400,000 in gold coin and £600,000 in silver coin. Previous to the adoption of the single gold standard in 1897 the monetary history of Peru had been unfortunate. The first national coinage was begun in 1822, and the decimal system was adopted in 1863. Although the double standard was in force, gold was practically demonetized by the monetary reform of 1872 because of the failure to fix a legal ratio between the two metals. Experience with paper currency has been even more disastrous. During the administration (1872–1876) of President Pardo the government borrowed heavily from the banks to avoid the suspension of work on the railways and port improvements. These banks enjoyed the privilege of issuing currency notes to the amount of three times the cash in hand without regard to their commercial liabilities. A large increase in imports, caused by fictitious prosperity and inability to obtain drafts against guano shipments, led to the exportation of coin to meet commercial obligations, and this soon reduced the currency circulation to a paper basis. The government being unable to repay its loans from the banks compelled the latter to suspend the conversion of their notes, which began to depreciate in value. In 1875 the banks were granted a moratorium, to enable them to obtain coin, but without result. The government in 1877 contracted a new loan with the banks and assumed responsibility for their outstanding emissions, which are said to have aggregated about 100,000,000 soles, and were worth barely 10% of their nominal value. At last their depreciation reached a point where their acceptance was generally refused and silver was imported for commercial needs, when the government suspended their legal tender quality and allowed them to disappear.
Weights and Measures.—The French metric system is the official standard of weights and measures and is in use in the custom-houses of the republic and in foreign trade, but the old units are still commonly used among the people. These are the ounce, 1·104 oz. avoirdupois; the libra, 1·014 ℔ avoirdupois; the quintal, 101·44 ℔ avoirdupois; the arroba, 25·36 ℔ avoirdupois; ditto of wine, 6·70 imperial gallons, the gallon, ·74 of an imperial gallon; the vara, ·927 yard; and the square vara, ·859 square yard. (A. J. L.)
History.—Cyclopean ruins of vast edifices, apparently never completed, exist at Tiahuanaco near the southern shore of Lake Titicaca. Remains of a similar character are found at Huaraz in the north of Peru, and at Cuzco, Ollantay-tambo and Huiñaque between Huaraz and Tiahuanaco. These works appear to have been erected by powerful sovereigns with unlimited command of labour, possibly with the object of giving employment to subjugated people, while feeding the vanity or pleasing the taste of the conqueror. Of their origin nothing is historically known. It is probable, however, that the settlement of the Cuzco valley and district by the Incas or “people of the sun” took place some 300 years before Pizarro landed in Peru. The conquering tribe or tribes had made their way to the sierra from the plains, and found themselves a new land sheltered from attack amidst the lofty mountains that hem in the valley of Cuzco and the vast lake basin of Titicaca, situated 12,000 ft. above the sea level. The first historical records show us these people already possessed of a considerable civilization, and speaking two allied languages, Aymara and Quichua. The expansion of the Inca rule and the formation of the Peruvian Empire was of modern growth at the time of the Spanish conquest, and dated from the victories of Pachacutic Inca who lived about a century before Huayna Capac, the Great Inca, whose death took place in 1526, the year before Pizarro first appeared on the coast. His consolidated empire extended from the river Ancasmayu north of Quito to the river Maule in the south of Chile. The Incas had an elaborate system of state-worship, with a ritual, and frequently recurring festivals. History and tradition were preserved by the bards, and dramas were enacted before the sovereign and his court. Roads with post-houses at intervals were made over the wildest mountain-ranges and the bleakest deserts for hundreds of miles. A well-considered system of land-tenure and of colonization provided for the wants of all classes of the people. The administrative details of government were minutely and carefully organized, and accurate statistics were kept by means of the “quipus” or system of knots. The edifices displayed marvellous building skill, and their workmanship is unsurpassed. The world has nothing to show, in the way of stone-cutting and fitting, to equal the skill and accuracy displayed in the Inca structures of Cuzco. As workers in metals and as potters they displayed infinite variety of design, while as cultivators and engineers they excelled their European conquerors. (For illustrations see America, Plate V.)
The story of the conquest has been told by Prescott and Helps, who give ample references to original authorities; it will be sufficient here to enumerate the dates of the leading events. On the 10th of March 1526 the contract for the conquest of Peru was signed byConquest by Pizarro. Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro and Hernando de Luque, Gaspar de Espinosa supplying the funds. In 1527 Pizarro, after enduring fearful hardships, first reached the coast of Peru at Tumbez. In the following year he went to Spain, and on the 26th of July 1529 the capitulation with the Crown for the conquest of Peru was executed. Pizarro sailed from San Lucar with his brothers in January 1530, and landed at Tumbes in 1531. The civil war between Huascar and Atahualpa, the sons of Huayna Capac, had been fought out in the meanwhile, and the victorious Atahualpa was at Cajamarca on his way from Quito to Cuzco. On the 15th of November 1532 Pizarro with his little army, made his way to Cajamarca, where he received a friendly welcome from the Inca, whom he treacherously seized and made prisoner. He had with him only 183 men. In February 1533 his colleague Almagro arrived with reinforcements. The murder of the Inca Atahualpa was perpetrated on the 29th of August 1533, and on the 15th of November Pizarro entered Cuzco. He allowed the rightful heir to the empire, Manco, the legitimate son of Huayna Capac, to be solemnly crowned on the 24th of March 1534. Almagro then undertook an expedition to Chile, and Pizarro founded the city of Lima on the 18th of January 1535. In the following year the Incas made a brave attempt to expel the invaders, and closely besieged the Spaniards in Cuzco during February and March. But Almagro, returning from Chile, raised the siege on the 18th of April 1537. Immediately afterwards a dispute arose between the brothers, Francisco, Juan and Gonzalo Pizarro and Almagro ​ as to the limits of their respective jurisdictions. An interview took place at Mala, on the sea-coast, on the 13th of November 1537, which led to no result, and Almagro was finally defeated in the battle of Las Salinas near Cuzco on the 26th of April 1538 His execution followed. His adherents recognized his young half-caste son, a gallant and noble youth generally known as Almagro the Lad, as his successor. Bitterly discontented, they conspired at Lima and assassinated Francisco Pizarro on the 26th of June 1541. Meanwhile Vaca de Castro had been sent out as governor of Peru by Charles V., and on hearing of the murder of Pizarro he assumed the government of the country On the 16th of September 1542 he defeated the army of Almagro the Lad in the battle of Chupas near Guamanga, and the boy was beheaded at Cuzco.
Charles V. enacted the code known as the “New Laws” in 1542. “Encomiendas,” or grants of estates on which the inhabitants were bound to pay tribute and give personal service to the grantee, were to pass to the Crown on the death of the actual holder; a fixed sum was to be assessed as tribute; and forced personal service was Civil Wars. forbidden. Blasco Nunez de Vela was sent out, as first viceroy of Peru, to enforce the “New Laws” Their promulgation aroused a storm among the conquerors. Gonzalo Pizarro rose in rebellion, and entered Lima on the 28th of October 1544 The viceroy fled to Quito, but was followed, defeated and killed at the battle of Anaquito on the 18th of January 1546. The “New Laws” were weakly revoked, and Pedro de la Gasca, as first president of the Audiencia (court of justice) of Peru, was sent out to restore order He arrived in 1547, and on the 8th of April 1548 he routed the followers of Gonzalo Pizarro on the plain of Sacsahuaman near Cuzco. Gonzalo was executed on the field La Gasca made a redistribution of “encomiendas” to the loyal conquerors, which caused great discontent, and left Peru before his scheme was made public in January 1550. On the 23rd of September 1551 Don Antonio de Mendoza arrived as second viceroy, but he died at Lima in the following July. The country was then ruled by the judges of the Audiencia, and a formidable insurrection broke out, headed by Francisco Hernandez Giron, with the object of maintaining the right of the conquerors to exact forced service from the Indians. In May 1554 Giron defeated the army of the judges at Chuquinga, but he was hopelessly routed at Pucara on the 11th of October 1554, captured, and on the 7th of December executed at Lima Don Andres Hurtado de Mendoza, marquis of Canete, entered Lima as third viceroy of Peru on the 6th of July 1555, and ruled with an iron hand for six years. All the leaders in former disturbances were sent to Spain. Corregidors, or governors of districts, were ordered to try summarily and execute every turbulent person within their jurisdictions. All unemployed persons were sent on distant expeditions, and moderate “encomiendes” were granted to a few deserving officers. At the same time the viceroy wisely came to an agreement with Sayri Tupac, the son and successor of the Inca Manco, and granted him a pension He took great care to supply the natives with priests of good conduct, and promoted measures for the establishment of schools and the foundation of towns in the different provinces. The cultivation of wheat, vines and olives, and European domestic animals were introduced. The next viceroy was the Conde de Nieva (1561–1564). His successor, the licentiate Lope Garcia de Castro, who only had the title of governor, ruled from 1564 to 1569. From this time there was a succession of viceroys until 1824. The viceroys were chief magistrates, but in legal matters they had to consult the Audiencia of judges, in finance the Tribunal de Cuentas, in other branches of administration the Juntas de Gobierno and de Guerra.
Don Francisco de Toledo, the second son of the count of Oropesa, entered Lima as viceroy on the 26th of November 1569 Fearing that the little court of the Inca Tupac Amaru (who had succeeded his brother Sayri Tupac) might become a focus of rebellion, he seized the young prince, and unjustly beheaded the last of the Incas in the square Toledo’s Administra-tion. of Cuzco in the year 1571. After a minute personal inspection of every province in Peru, he, with the experienced aid of the learned Polo de Ondegardo and the judge of Matienza, established the system under which the native population of Peru was ruled for the two succeeding centuries. His Libro de Tasos fixed the tribute to be paid by the Indians, exempting all men under eighteen and over fifty. He found it necessary, in order to secure efficient government, to revert in some measure to the system of the Incas. The people were to be directly governed by their native chiefs, whose duty was to collect the tribute and exercise magisterial functions. The chiefs or “curacas” had subordinate native officials under them called “pichca-pachacas” over 500 men, and “pachacas” over 100 men. The office of curaca or cacique was made hereditary, and its possessor enjoyed several privileges. Many curacas were descended from the imperial family of the Incas, or from great nobles of the Incarial court. In addition to the tribute which was in accordance with native usage, there was the “mita,” or forced labour in mines, farms and manufactories. Toledo enacted that one-seventh of the male population of a village should be subject to conscription for this service, but they were to be paid, and were not to be taken beyond a specified distance from their homes.
The Spanish kings and viceroys desired to protect the people from tyranny, but they were unable to prevent the rapacity and lawlessness of distant officials and the country was depopulated by the illegal methods of enforcing the mita. Toledo was succeeded in 1581 by Don Martin Henriquez, who died at Lima two years afterwards. Vice-royalty. The Spanish colonies suffered from the strict system of monopoly and protection, which was only slightly relaxed by the later Bourbon kings, and from the arbitrary proceedings of the Inquisition Between 1581 and 1776 as many as fifty-nine heretics were burned at Lima, and there were twenty-nine “autos”; but the Inquisition affected Europeans rather than natives, for the Indians, as catechumens, were exempted from its terrors. The curacas sorrowfully watched the gradual extinction of their people by the operation of the mita, protesting from time to time against the exactions and cruelty of the Spaniards. At length a descendant of the Incas, who assumed the name of Tupac Amaru, rose in rebellion in 1780 The insurrection lasted until July 1783, and cruel executions followed its suppression. This was the last effort of the Indians to throw off the Spanish yoke and the rising was by no means general. The army which overthrew Tupac Amaru consisted chiefly of loyal Indians, and the rebellion was purely anti-Spanish, and had no support from the Spanish population. The movement for independence, which slowly gained force during the opening decade of the 19th century, did not actually become serious until the conquest of Spain by the French in 1807–1808. The Creoles (Criallos) or American-born Spaniards had for long been aggrieved at being shut out from all important official positions, and at the restrictions placed upon their trade, but the bulk of the Creole population was not disloyal.
Peru was the centre of Spanish power, and the viceroy had his military strength concentrated at Lima. Consequently the insurrections in the more distant provinces, such as Chile and Buenos Aires, were the first to declare themselves independent, in 1816 and 1817. But the destruction of the viceroy’s power was essential to their Peru Independent. continued independent existence. The conquest of the Peruvian coast must always depend on the command of the sea. A fleet of armed ships was fitted out at Valparaiso in Chile, under the command of Lord Cochrane (afterwards earl of Dundonald) and officered by Englishmen. It convoyed an army of Argentine troops, with some Chileans, under the command of the Argentine general, San Martin, which landed on the coast of Peru in September 1820. San Martin was enthusiastically received, and the independence of Peru was proclaimed at Lima after the viceroy had withdrawn (July 28, 1821). On the 20th of September 1822 San Martin resigned the protectorate, with which he had been invested, and on the same day the first ​ congress of Peru became the sovereign power of the state. After a short period of government by a committee of three, the congress elected Don José de la Riva Aguero to be first president of Peru on the 28th of February 1823. He displayed great energy in facing the difficulties of a turbulent situation, but was unsuccessful. The aid of the Colombians under Simon Bolivar was sought, and Aguero was deposed.
Bolivar arrived at Lima on the 1st of September 1823, and began to organize an army to attack the Spanish viceroy in the interior On the 6th of August 1824 the cavalry action of Junin was fought with the Spanish forces under the command of a French adventurer, General Canterac, near the shores of the lake of Chinchay-cocha. It was won by a gallant charge of the Peruvians under Captain Suarez at the critical moment. Soon afterwards Bolivar left the army to proceed to the coast, and the final battle of Ayacucho (Dec. 9, 1824) was fought by his second in command, General Sucre. The viceroy and all his officers were taken prisoners, and the Spanish power in Peru came to an end.
General Bolivar ruled Peru with dictatorial powers for more than a year, and though there were cabals against him there can be little doubt of his popularity. He was summoned back to Colombia when he had been absent for five years and, in spite of protests left the country on the 3rd of September 1826, followed by all the Colombian troops in March 1827.
General José de Lamar, who commanded the Peruvians at Ayacucho, was elected president of Peru on the 24th of August 1827, but was deposed, after waging a brief but disastrous war with Colombia on the 7th of June 1829. General Agustin Gamarra, who had been in the Spanish service, and was chief of the staff in the patriot Early Presidents. army at Ayacucho, was elected third president on the 31st of August 1829.
For fifteen years, from 1829 to 1844, Peru was painfully feeling her way to a right use of independence. The officers who fought at Ayacucho, and to whom the country felt natural gratitude, were all-powerful, and they had not learned to settle political differences in any other way than by the sword. Three men. during that penod of probation, won a prominent place in their country's history, Generals Agustin Gamarra, Felipe Santiago Salaverry, and Andres Santa Cruz. Gamarra, born at Cuzco in 1785, never accommodated himself to constitutional usages; but he attached to himself many loyal and devoted friends, and, with all his faults he loved his country and sought its welfare according to his lights. Salaverry was a very different character. Born at Lima in 1806, of pure Basque descent, he joined the patriot army before he was fifteen and displayed his audacious valour in many a. hard-fought battle. Feeling strongly the necessity that Peru had for repose, and the guilt of civil dissension, he wrote patriotic poems which became very popular. Yet he too seized the supreme power, and perished by an iniquitous sentence on the 18th of February 1836. Andres Santa Cruz was an Indian statesman. His mother was a lady of high rank, of the family of the Incas, and he was very proud of his descent. Unsuccessful as a general in the field, he nevertheless possessed remarkable administrative ability and for nearly three years (1836–1839) realized his lifelong dream of a Peru-Bolivian confederation. But the strong-handed intervention of Chile on the ground of assistance rendered to rebels, but really through jealousy of the confederation, ended in the defeat and overthrow of Santa Cruz, and the separation of Bolivia from Peru. But Peruvian history is not confined to the hostilities of these military rulers. Three constitutions were framed-in 1828, 1833 and 1839. Lawyers and orators are never wanting in Spanish-American states, and revolution succeeded revolution in one continuous struggle for the spoils of office. An exception must be made of the administration of General Ramon Castilla, who restored peace to Peru, and showed himself to be an honest and very capable ruler. He was elected constitutional president on the 20th of April 1845. Ten years of peace and increasing prosperity followed. In 1849 the regular payment of the interest of the public debt was commenced, steam communication was established along the Pacific coast, and a railroad was made from Lima to Callao. After a regular term of off1ce of six years of peace and moral and material progress Castilla resigned, and General José Echenique was elected president. But the proceedings of Echenique's government in connexion with the consolidation of the internal debt were disapproved by the nation, and, after hostilities which lasted for six months, Castilla returned to power in January 1855. From December 1856 to March 1858 he had to contend with and subdue a local insurrection headed by General Agostino Vivanco, but, with these two exceptions, there was peace in Peru from 1844 to 1879, a period of thirty-five years. Castilla retired at the end of his term of office in 1862, and died in 1868. On the 2nd of August 1868 Colonel Juan Balta was elected president. With the vast sum raised froni guano and nitrate deposits President Balta commenced the execution of public works, principally railroads on a gigantic scale. His period of office was signalized by the opening of an international exhibition at Lima. He was succeeded (Aug. 2, 1872) by Don Manuel Pardo (d. 1878), an honest and enlightened statesman, who did all in his power to retrieve the country from the financial difficulty into which it had been brought by the reckless policy of his predecessor, but the conditions were not capable of solution. He regulated the Chinese immigration to the coast-valleys, which from 1860 to 1872 had amounted to 58,606. He promoted education, and encouraged literature. On the 2nd of August 1876 General Mariano-Ignacio Prado was elected. (C. R. M.; X.)
On the 5th of April 1879 the republic of Chile declared war upon Peru, the alleged pretext being that Peru had made an offensive treaty, directed against Chile, with Bolivia, a country with which Chile had a dispute, but the publication of the text of this treaty made known the fact that it was strictly defensive and contained no just War with Chile, 1879–1882. cause of war. The true object of Chile was the conquest of the rich Peruvian province of Tarapaca, the appropriation of its valuable guano and nitrate deposits, and the spoliation of the rest of the Peruvian coast. The military events of the war, calamitous for Peru, are dealt with in the article Chile-Peruvian War. Suffice it here to note that, after the crushing defeat of the Peruvian forces at Arica (June 7, 1880) Senor Nicolas de Pierola assumed dictatorial powers, with General Andres Caceres as commander-in-chief, but the defeats at Chorrillos (Jan. 13, 1881) and Miraflores (Jan. 15) proved the Chilean superiority, and put Lima at their mercy though desultory fighting was maintained by the remnants of the Peruvian army in the interior, under direction of General Caceres. An attempt was made to constitute a government with Senor Calderon as president of the republic and General Caceres as first vice-president. The negotiations between this nominal administration and the Chilean authorities for a treaty of peace proved futile, the Chilean occupation of Lima and the Peruvian seaboard continuing uninterruptedly until 1883. In that year Admiral Lynch, who had replaced General Baquedano in command of the Chilean forces after the taking of Lima, sent an expedition against the Peruvians under General Caceres, and defeated the latter in the month of August. The Chilean authorities now began preparations for the evacuation of Lima, and to enable this measure to be effected a Peruvian administration was organized with the support of the Chileans. General Iglesias was nominated to the office of president of the republic, and in October 1883 a treaty of peace, known as the treaty of Ancon, between Peru and Chile was signed. The Chilean army of occupation was withdrawn from Lima on the 22nd of October 1883, but a strong force was maintained at Chorrillos until July 1884, when the terms of the treaty were finally approved. The ​ principal conditions imposed by Chile were the absolute cession by Peru of the province of Tarapacá, and the occupation for a period of ten years of the territories of Tacna and Arica, the ownership of these districts to be decided by a popular vote of the inhabitants of Tacna and Arica at the expiration of the period named. A further condition was enacted that an indemnity of 10,000,000 soles was to be paid by the country finally remaining in possession—a sum equal to about £1,000,000 to-day. The Peruvians in the interior refused to recognize President Iglesias, and at once began active operations to overthrow his authority on the final departure of the Chilean troops. Affairs continued in this unsettled state until the middle of 1885, Cáceres meanwhile steadily gaining many adherents to his side of the quarrel. In the latter part of 1885 President Iglesias abdicated.
Under the guidance of General Cáceres a junta was then formed to carry on the government until an election for the presidency should be held and the senate and chamber of deputies constituted. In the following year (1886) General Cáceres was elected president of the republic for the usual term of four years. The task assumed Cáceres in Power. by the new president was no sinecure. The country had been thrown into absolute confusion from a political and administrative point of view, but gradually order was restored, and peaceful conditions were reconstituted throughout the republic. The four years of office for which General Cáceres was elected passed in uneventful fashion, and in 1890 Señor Morales Bermudez was nominated to the presidency, with Señor Solar and Señor Borgoño as first and second vice-presidents. Matters continued without alteration from the normal course until 1894, and in that year Bermudez died suddenly a few months before the expiration of the period for which he had been chosen as president. General Céceres secured the nomination of the vice president Borgoño as chief of the executive for the unexpired portion of the term of the late president Bermudez. This action was unconstitutional, and was bitterly resented by the vice-president Solar, who by right should have succeeded to the office. Armed resistance to the authority of Borgoño was immediately organized in the south of Peru, the movement being supported by Señores Nicolas de Pierola, Billinghurst, Durand and a number of influential Peruvians. In the month of August 1894 General Cáceres was again elected to fill the office of president, but the revolutionary movement rapidly gained ground. President Cáceres adopted energetic measures to suppress the outbreak: his efforts, however, proved unavailing, the close of 1894 finds the country districts in the power of the rebels and the authority of the legal government confined to Lima and other cities held by strong garrisons. Early in March 1895 the insurgents encamped near the outskirts of Lima, and on the 17th, 18th and 19th of March severe fighting took place, ending in the defeat of the troops under General Cáceres. A suspension of hostilities was then brought about by the efforts of H.B.M. consul. The loss on both sides to the struggle during these two days was 2800 killed and wounded. President Cáceres, finding his cause was lost, left the country, a provisional government under Señor Candamo assuming the direction of public affairs.
On the 8th of September 1895 Señor Pierola was declared president of the republic for the following four years. The Peruvians were now heartily tired of revolutionary disturbances, and an insurrectionary outbreak in the district of Iquitos met with small sympathy, and was speedily crushed. In 1896 a reform of the electoral Pierola President. law was sanctioned. By the provisions of this act an electoral committee was constituted, composed of nine members, two of these nominated by the senate, two by the chamber of deputies, four by the supreme court, and one by the president with the consent of his ministers. To this committee was entrusted the task of the examination of all election returns, and of the proclamation of the names of successful candidates for seats in congress. Another reform brought about by Pierola was a measure introduced and sanctioned in 1897 for a modification of the marriage laws. Under the new act marriages of non-Catholics solemnized by diplomatic or consular officers or by ministers of dissenting churches, if properly registered, are valid, and those solemmzed before the passing of this act were to be valid if registered before the end of 1899. Revolutionary troubles again disturbed the country in 1899, when the presidency of Señor Pierola was drawing to a close In consequence of dissensions amongst the members of the election committee constituted by the act of 1896, the president ordered the suppression of this body. A group of malcontents under the leadership of one Durand, a man who had been prominent in the revolution against General Cáceres in 1894–95, conspired against the authorities and raised several armed bands, known locally as montaneras. Some skirmishes occurred between these insurgents and the government troops, the latter generally obtaining the advantage in these encounters.
In September 1899 President Pierola vacated the presidency in favour of Señor Romaña, who had been elected to the office as a popular candidate and without the exercise of any undue official influence. President Romaña was educated at Stonyhurst in England, and was a civil engineer by profession. The principal political problem Romaña President. before the government of Peru was the ownership of the territories of Tacna and Arica. The period of ten years originally agreed upon for the Chilean occupation of these provinces expired in 1894. At that date the peace of Peru was so seriously disturbed by internal troubles that the government was quite unable to take active steps to bring about any solution of the matter. After 1894 negotiations between the two governments were attempted from time to time, but without any satisfactory results. The question hinged to a great extent on the qualification necessary for the inhabitants to vote, in the event of a plebiscite being called to decide whether Chilean ownership was to be finally established or the provinces were to revert to Peruvian sovereignty. Peru proposed that only Peruvian residents should be entitled to take part in a popular vote; Chile rejected this proposition, on the ground that all residents in the territories in question should have a voice in the final decision. The agreement between Chile and Bolivia, by which the disputed provinces were to be handed over to the latter country if Chilean possession was recognized, was also a stumbling-block, a strong feeling existed among Peruvians against this proceeding. It was not so much the value of Tacna and Arica that put difficulties in the way of a settlement as the fact that the national pride of the Peruvians ill brooked the idea of permanently losing all claim to this section of country. The money, about £1,000,000, could probably have been obtained to indemnify Chile if occasion for it arose.
The question of the delimitation of the frontier between Peru and the neighbouring republics of Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil also cropped up at intervals. A treaty was signed with Brazil 1876, by which certain physical features were accepted by both countries as the basis for the boundary. In the case of Ecuador and Colombia a dispute arose in 1894 concerning the ownership of large tracts of uninhabited country in the vicinity of the headwaters of the Amazon and its tributaries. An agreement was proposed between Peru and Ecuador in connexion with the limits of the respective republics, but difficulties were created to prevent this proposal from becoming an accomplished fact by the pretensions put forward by Colombia. The latter state claimed sovereignty over the Napo and Marañon rivers on the grounds of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction exercised over this section of territory during the period of Spanish dominion, the government of Colombia asserting that these ecclesiastical rights to which Colombia became entitled after her separation from the Spanish crown carried also the right of absolute ownership. In a treaty signed by the three interested states in 1895 a compromise was effected by which Colombia withdrew a part of the claim advanced, and it was agreed that any further differences arising out of this frontier question should be submitted to the arbitration of the Spanish crown. The later development of the boundary question is dealt with at the outset of this article.
​Señor Manuel Candamo succeeded Señor Romana as president in 1903. In the following year he died, and on the 24th of September 1904 Señor José Pardo was installed in the presidential chair. In 1908 there were some insurrectionary movements at Lima and an attempt was made to assassinate President Pardo, but they were, however, suppressed without a serious outbreak. Señor Augusto Leguiva became president on the 24th of September 1908. (C. E. A.; G. E.)
Bibliography.—Among the principal publications relating to Peru are: C. E. Akers, A History of South America (London, 1904); L. E. Albertini, Pérou en 1878 (Paris, 1878); C. B. Cisneros and R. E. Garcia, El Peru en Europa (Lima, 1900); the same authors, Geografia comercial de la America del Sud (3 vols., ibid. 1898); E. B. Clark, Twelve Months in Peru (London, 1891); Geo. R. Fitzroy Cole, The Peruvians at Home, (ibid. 1884); A. J. Duffield, Peru in the Guano Age (ibid. 1877); C. R. Enock. The Andes and the Amazon (ibid. 1907); idem, Peru, its Former and Present Civilization, &c. (ibid. 1908); P. F. Evans, From Peru to the Plate (ibid. 1889); M. A. Fuentes, Lima, or Sketches of the Capital of Peru (ibid. 1866); Calderon F. Garcia, Le Pérou contemporain (Paris, 1907); Garcilasso de la Vega, Royal commentaries of the Incas, 1609 (Hakluyt Society’s Publications); A. Garland, La Industria azucarera en el Peru, 1550–1895 (Lima, 1895); idem, Peru in 1906 (official; ibid. 1907); Grandidier, Voyage dans l'Amérique du Sud, Perou et Bolivie (Paris, 1863), T. Haënke, Descripcion de Peru (Lima, 3901); E. Higginson, Mines and Mining in Peru (ibid. 1903).; S. S. Hill, Travels in Peru and Mexico (2 vols, London, 1860); T. J. Hutchinson, Two Years in Peru (2 vols.; ibid. 1874); R. Laos, A Handbook of Peru for Investors and Immigrants (Baltimore, 1903); C. R. Markham, Cuzco and Lima (London, 1858); idem, Travels in Peru and India (ibid. 1862); idem, The War between Peru and Chile (ibid. 1883); idem, History of Peru (Chicago, 1892); V. M. Maurtua, The Question of the Pacific (Philadelphia, 1901); M. de Mendiburu, Diccionario histórico-biográfico del Peru (8 vols., Callao, 1874–1890); E. W. Middendorf, Peru Beobachtungen und Studien über das Land und seine Bewohner, &c. (Berlin, 1893), Federico Moreno, Petroleum in Peru (Lima, 1891); Dr M. Neveu-Lemaire, Les Lacs des hauts plateaux de l’Amérique du Sud (Paris, 1906); M. F. Paz-Soldan, Historia del Peru independiente (3 vols., 1868 et seq); idem, Diccionario geográfico-estadistico del Peru (Lima, 1879); A. Plane, À travers l’Amérique équatoriale (Paris, 1903), W. H. rescott, History of the Conquest of Peru (3 vols, Philadelphia, 1868); A. Raimondi, El Peru: Estudios mineralógicos, &c. (4 vols., Lima, 1890–1902); M. Ch. Renoz, Le Pérou (Bruxelles, 1897): G. René-Moreno, Ultimos dias coloniales en el Alto Peru 1807–1808 (Santiago de Chile, 1896–1898); F. Seebee, Travelling Impressions in and Notes on Peru (2nd ed., London, 1905); E. G. Squier, Peru: Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas (ibid. 1877); Edmond Temple, Travels in Various Parts of Peru (2 vols, ibid. 1830); J. J. Von Tschudi, Reisen durch Süd-amerika (5 vols, Leipzig, 1866–1868); idem, Travels in Peru (London, 1847); Charles Wiener, Pérou et Bolivie (Paris, 1880); Frank Vincent, Around and about South America (New York, 1890); Marie Robinson Wright, The Old and New Peru (Philadelphia, 1909); the Consular and Diplomatic Reports of Great Britain and the United States; Handbook of Peru and Bulletins of the Bureau of American Republics; and the departmental publications of the Peruvian Government.
* ↑ See L. Crosnier, “Notice géologique sur les départements de Huancavelica et d’Ayacucho,” Ann. des mines, 5th series, vol. ii. pp. 1–43, Pl. 1 (1852); A. Raimondi, El Departamento de Ancachs y sus riquezas minerales (Lima, 1873); G. Steinmann, “Ueber Tithon und Kreide in den peruanischen Anden,” Neues Jahrb. (1882), vol. ii. pp. 130-153, Pls. 6-8; K. Gerhardt, “Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Kreideformation in Venezuela und Peru,” Neues Jahrb., Beil.–Bd. XI. (1897), pp. 65-117, Pls. 1,2; J.Grzybowski, “Die Tertiarablagerungen des nördlichen Peru und ihre Molluskenfauna,” Neues Jahrb., Bell.–Bd. XII. (1899), pp. 610-664, Pls. 15-20.
* ↑ The city of Lima produced two saints, the archbishop St Toribio, who flourished from 1578 to 1606, and Santa Rosa, the patron saint of the city of the kings (1586–1616), whose festival is celebrated on the 26th of August.
* ↑ The romance of his life has been admirably written by Manuel Bilbao (1st ed., Lima, 1853; 2nd ed., Buenos Aires, 1867).
* ↑ The succession of presidents and supreme chiefs of Peru from 1829 to 1844 was as follows: 1829–1833, Agustin Gamarra; 1834–1835, Luis José Orbegoso; 1835–1836, Felipe Santiago Salaverry, 1836–1839, Andres Santa Cruz; 1839–1841, Agustin Gamarra; 1841–1844, Manuel Menendez.