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History of Peru A Glimpse Into the Past

The great history of Peru first begins with the great Incan empire. The Incas controlled the most land in South America during the height of the Incan empire than any other country has ever controlled. The Incan empire was ruled by local regional officers, which all reported to the central Incan government. Unlike most Central American empires, the Incas did not control all areas of their empire centrally- most of the rule was from the local governments. The Incan empire was strong until the Spanish conquistadors arrived. These Spanish invaders wanted to take control of the "primitive" people, and their rich resources.

The Spanish invaders fought hard to demolish the Incan empire, and their religion. The Incas were perhaps hit the hardest by the natural diseases that the Spanish people brought with them. In 1533, the Incan empire was no more. The Spanish invaders would permanently change the history of Peru by sieging the central capital of Cuzco. Spain had conquered the Peruvian people, and the Incas were no more. Indigenous people of Peru are no longer called Incas, but the modern Andean people are the direct ancestors to the ancient Incas.

Spain held onto control of Peru for quite some time, until in 1821, when Peru declared its independence from Spain, following a conflict between the local European residents, and the colonial rulers. During this independence, many unstable generals took rule of Peru. The history of Peru has almost always been marked with political instability. During the 1830s, a confederation with Bolivia was formed. This confederation was broken by revolutionary activities in 1839.

Peru once again was taken into war with Spain during the late 1860s, during which the main port of Lima was heavily damaged. After the war, political instability and poor leadership was commonplace in Peru. Peru went through eighteen presidents between this time and the next half century. Many of these presidents took dictatorship-like powers, and some were even military based. Most of the political struggle in Peru was from conflicts between the conservative upper class (Creole), and the liberals who desired political and economic changes. In 1963, a liberal president Fernando Belaunde created reforms to change the economic situations and conditions of the peasants and working-class citizens. The main reforms were enacted by the head of a military dictatorship known as General Juan Velasco. Velasco removed the current president from control of Peru in 1968. Velasco was later deposed by General Francisco Bermudez, who resumed the free elections, and democratic control in 1980. Since then, Peru has been politically stable.

Throughout the history of Peru, there has been political instability, and internal struggle. Hopefully, now that most of the internal conflicts have been resolved, Peru will be able to enjoy its democratic rule from now on. Peru will hopefully set an example for all of the other unstable countries throughout the world- that even though a country can experience exploitation for many years, it can still rise above its misfortunes. In addition, the once prevalent social stresses within the Peruvian society are now practically eliminated.