Peru and Related Topics

Amazon River

Largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river in the world in comparison to the Nile.

Old drawing (from 1879) of Arapaima fishing at the Amazon river.

Samuel Fritz's 1707 map showing the Amazon and the Orinoco

Masked-dance, and wedding-feast of Ticuna Indians, engravings for Bates's 1863 The Naturalist on the River Amazons

Henry Walter Bates was most famous for his expedition to the Amazon (1848–1859).

Manaus, the largest city in Amazonas, as seen from a NASA satellite image, surrounded by the dark Rio Negro and the muddy Amazon River

The Amazon was thought to originate from the Apacheta cliff in Arequipa at the Nevado Mismi, marked only by a wooden cross.

Nevado Mismi, formerly considered to be the source of the Amazon

Meeting of Waters; the confluence of Rio Negro (blue) and Rio Solimões (sandy) near Manaus, Brazil

Water samples of the Solimões (left) and Rio Negro (right)

Satellite image of the mouth of the Amazon River, from the north looking south

NASA satellite image of a flooded portion of the river

The tambaqui, an important species in Amazonian fisheries, breeds in the Amazon River

Green anaconda is the heaviest and one of the longest known extant snake species

Characins, such as the piranha species, are prey for the giant otter, but these aggressive fish may also pose a danger to humans.

Neon tetra is one of the most popular aquarium fish

Solimões, the section of the upper Amazon River

The Mantaro and Apurímac rivers join, and with other tributaries form the Ucayali River, which in turn meets the Marañón River upstream of Iquitos, Peru, forming what countries other than Brazil consider to be the main stem of the Amazon.

Inca Empire

The largest empire in pre-Columbian America.

The Inca Empire at its greatest extent c. 1525

Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo, children of the Inti

Manco Cápac, First Inca, 1 of 14 Portraits of Inca Kings, Probably mid-18th century. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn Museum

The first image of the Inca in Europe, Pedro Cieza de León, Crónica del Perú, 1553

Atahualpa, the last Sapa Inca of the empire, was executed by the Spanish on 29 August 1533

Sacsayhuamán, the Inca stronghold of Cusco

"The Maiden", one of the Llullaillaco mummies. Inca human sacrifice, Salta province (Argentina).

Illustration of Inca farmers using a chakitaqlla (Andean foot plough)

Inti, as represented by José Bernardo de Tagle of Peru

The four suyus or quarters of the empire.

Tokapu. Textiles worn by the Inca elite consisting of geometric figures enclosed by rectangles or squares. There is evidence that the designs were an ideographic language

Camelid Conopa, 1470–1532, Brooklyn Museum, Small stone figurines, or conopas, of llamas and alpacas were the most common ritual effigies used in the highlands of Peru and Bolivia. These devotional objects were often buried in the animals' corrals to bring protection and prosperity to their owners and fertility to the herds. The cylindrical cavities in their backs were filled with offerings to the gods in the form of a mixture including animal fat, coca leaves, maize kernels and seashells.

The Battle of the Maule between the Incas (right) and the Mapuches (left)

The Inca civilization arose from the Peruvian highlands sometime in the early 13th century.

Viceroyalty of Peru

The Marquess of Salinas del Río Pisuerga, 8th Viceroy of Peru

Location of the most important Jesuit Reductions, with present political divisions.

Colonized area in its maximum extension ca 1650 (dark green) and the Viceroyalty in 1816 (dark brown)

The Plaza Mayor and the Cathedral of Lima

In The Distrest Poet, William Hogarth's portrait of a Grub Street poet starving to death, there is on the wall behind him a placard entitled "A view of the Gold Mines of Peru", reflecting the common perception of Spanish Peru as being an economically welcoming place for immigrants.

Charles I, King of Spain and the Indies. The Viceroyalty of Peru was founded under his reign.

The audiencia subdivisions of the Viceroyalty of Peru c. 1650, as numbered in the article.

Silver coin: 8 reales Carlos IV, Viceroyalty of Peru - 1800

The social classes in the Viceroyalty of Peru: Pink and fuchsia colors represented the lowest demographic class - the slaves were at the lowest level, above which were poor Spaniards, native people, mestizos, free dark-skinned people and the castas; yellow color were the middle social class - traders, noble natives, corregidors; and green color of the pyramid was the upper class - the oidors and Tribunal del Consulado's traders.

Pin (Tupu), 18th century., Brooklyn Museum, Peru's indigenous elite used visual traditions to negotiate power and privilege through self-representation. High-ranking Andean women wore untailored dresses called anacus throughout the colonial period, typically topped with a lliclla, a mantle or shawl worn across the shoulders, and secured with one or more tupus, metal pins with large, often elaborately worked, ornamental heads

1534 Portuguese America according to the Treaty of Tordesillas

1750 Portuguese America according to the Treaty of Madrid (1750)

The Viceroyalty of Peru (Virreinato del Perú) was a Spanish imperial provincial administrative district, created in 1542, that originally contained modern-day Peru and most of the Spanish Empire in South America, governed from the capital of Lima.

Tower at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, showing (right) the emblem of Harvard Universitythe oldest in the United Statesand (left) that of University of San Marcosthe oldest in the Americas.

National University of San Marcos

Mural dedicated to research and knowledge (Main Library).

Class of Jurisprudence and Law of 1896 posing in front of department's water fountain

Oil painting commemorating the foundation of the University of Lima (later named San Marcos), officially the first university in Peru and the Americas, and his manager Friar Tomas of San Martin

The historic chapter house at the Basilica and Convent of Santo Domingo, where the University of San Marcos began its operations

Drawing showing the old facade of the premises where the University of San Marcos functioned throughout the Peruvian viceroyalty. Later this place would be transferred to the nascent Congress of Peru.

Local University of San Marcos in 1920, the famous "Casona de San Marcos is currently the Centro Cultural de San Marcos

Welcome Mural Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, as he mentioned the official date of its foundation: May 12 of 1551

La Casona de San Marcos, used as the cultural center

Jorge Basadre building, used for administrative functions

Metallica concert at University of San Marcos

The National University of San Marcos (Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, UNMSM) is a public research university in Lima, the capital of Peru.

Map of Peru showing the distribution of overall Quechua speakers by district

Quechuan languages

The four branches of Quechua: I (Central), II-A (North Peruvian), II-B (Northern), II-C (Southern)

Vocabulary of the general language of the Indians of Peru, called Quichua (1560). From Domingo de Santo Tomás the first writer in Quechua.

Geographical distribution of Quechua languages by official status

Act of Argentine Independence, written in Spanish and Quechua (1816)

Quechua (, US also ; ), usually called Runasimi ("people's language") in Quechuan languages, is an indigenous language family spoken by the Quechua peoples, primarily living in the Peruvian Andes.

Simón Bolívar

Francisco de Miranda, portrait by Martín Tovar y Tovar

1895 portrait of Bolívar by Arturo Michelena

Bolívar and Francisco de Paula Santander during the Congress of Cúcuta, October 1821

El Libertador (Bolívar diplomático), 1860

Bolívar's death, by Venezuelan painter Antonio Herrera Toro

Simón Bolívar Memorial Monument, standing in Santa Marta, Colombia, at the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino

Statue of Bolívar in Plaza Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela, by Adamo Tadolini

A monument in honor of Simón Bolívar in Sofia, Bulgaria

Statue of Simón Bolívar in Lisbon, Portugal

Statue of Simón Bolívar in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain

Statue of Simón Bolívar in Bucharest, Romania

Statue of Simón Bolívar in Trinity Bellwoods Park, Toronto, Canada

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Ponte Palacios y Blanco (, also , ; 24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830) was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Bolivia to independence from the Spanish Empire.

War of the Pacific

War between Chile and a Bolivian–Peruvian alliance from 1879 to 1884.

Chilean lieutenant Solo Zaldívar and two soldiers burying three Bolivian soldiers after the Battle of Tacna. The elevation behind them is also a burial ground of victims.

Martiniano Urriola, with kepi, the commander of the occupation of Ayacucho in 1883, and Marcos Maturana, with poncho, the general chief of staff chief of the Expeditionary Army during the Lima Campaign; they view the dead bodies of a Peruvian gun crew after the Battle of Chorrillos.

A metallic brass cartridge for a Fusil Gras mle 1874 and a paper cartridge for a Chassepot rifle. The brass cartridge avoided the smoke and ashes of the self-consuming paper cartridge.

Almost all Chilean military operations began by landings. The exceptions were the operations in the Sierra.

Landing and deployment of Chilean and Allied troops during the Campaign of Tarapacá, in November 1879.

Photo of Chilean private first class Tránsito Diaz, injured during the landing on Pisagua. The photo belongs to the "Álbum de inválidos de la Guerra del Pacífico", 130 photographic records ordered by the D. Santa María government to demonstrate the pensions and orthopedic devices given to disabled war veterans. Ten percent of the expeditionary force, 4,081 Chilean soldiers, returned disabled from the war. In 2008, 280 women were receiving a pension as the daughter or wife of a veteran.

Landing and deployment of Chilean and Allied troops during the Campaign of Tacna and Arica from January to June 1880.

Lynch's Expedition to Chimbote, Supe, Paita, Eten and islas de Lobos, from September to October 1880.

Landing and deployment of Chilean troops during the Campaign of Lima, from November 1880 to January 1881. The long way from Pisco to Chilca was done only by the Lynch brigade.

Chorrillos was the preferred seaside resort of Lima's aristocracy before the war, but during the Battle of Chorrillos, the Peruvian line of defense ran in the middle of the city and was shelled, set on fire, looted, and reduced to rubble during the conflict. At the end of the battle, bitter fighting had raged in every ruin and street.

Chorrillos, and the consequences of the war. January 1881

A Chilean soldier with the "Peruvian wart," or Carrion's disease, who was infected probably in the valleys of the Rimac River during the war in the sierra.

Flow of news during the War. Distances in kilometers are great-circle distance, for land and sea routes.

Human remains of Bolivian, Chilean and Peruvian soldiers exhumed from makeshift graves after the Battle of Tacna before their definitive interment in the Mausoleum of the Tacna cemetery in 1910.

Caricature in the Chilean magazine Padre Cobos. Minister Balmaceda washes his hands of responsibility and orders Intendent of Santiago Mackenna to get rid of the heavy Peruvian lion. The Santiago elite observes with pleasure the arrival of the statue. "Padre Cobos" and a black child play around.

Chile's territorial gains after the War of the Pacific

Fought over Chilean claims on coastal Bolivian territory in the Atacama Desert, the war ended with a Chilean victory, which gained for the country a significant amount of resource-rich territory from Peru and Bolivia.

Andean civilizations

Agricultural terraces (andenes) were widely built and used for agriculture in the Andes.

The Caral pyramids in the arid Supe Valley, some 20 km from the Pacific coast

Mortar, Jaguar Valdivia, South Coast (4000 BCE to 1500 BCE)

Chavín Gold Crown Formative Epoch 1200–300 BCE (Larco Museum Collection, Lima)

The Condor, Nazca Lines, created by the Nazca culture

The Moche culture is world-renowned for its pottery, in picture a Condor from about 300 CE.

Walls of Soloco fortress, Chachapoyas, Peru.

Pikillaqta administrative center, built by the Wari civilization in Cusco

The "Gate of the Sun" built by the Tiwanaku culture

Chimú vessel representing a fisherman on a caballitos de totora (1100–1400 CE)

La balsa Muisca (The Muisca raft), a pre-Columbian gold sculpture representing the Muisca's offerings of gold in the Guatavita Lake

Timoto-Cuica territory in present-day Mérida, Venezuela

The Andean civilizations were complex societies of many cultures and peoples mainly developed in the river valleys of the coastal deserts of Peru.

The Battle of Ayacucho
Painting by Antonio Herrera Toro

Peruvian War of Independence

Juan José Crespo y Castillo, one of the leaders of the Huánuco rebellion of 1812.

The brothers José, Vicente and Mariano Angulo, leaders of the Cuzco Rebellion of 1814.

San Martín proclaims the independence of Peru. Oil painting by Juan Lepiani.

The Peruvian War of Independence (Guerra de Independencia del Perú) was composed of a series of military conflicts in Peru beginning with viceroy Abascal military victories in the south frontier in 1809, in La Paz revolution and 1811 in the Battle of Guaqui, continuing with the definitive defeat of the Spanish Army in 1824 in the Battle of Ayacucho, and culminating in 1826 with the Siege of Callao.

José de San Martín

Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and central parts of South America's successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire who served as the Protector of Peru.

The Battle of Bailén was one of the most important battles fought by José de San Martín at the Peninsular War.

Arrival of San Martín and Carlos María de Alvear to Buenos Aires, aboard the frigate George Canning.

José de San Martín, trapped under his dead horse during the battle of San Lorenzo, is saved by Juan Bautista Cabral.

Meeting of Manuel Belgrano and José de San Martín at the Yatasto relay.

Training of the Army of the Andes at camp Plumerillo.

Generals José de San Martín (left) and Bernardo O'Higgins (right) during the crossing of the Andes.

The Battle of Chacabuco between the Army of the Andes and Spanish forces in 1817.

Bernardo O'Higgins, commander of the Army of the Andes along with San Martín, and Supreme Director of Chile after the victory at Chacabuco.

The Chilean Declaration of Independence took place on 18 February 1818, shortly before the battles of Cancha Rayada and Maipú.

The "Embrace of Maipú" between José de San Martín and Bernardo O'Higgins, after the victory in the Battle of Maipú.

San Martín before the Congress of Buenos Aires

Parade of the Army of the Andes in Rancagua.

The Numancia battalion, formerly a royalist unit, joins the forces of San Martín.

José de San Martín's proclamation of the independence of Peru on 28 July 1821 in Lima. Painting by Juan Lepiani

The Guayaquil conference between Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín. The real conference took place inside an office, and not in the countryside as the portrait suggests.

Mausoleum of San Martín at the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral. The three statues are national personifications of Argentina, Chile and Peru.

The Cerro de la Gloria, monument to the Army of the Andes at Mendoza, Argentina

Equestrian statue in Boulogne-sur-Mer, in France.

On 12 July 1821, after seizing partial control of Lima, San Martín was appointed Protector of Peru, and Peruvian independence was officially declared on 28 July.