Meanwhile the Creoles (American-born Spaniards) had long been shut out from all important official positions. Peru was still the centre of Spanish power in South America, though New Granada (Colombia) in 1740 and Rio de la Plata (Argentina) in 1776 had been created independent vice royalties. As military strength was concentrated at Lima, the more distant provinces, Chile and Buenos Aires, were first to declare themselves independent, in 1816 and 1817. But destruc tion of the viceroy's power at Lima was essential to their con tinued independent existence. A fleet fitted out at Valparaiso, officered by English, convoyed the Argentine and Chilean army under command of the Argentine general, San Martin, to the coast of Peru in Sept. 182o. San Martin was enthusiastically received, and after the viceroy had withdrawn, the independence of Peru was proclaimed at Lima (July 28, 1821). On Sept. 20, 1822, San Martin resigned his protectorate, and on that day the first Congress of Peru became the sovereign power. It elected Don Jose de la Riva Agiiero first president, in Feb. 1823. He was energetic but unsuccessful; the aid of the Colombians under Simon Bolivar was sought, and Agiiero deposed.
Bolivar arrived at Lima in Sept. 1823, and organized an army to attack the Spanish viceroy and his forces in the interior. On Aug. 6, 1824, the cavalry battle of Junin was fought near Chin chaicocha. It was decided by a gallant Peruvian charge under Capt. Suarez. Soon afterwards Bolivar left the army and the final battle of Ayacucho (Dec. 9, 1824) was won by his aide, Gen. Sucre. Spanish power in Peru was at an end. Gen. Bolivar then ruled Peru with dictatorial powers. Upper Peru was given the name of Bolivia and declared an independent republic in 1825. Bolivar left Peru in Sept. 1826.
Gen. Jose de La Mar, who commanded the Peruvians at Ayacucho, was elected president in Aug. 1827, but was deposed and Gen. Agustin Gamarra, chief of staff in the patriot army at Ayacucho, was elected third president in Aug. 2829. From 1829 to 1844, Peru painfully experimented with independence. The officers who f ought at Ayacucho were all powerful and settled political differences by the sword. Three men during that period are conspicuous: Generals Agustin Gamarra, Felipe Santiago Salaverry and Andres Santa Cruz. Gamarra never accommodated himself to constitutional usages, but attached to himself many loyal and devoted friends. Born at Lima of pure Basque descent, Salaverry joined the patriot army before he was 15 and displayed audacious valour in many a hard-fought battle. Feeling the guilt of civil dissension, he wrote poems which became very popular. Andres Santa Cruz was an Indian, his mother a lady of high rank, and he was very proud of his descent. Unsuc cessful as a general in the field, he nevertheless possessed remark able administrative ability and for nearly three years (1836-39) realized his dream of a Peru-Bolivian confederation. But the strong-handed intervention of Chile on the ground of assistance rendered to rebels, ended in the defeat and overthrow of Santa Cruz. After this, except for administrations of Gen. RamOn Castilla
and 1855-62), revolution succeeded revolution for the spoils of office. In 1849 regular payment of interest on the public debt was begun, steam-lines established along the Pacific coast and a railway built from Lima to Callao. Income from guano and nitrate was amounting to several million pounds a year. In 1868 Col. Jose Balta became president. With the vast sums of money at his disposal, he began the construction of public works, principally railways, on a gigantic scale—an orgy of expenditure. He was succeeded in 1872 by Don Manuel Pardo, an honest and enlightened statesman, who tried to compensate for the reckless policy of his predecessor. He promoted education, encouraged literature and regulated Chinese immigration to the coast valleys, which from 186o to 1872 had amounted to more than 5o,000. But in general, conditions went from bad to worse. In 1876 Gen. Mariano Ignacio Prado was elected president.
Pacific.—Peru and Bolivia, alarmed at continued Chilean encroachments in the desert of Atacama, signed on Feb. 6, 1873, a treaty of defensive alliance. On Feb. 14, 1879, Chile, in the course of a dispute over Bolivia's right under treaty to levy an export tax on nitrates, occupied the Bolivian port of Antofa gasta, and on April 5 declared war on Peru (see CHILE-PERUVIAN WAR). President Prado having left the country to obtain aid, Nicolas de Pierola assumed a dictatorship, and was elected pres ident in Dec. 1879. The United States made several efforts to mediate, first in Oct. 188o, without success Chile refused to deal with President Pierola. A provisional government under Francisco Garcia Calderon was set up with Chile's approval in 1881, but when that, too, failed to meet their demands, they removed him to Chile; Lima was occupied by Chilean troops, and a reign of terror followed. The university was looted and the national library destroyed. Occupation continued for over two
years. With Chilean support, Gen. Iglesias was elected president in 1883 and on Oct. 20, 1883, a treaty of peace was signed at Ancon. Though the invading army left shortly after, Chile main tained a strong force in Lima until July 1884, when the treaty was ratified. The chief conditions imposed by Chile were : Ces sion in perpetuity and unconditionally of Peru's nitrate province of Tarapaca; possession for a period of ten years of the provinces of Tacna and Arica, at the expiration of which time a plebiscite should decide whether the territory was to remain under the dominion of Chile or continue to form part of Peruvian territory. There was violent dissatisfaction in Peru with the terms of the treaty and President Iglesias was forced to abdicate in 1885; Gen. Cacares succeeded him. The country was in a desperate plight, politically and financially. Not only had many of the ablest leaders been killed, but there was no money for war debts. Morales BermUdez, elected president in 189o, died in 1894, just before the expiration of his term of office. Disputes as to his suc cessor culminated in a year's fighting. In 1895 Nicolas Pierola became president. He initiated several unpopular reforms and in Sept. 1899, abdicated in favour of Eduardo de Romana, the peo ple's choice. The chief problem was still that of Tacna and Arica. Though 15 years had passed, the Chileans still continued in pos session. Following the term of Dr. Jose Pardo (1904-08), Don Augusto B. Leguia was elected president (1908-12) ; attempted reforms were ineffectual because of shortage of funds. Dr. Pardo entered upon a second term in July, 1915. The World War created a demand for sugar, cotton and copper and Peruvian in dustry had the greatest boom (1916-18) in the history of the country. (Diplomatic relations with Germany had been severed in 1917.) National finances, however, did not sufficiently profit by the boom. Leguia again became president on July 4, 1919. On July 1 o a Constituent Assembly was authorized to alter the Con stitution of 186o. The new one, promulgated on Jan. 18, 192o, af fected almost every phase of government. From that time to 1929—for President Leguia was reelected in 1924 for a term of five years—there was steady progress. Especially notable was the peaceful settlement in 1929 of the long standing Tacna-Arica dis pute. (See TAcNA-ARIcA.) In 1929 Leguia was again reelected to serve until 1935, but a revolution in 193o forced him to abandon office and filled the vacancy with Col. Luis M. Sanchez Cerro as Provisional President. Cerro in turn was faced by such violent resistance that he too was compelled to resign March 1, 1931. But the elections of December in that year brought him once more to power where he ruthlessly dealt with all who opposed him. To add to the confusion his highly nationalistic government became involved in a serious controversy with Colombia over possession of the latter's Leticia Corridor. A series of military clashes in 1933 threatened to develop into open war. Following the assassination of Cerro, however, and the appointment of the moderate Gen. Oscar Benavides to complete his term, an accom modation was reached (partly through intercession of the League of Nations and the United States) ; and finally on May 24,
a treaty, known as the Leticia Protocol was signed reestablishing peace and amity between the two countries. Under the adminis tration of Benavides, moreover, in 1934 and 1935 economic re covery went forward at a rapid pace.
(Titles are arranged in order of topics in the text.) R. Porras Barrenechea, Historia de los limites del Perii (Lima, 1926) ; I. Bowman, The Andes of Southern Peru (New York, 1916) ; A. G. Ogilvie, Geog. of the Central Andes (New York, 1922) ; R. C. Murphy, Bird Islands of Peru (New York, 1925) ; A. Coester, Literary History of Spanish America (New York, 1928) ; B. L. Miller and J. T. Singe wald Jr., Mineral Deposits of South America (New York, 1919) ; W. E. Dunn, Peru, A Commercial and Industrial Handbook, Trade Promotion Series, No. 25, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce (Washington, 1925) ; also other reports of the Department of Com merce; Dept. of Overseas Trade, Report on Commercial . . . Condi tions in Peru (London, 1927) ; C. A. Ugarte, Apuntes sobre la historia ec. del Perit (Lima, 192o) ; C. W. Sutton, "Agriculture and Irrigation in Peru," Pan-Am. Bul., July, 1927, p. 642 ; see other bulletins of the Pan-Am. Union; A. F. Bandelier, Islands of Titicaca and Koati (New York, 191o) ; T. A. Joyce, South American Archaeology (London, 1912) ; C. R. Markham, History of Peru (Chicago, 1892) "Bibliog. of Peru," Hakluyt Soc., Series II., vol. xxii. (Cambridge, '907) and Incas of Peru (New York, 191o) ; W. H. Prescott, History of the Conquest of Peru (New York, 1847) ; Carlos Wiesse, Las civilisaciones primitivas del Peri4 (Lima, 1913) ; and Historia del Peris (1918) ; G. Stiglich, Diccionario geogrdfico del Peril (Lima, 1923).