The ‘Republic Peru’ is situated in western South America bordered by five countries:
Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia and Chile and by the Pacific Ocean.
The country was the heart of the empire of the Inca’s in the 15th century. The Incas
formed the largest empire in Pre-Columbian America with their capital Cusco.
After the Incan empire, Peru was part of the major vice-royalty of South America. In
1531 the Incan Empire was conquered by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro
González. On the 28th of July 1821 Peru proclaimed their independence, but the Spanish
were actually defeated in 1824.
From 1836 until 1839, Peru formed a confederation with Bolivia. Thirty years later from
1864 til 1866 Peru was in war with Spain about the Ballestas Islands which Spain
occupied. Peru won the war due to the help from Ecuador, Bolivia and Chili.
Together with Bolivia, Peru fought the Salpeterwar against Chili in the period from 1879
and 1883. This was because of the precious salt supply in the desert of the coast area.
Peru lost the war en had to hand over 2 provinces to Chile.
After 20 years of dictatorship in the 20th century, Jose Luis Bustamente y Rivero made an
end to it when he became president during the elections. After several other presidents,
prime minister Gen. Francisco Morales Bermudez promised to bring back the civilian
government.
Nowadays Peru is a constitutional republic.
From 1980 until 1992 the Peruvian population were carried along by the Maoist
guerrilla group ‘Shining Path’ (also Sendero Luminoso) aiming to pull down the existing
order. The terror actions of this group had cost the lifes of almost 70.000 people and the
material damage that was caused cost nearly about 30 billion euro. The manifestations
from the Shining Path formed the heaviest impediment on the development of Peru. The
terror stopped when the leaders of the Shining Path were captured in 1992.