In 1532, when Francisco Pizarro landed in Peru to conquer it in the name of God and the Spanish Crown, the region had already seen the rise and fall of various civilizations. Even so, the conquest changed everything: economy, political systems, religion and language. Modern history has been a series of aftershocks of that seismic shock between the Incas and the Spanish. The conflict is still embedded in the Peruvian psyche. With it came new cultures, races, voices, foods, and eventually a new civilization.
What is Peru’s history?
The History of Peru dates back to the first settlers about 20,000 years BC. approximately, when it began to be populated by nomadic hunter-gatherers.
According to Dr. Julio C. Tello, the Chavín culture was the oldest in Peru: 1000 – 250 BC. C.
Its main center is in Chavín de Huántar, in the Ancash region. From then on, the peoples of South America developed various cultural facets: architecture, economy, religion, etc.
We invite you to know this great country that has been maintained throughout history:
Peru History Facts:
Peruvian history dates back to almost 20,000 years of human occupation in the past. Below you will know the most important data in the History of Peru:
The Empire of the Incas was born from a set of Pre-Inca Cultures, contemporary to the Incas, such as: Chancas, Collas, Chinchas, Gran Chimú and Huancas. It was the peoples subjected by the Incas, after being conquered, who contributed culture and development to Tahuantinsuyo.
Tahuantinsuyo means “The four regions or divisions”, it was the territory of the Inca Empire, it flourished in the Andean region of South America, between the 15th and 16th centuries, as a consequence of the heyday of the Inca, Inca and / or Inca civilization.
One of the most important historical events in Peru was the civil war between Huáscar and Atahualpa in 1532, an armed conflict between the followers of Huáscar and his half brother Atahualpa who disputed the Inca throne, this conflict marked the decline of the Inca Empire and gave the Inca Atahualpa as the winner.
On November 16, 1532, the capture of Atahualpa, the last Inca, took place through a surprise attack by the Spanish conquerors and their troops commanded by Francisco Pizarro on the monarch of the Inca Empire, carried out on Saturday, November 16, 1532 in the city. of Cajamarca.
On July 26, 1533, Atahualpa was executed by the Spanish on July 26, 1533, the conquerors justified his death by accusing him of plotting an attack and murdering his brother Huáscar. The case, sentence and execution, took place the same day in the Plaza de Cajamarca.
On July 26, 1529, the capitulation of Toledo was signed between Francisco Pizarro with Queen Isabel, wife of Caros I, representing the Spanish Crown. The Capitulation of Toledo is the power that Francisco Pizarro was given to be the governor of the new conquered lands.
Francisco Pizarro led 3 trips to conquer the Tahuantinsuyo. These trips were organized from March 10, 1526 when the Panama Pact was signed and the “Empresa del Levante” was founded with its partners Diego de Almagro and Hernando de Luque.
The Conquest of Tahuantinsuyo (1532 – 1572) is also known as “Conquest of the Empire of the Incas”, it is the historical process of annexation and destruction of the Inca Empire or Tahuantinsuyo to the Spanish Empire that occurred between 1532 and 1572.
The Colony in Peru was a period of Spanish rule in Peru, which began on July 26, 1533 after the death of the Inca Atahualpa and ended on December 9, 1824 with the capitulation of Ayacucho and the withdrawal of the Spanish Crown from the territory. Peruvian.
The viceroyalty of Peru was created by Carlos V, on November 20, 1542 when he promulgated the New Laws of the Indies in Barcelona, ??and ended after the Battle of Ayacucho with the signing of the Capitulation of Ayacucho on December 9, 1824.
Juan Santos Atahualpa was an Indian who led the messianic and minimalist rebellion of 1742, with the support of the Campa Community, in the area of ??Gran Pajonal, Chanchamayo and Oxapampa (Sierra del Sur and Central Peru), tried to restore the Empire of the Incas and expel the Spaniards and blacks, a purpose that he could not achieve.
For his part, José Gabriel Condorcanqui (Túpac Amaru II), led an important uprising in the viceroyalty of Peru, in the Cusco region (1780 – 1783), in reaction to the imposition of the Bourbon Reforms that later spread throughout the southern Peru and Upper Peru.
The Protectorate of San Martín, after the proclamation of the Independence of Peru, was not a defined form of government, it was a transitory government in which San Martín assumed the title of Protector of Independence, until the installation of a Constituent Assembly.
The War with Gran Colombia (1828 – 1829), also called the Grancolombo-Peruvian War, was a warlike conflict that pitted Gran Colombia (Colombia, Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador) against Peru.
Also called “Era del Guano”, period in the History of Peru between 1845 and 1872, where the Peruvian State obtained large economic income from the exploitation and commercialization of guano from the islands, towards the European industrial market.
The War with Chile, also called “War of the Pacific”, was a warlike conflict between 1879 and 1883 that faced Peru and Bolivia (allies), against Chile, which had the political, economic and military support of English imperialism.
The national reconstruction, period between 1883 and 1919, which begins after the end of the War with Chile, is characterized by the reconstruction of Peru, which had been destroyed economically and politically, since its main sources of wealth were annihilated since the nitrate passed entirely to power From Chile.
The Aristocratic Republic was a stage in the history of republican Peru between 1895 and 1919, in which Peru was governed by an oligarchic and aristocratic elite dedicated to satisfying its power interests, which it found in the hands of the Civil Party.
Peru History and Culture
Peru is a country of very ancient civilizations, which began their development more than ten millennia ago in the cold high Andean highlands.
Caral is the culmination of a first cultural process called the Initial Period, whose main characteristics are the construction of stepped adobe temples, circular squares and small villages around the centers of worship and administration. Notable archaeological sites such as Sechín, on the coast of Áncash, and the Temple of the Crossed Hands of Kotosh, in Huánuco belong to this stage.
Some thousand years later Chavín emerged, in the north-central Andes, in the department of Áncash.
Around 700 a. Another fascinating culture appeared on the central coast, the first great settlers of the desert: Paracas, whose inhabitants were skilled weavers – their large looms with intricate designs have gone around the world – and stood out for the way they bury their dead.
During the first centuries of our era and after the Chavín hegemony, various manors appeared throughout the territory; Among them, the Mochica stand out, who extended their dominion over almost the entire northern coast of Peru.
After this first development, what is called the first regional empire appeared: Wari, around 550 AD. As a continuation of the Tiahuanaco culture, forged in the highlands of Peru and Bolivia, the Wari dominated an extensive territory and configured what would later become the Tahuantinsuyo. It was they who began with the outline of the great pre-Hispanic roads and laid the foundations of the social administration and of the territory that the Incas of Cusco would later inherit.
With the disappearance of Wari, approximately in 1200 d. C. begins the Late Intermediate period, a second wave of regional developments where the Chimú stand out, who built the extensive city of Chan Chan, the largest adobe construction in the world.
This is also the time of the Chachapoyas, the ‘men of the clouds’, inhabitants of the exuberant cloud forests of the Amazon, where they built the most amazing cities and mausoleums by excavating sharp cliffs.
Peruvian History
Peru Ancient History
The first signs of population in Peru came from the Asian continent. According to one of the most accepted theories, migrations crossed the Bering Strait to enter North America and later move to South America, until they settled in what are now Peruvian lands.
These first settlers arrived approximately 20,000 years ago BC, being nomads who practiced hunting and gathering food. The abundant flora and fauna found in these lands was decisive for them to develop civilizations, leaving important vestiges that today provide information about their origin.
Pre-Inca times of Peru
Pre-Inca Cultures are civilizations that developed in Ancient Peru before the Inca civilization in various regions of the coastal and Andean area of ??Peru.
Some pre-Inca cultures were part of the cultural process from which the Inca state was born, within the Peruvian tradition; others, on the other hand, had only sporadic contacts or brief influence of or on the cultures of Ancient Peru
Inca empire
Inca is a word that comes from the Quechua language, and means “king” or “prince”. It is the name given to the pre-Columbian rulers of Cusco, who established a vast empire in the Andes in the 15th century, just before the Spanish conquest.
The Incas were great conquerors, their empire was located in South America. It went from the north of Chile to the south of Colombia, covering the current territories of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador towards the Pacific. Its territory was partly located on the Andes mountain range.
Conquest of Peru
The conquest of Peru is organized from Panama, where three partners meet, Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almagro and the clergyman Hernando de Luque, inspired by the success of Pizarro’s cousin Hernán Cortés and his conquest of Mexico.
The first news about the existence of the fabulous kingdom of Birú, (Peru) reached the ears of the Spaniards who were in Castilla de Oro (Panama) since the beginning of the 16th century.
The Viceroyalty in Peru
The Viceroyalty of Peru, a political-administrative entity established by Spain in 1542, during its colonial period of American rule, which, to its maximum extent, included the current territories of Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru, as well as those of Chile and Argentina , but that, throughout the eighteenth century, and until the independence of these areas with respect to Spanish power, it hardly understood much more than what Peru is today.
The first settlements began to develop after the capture of Cuzco, the main Inca city, by Francisco Pizarro, in 1534.
Independence of Peru
The Independence of Peru was a political process that occurred during the first years of the XIX century in the old Viceroyalty of Peru or Lima.
It began approximately around the year 1810 with the first revolts organized by Masonic lodges that sought to initiate the liberal revolution in Peru, movements that were quickly put down; and ended on July 28, 1821 with the declaration of the independence of Peru by General José de San Martin in Lima, although the war did not end until 1824 with the Battle of Ayacucho.
Peru Colonial history
The 19th century witnessed two dramatic moments that markedly marked Peruvian historical development: Independence and the War with Chile.
They were two tragic conjunctures that sowed chaos, material destruction and internal division. Both left many hatreds and tasks to be solved.
It is also seen as the century of lost opportunities due to the great guanera wealth that multiplied waste and corruption to put the country in bankruptcy around the 1870s.
If we consider that independence was achieved in 1824 with the Battle of Ayacucho and that the Chilean troops left Peru in 1884, we deduce that the first 60 years of Peruvian history were marked by failure.
Peru, land of the legendary Incas, has preserved much of its mythical feeling. The cultural capital of Cuzco offers a glimpse into the country’s proud history, as the center of the Sacred Valley and the explorer’s base of the lost city of Machu Picchu. The Quechuas and Aymara, descendants of the Incas, weave threads of their culture with Spanish influences to create a rich Peruvian culture of art, architecture and music. Travelers have the opportunity to watch the sunset in the Pacific, climb the highest peak in the snow-capped Andes, and catch a glimpse of the pink dolphin in the Amazon River.
The best way to learn more about the history of Peru is by visiting this beautiful country. Book one of our vacation packages in Peru now. And if you want to know more about the history and culture of Peru, we recommend you consider a tour package to Machu Picchu.