History:
The word “Perú” comes from “Birú”, a local governor who lived near to the Gulf of San Miguel in Panama, in the first half of the 16th century.
When the Spanish explorers arrived in 1522, this territory covered the far southern extreme of the “New World” where the eureopeans have come.
When Francisco Pizarro explored the regions even so far, they were denominated Birú or Perú.
Under the Spanish administration, the country received the name of Viceroyalty of Peru; which became the Republic of Peru after its independence.
The most ancient archeological sites attributed to the human precense in Peru correspond to the twelveth millenium b. C, a long time after that the first humans, farmers and hunters coming from Asia, crossed the Bering Land Bridge. These are the rests of Paccaicasa in the cave of Piquimachay (Department of Ayacucho).
Some traces of the American agriculture have been found in the Cave of Guitarrero in Yungay, Ancash 12,600 years ago (10,600 b. C.). There are too traces of population in La Libertad from twelve thousand years ago and in Tacna from eleven thousand years ago.
At the end of the last glacial period, these first populations started the slow domestication process of the local biota and, consequently, the meetings in tribes and villages in order to form ayllus eventually.
Halfway through the third millennium before Christ, the first teocratical city-states were established. The civilization of Caral, the most ancient of the American continent, was contemporary of others such as the one of China, Egypt, India and Mesopotamia; having already became a city-state, surrounded by other civilizations considered still a “village society”.
So, we are talking about of one of the most geografical zones that may be considered as the birthplace of the world civilization because of its ancienity (5,000 years ago). At the end of this period, the Chavin culture prevailed over the other ones, untill its influency declined and the development of bigger States began based on the new local cultures as Mochica, Lima, Nazca, Wari and Tiwanaku or Tiahuanaco.
The born of the imperial cities were the expression of the classic model of the Andean State that the Wari or Huari culture developed. This model was expanded to the north by the eigth century. This culture together with the Tiwanaku culture prevailed over the others until the end of the ninth century. From that moment on, new regional imperial states sprang up along the Peruvian Andes, as Chimu with the development of the largest state territories. Among these dominions, the Incas stood up. By the fifteeth century, the Incas took all the Andean towns between two rivers, Maule and Ancasmayo, which means almost 3 millions of kmª. This area covers nowadays the countries of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile; territory that today is known as the Inca Empire.
Cuzco was the capital city, located in the Peruvian Andes. Besides their militar power, the Inca architechture was really important too. They built magnificent structures as the citadel of Machu Picchu, chosen as one of the New World Wonders.
Geography:
Peru is located en the Western zone of South America, between the equatorial line and the Tropic of Capricorn. It covers a surface of 1,285.220 Kmª, being the twentieth biggest country of the Earth and the third of South America. At North, Peru borders on Ecuador and Colombia, at East on Brazil, at South East on Bolivia, at South on Chile, and at West on the Pacific Ocean.
It has a huge variaty of landscapes due to its geographical conditions, which, at the same time, gives it a wide diversity of natural resources. The Constitution says that the maritimal dominion of Peru extends until the 200 maritime miles.
The range of the Andes goes parallel to the Pacific Ocean, dividing the country in three geograhical regions. The coast, at West, is a narrow plain generally arid except for the existence of valleys formed by seasonal rivers. The “sierra” is the region of the Andes, where we can find the altiplano plateau and the highest peak of the country, the Huascaran; 6,768 m.a.s.l. The third region is the jungle, a wide land extension covered by the amazon jungle toward the East. This region covers almost the 60% of the country.
Weather
Different from other equatorial countries, Peru does not have a weather exclusivelly tropical; the influence of the Andes and the Humbolt Current gives to the Peruvian territory wide weather diversity. The coast has mild temperatures, light rains and high humidity, except for its warmest and rainiest north region.
In the Andes, it frequently rains during summer, while the temperature and humidity decrease with the altitude reaching the icy peaks of the Andes.
The jungle is characterized by strong rains y high temperatures, except in its south extreme region, where winter is cold and there are seasonal rains.
Economy:
According to “América Economía” and the International Monetary Fund, Peru had in 2008 the second lowest inflation of the world after France and, consequently, one of the most stable ones of the region.
According to a publication of the Switzerland school of business IMD, in 2008, Peru obtained the 35th place of the World Competitiveness Ranking.
In 2008, the Peruvian economy increased remarkably over the other economies of the world, only comparable to the one of China.
Likewise, the poverty rate decreased from the 49 per cent in 2006, before the Alan Garcia’s administration, to the 39.3 per cent in the mentionned month.
Religion:
In Peru, the most of the population is catholic. According to the census of 2007, the 81.3% of the population older than 12 years old consider themselves catholics; 12.5% evangelics; 3.3% practises other religions and 2.9% does not specify any religion.
In Peru, as in the rest of Latin America, there is a great quantity of devotions to the Cross as many Marian advocations to the “Virgen de Chapi”, the “Virgen del Carmen”, the “Virgen de La Puerta”, and other ones..
