page_title: Arequipa
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Arequipa / History
caption_attribution_description: Inauguracion del tren
context_page_description: Arequipa is a city located in the province and the eponymous department of Peru. It is the seat of the Constitutional Court of Peru and often dubbed the "legal capital of Peru." It is the second most populated city in Peru, after Lima, with an urban population of 1,008,290 inhabitants according to the 2017 national census.
  Its metropolitan area integrates twenty-one districts, including the foundational central area, which it is the seat of the city government. The city has a Nominal GDP of 9,445 million and a nominal GDP per capita of US$10,277, which represents a GDP per capita PPP of US$18,610 in the period 2015, being the second city with the highest economic activity in Peru.
  Arequipa is also an important industrial and commercial center of Peru, and is considered as the second industrial city of the country. Within its industrial activity the manufactured products and the textile production of wool of camelids. The town maintains close commercial links with Chile, Bolivia, and Brazil and with the cities connected by the South trainway, as well as with the port of Matarani.
context_section_description: The early inhabitants of the modern-day Arequipa area were nomads who relied on fishing as well as hunting and gathering for survival. Later, pre-Inca cultures domesticated llamas and became sedentary with the rise of agriculture. Terraces used for crop irrigation were built on both sides of the Chili River valley. The Yarabaya and Chimbe tribes settled in the city's current location, and together with the Cabana and Collagua tribes they developed an agrarian economy in the valley.
  When the Inca Mayta Cápac arrived in the valley of the Chili river, he didn't build cities. Instead, through the mitma policy, he forced the resettlement of his subjects to solidify control of existing territories, conduct intelligence duties, and strengthen border enclaves to control unconquered villages. A Hispanic version of the events, detailed by chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega, which has been described as historically inaccurate, suggests that around 1170 Huayna Capac stopped in the Chili River valley with his army, calling the area Ari qepay which means "Let's stay here." Lands were then distributed among 3,000 families who founded communities such as Yanahuara, Cayma, Tiabaya, Socabaya, and Characato, all of which are districts in Arequipa today.
  On 15 August 1540, Spanish lieutenant Garcí Manuel de Carbajal  named the cluster of Native American villages in the area "Villa de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora del Valle Hermoso de Arequipa." At the time of its foundation, Arequipa already had a city council because Carbajal also led relocation efforts for an existing coastal city named Villa Hermosa de Camana. The name was shortened to Villa Hermosa de Arequipa. Charles V of Germany and I of Spain gave the town a status of 'city' by Royal Decree on 22 September 1541. The relocation efforts were led by Garcí Manuel de Carbajal, who was selected as the political authority for the foundation of the new town. Among the first public works carried out in the city are the Main Church, the City Hall, the bridge on the Chili River and the monastery of Nuestra Señora de Gracia.
  Since the Spanish founding of Arequipa, the mostly Spanish population retained heavy loyalty to the Spanish crown, a phenomenon called fidelismo. Among its most notable proponents were Francisco de Paula Quiroz, Mariano de Rivero, Nicolás Fernández, and José Miguel de Lastarria. In 1805, the Spanish Monarchy gave the city the title of Faithful by Royal Charter. Because of its distance from other Peruvian cities, Arequipa was not heavily influenced by libertarian movements In 1814, Mateo Pumacahua's pro-independence troops only briefly occupied Arequipa. The city would remain under Spanish control until the Battle of Ayacucho (1824), due to struggles for local political power.
  Arequipa's strategic location at the crossroads of the colonial silver trade route and that of the post-independence wool trade route allowed the city to emerge as an administrative, commercial, and industrial hub. In the decade following Peru's 1821 declaration of independence from Spain, society in Arequipa and Peru at-large was in transition. Thus, Arequipa not only became the birthplace of notable political figures but also the site of key political movements that helped defend the legal and economic stability of the city; thus elevating Arequipa to a status second only to its rival city and the capital, Lima.
  On 13 January 1835, President Luis José de Orbegoso moved his government from Lima to Arequipa by presidential decree. Meanwhile, in Lima, General Felipe Santiago Salaverry named himself Supreme Chief of the Republic, arguing that the country was leaderless as Orbegoso was outside the capital. Orbegoso then sought support from Bolivian president Andrés de Santa Cruz against the claims of Salaverry. On 4 February 1836, Salaverry's Army of Reunification won a battle at Uchumayo. However, three days later in Socabaya, Salaverry surrendered to Santa Cruz On 18 February 1836, Salaverry and his nine officers were shot in the main square of the city.
  After expressing their rejection to the Peru–Bolivia
caption: Opening ceremony of the first railway in Arequipa. 1871.
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