Reconstruction, the Aristocratic Republic, and Leguía's 11-year
rule (1884–1930)[edit]
Peruvian Republic
República Peruana
1883–1930
Flag (1884–1950)
Coat of arms
Anthem: National Anthem of Peru
Peru before 1909 Peru before 1922 Peru before
1929 Peru before 1936 Show all
Capital Lima
Official languages Spanish
Recognised Quechua
regional languages Aymara
Government Unitary presidential republic
President
• 1895–1899 Nicolás de Piérola (first)
• 1915–1919 José Pardo (last)
History
• Treaty of Ancón October 20, 1883
• Aristocratic Republic 1895
• Treaty of Lima June 3, 1929
• Leguía government July 4, 1919
• Coup d'etat August 27, 1930
Preceded by Succeeded by
Occupation of Peru Peru
After the War of the Pacific, an extraordinary effort of rebuilding began. The government started
to initiate a number of social and economic reforms in order to recover from the damage of the
war. Political stability was achieved only in the early 1900s.
In 1894, Nicolás de Piérola, after allying his party with the Civil Party of Peru to organize guerrilla
fighters to occupy Lima, ousted Andrés Avelino Cáceres and once again became president of
Peru in 1895. After a brief period in which the military once again controlled the country, civilian
rule was permanently established with Pierola's election in 1895. His second term was
successfully completed in 1899 and was marked by his reconstruction of a devastated Peru by
initiating fiscal, military, religious, and civil reforms. Until the 1920s, this period was called the
"Aristocratic Republic", since most of the presidents that ruled the country were from the social
elite.
Around this time, Colonel and Prefect of Loreto Emilio Vizcarra seceded from Peru and
proclaimed the Jungle Republic, an unrecognized secessionist state whose declared borders
coincided with those of the Loreto Department (today the departaments of Loreto, San Martín,
and Ucayali). President Eduardo López de Romaña immediately sent troops to deal with the
situation and the state ceased to exist in 1900.[37] This insurrection was preceded by a similar one
in 1896, where separatists seceded from Peru and established the also short lived Federal State
of Loreto, whose rebellion was ended in a similar manner; and another one in 1921, which saw a
similar fate.
Augusto B. Leguía during his first government
During Augusto B. Leguía's periods in government (1908–1912 and 1919–1930), the latter
known as the "Oncenio" (the "Eleventh"), the entrance of American capital became general and
the bourgeoisie was favored. This policy, along with increased dependence on foreign
investment, focused opposition from the most progressive sectors of Peruvian society against the
landowner oligarchy.
There was a final peace treaty in 1929, signed between Peru and Chile and called the Treaty of
Lima by which Tacna returned to Peru and Peru yielded permanently the formerly rich provinces
of Arica and Tarapacá, but kept certain rights to the port activities in Arica and restrictions on
what Chile can do on those territories. In 1922, another treaty, the Salomón–Lozano Treaty, was
signed between Peru and Colombia with the United States acting as a mediator, where a large
amount of territory was ceded to Colombia allowing them access to the Amazon river, and further
reducing Peru's territory.
Map showing the Tacna-Arica dispute and its solution
In 1924, from Mexico, university reform leaders in Peru who had been forced into exile by the
government founded the American People's Revolutionary Alliance (ARPA), which had a major
influence on the country's political life. APRA is largely a political expression of the university
reform and workers' struggles of the years 1918–1920. The movement draws its influences from
the Mexican revolution and its 1917 Constitution, particularly on issues
of agrarianism and indigenism, and to a lesser extent from the Russian revolution. Close
to Marxism (its leader, Haya de la Torre, declares that "APRA is the Marxist interpretation of the
American reality"), it nevertheless moves away from it on the question of class struggle and on
the importance given to the struggle for the political unity of Latin America.[38]
In 1928, the Peruvian Socialist Party was founded, notably under the leadership of José Carlos
Mariátegui, himself a former member of APRA. Shortly afterwards, in 1929, the party created
the General Confederation of Workers.
This period would come to an end after a coup d'état carried out by Lieutenant colonel Luis
Miguel Sánchez Cerro and his sympathizers, with General Manuel María Ponce
Brousset assuming the interim Presidency for two days until Sánchez Cerro's return
to Lima from Arequipa. The country's government would then turn from
a Unitary presidential republic to a military government, seeing itself involved in a war with
Colombia only two years later with Sánchez Cerro himself being assassinated.
Alternation between democracy and militarism (1930–1979)[edit]
See also: Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces of Peru
Peruvian Republic
(1930–1979)
República Peruana
Republic of Peru
(1979–1980)
República del Perú
1930–1980
Flag (1884–1950)
Coat of arms
Anthem: National Anthem of Peru
Peru before 1936 Peru before 1942 Peru after
1942 Show all
Capital Lima
Official languages Spanish
Quechua (1975)
Aymara (1977)
Government Several
President
• 1930–1932 Luis Miguel Sánchez
Cerro (first)
• 1975–1980 Francisco Morales
Bermúdez (last)
History
• Military coup d'etat August 27, 1930
• Military governments 1930–1939
• Weak democracies 1939–1948
• Odría's ochenio 1948–1956
• Moderate civil reform 1956–1968
• Revolutionary government 1968–1980
• 1980 Elections July 28, 1980
Preceded by Succeeded by
Peruvian Republic of
Republic Peru
After the worldwide crisis of 1929, numerous brief governments followed one another. The APRA
party had the opportunity to cause system reforms by means of political actions, but it was not
successful. This was a nationalistic movement, populist and anti-imperialist, headed by Victor
Raul Haya de la Torre in 1924. The Socialist Party of Peru, later the Peruvian Communist Party,
was created four years later and it was led by Jose C. Mariategui.
Repression was brutal in the early 1930s and tens of thousands of APRA followers (Apristas)
were executed or imprisoned. This period was also characterized by a sudden population growth
and an increase in urbanization. According to Alberto Flores Galindo, "By the 1940 census, the
last that utilized racial categories, mestizos were grouped with whites, and the two constituted
more than 53 percent of the population. Mestizos likely outnumbered the indigenous peoples and
were the largest population group."[39] On 12 February 1945,[40] Peru was one of the South
American nations – following Brazil on 22 August 1942, Bolivia on 7 April 1943 and Colombia on
26 November 1943 to align with the Allied forces against the Axis.
Following the Allied victory in World War II by 2 September 1945, Víctor Raúl Haya de la
Torre (founder of the APRA), together with José Carlos Mariátegui (leader of the Peruvian
Communist Party), were two major forces in Peruvian politics. Ideologically opposed, they both
managed to create the first political parties that tackled the social and economic problems of the
country. Although Mariátegui died at a young age, Haya de la Torre was twice elected president,
but prevented by the military from taking office. During World War II, the country rounded up
around 2,000 of its Japanese immigrant population and shipped them to the United States as
part of the Japanese-American internment program.[41]
President Bustamante y Rivero hoped to create a more democratic government by limiting the
power of the military and the oligarchy. Elected with the cooperation of the APRA, conflict soon
arose between the President and Haya de la Torre. Without the support of the APRA party,
Bustamante y Rivero found his presidency severely limited. The President disbanded
his Aprista cabinet and replaced it with a mostly military one. In 1948, Minister Manuel A.
Odria and other right-wing elements of the Cabinet urged Bustamante y Rivero to ban the APRA,
but when the President refused, Odría resigned his post.
In a military coup on 29 October, Gen. Manuel A. Odria became the new President. Odría's
presidency was known as the Ochenio. He came down hard on APRA, momentarily pleasing the
oligarchy and all others on the right, but followed a populist course that won him great favor with
the poor and lower classes. A thriving economy allowed him to indulge in expensive but crowd-
pleasing social policies. At the same time, however, civil rights were severely restricted
and corruption was rampant throughout his régime.
It was feared that his dictatorship would run indefinitely, so it came as a surprise when Odría
allowed new elections. During this time, Fernando Belaúnde Terry started his political career,
and led the slate submitted by the National Front of Democratic Youth. After the National Election
Board refused to accept his candidacy, he led a massive protest, and the striking image of
Belaúnde walking with the flag was featured by news magazine Caretas the following day, in an
article entitled "Así Nacen Los Lideres" ("Thus Are Leaders Born"). Belaúnde's 1956 candidacy
was ultimately unsuccessful, as the dictatorship-favored right-wing candidacy of Manuel Prado
Ugarteche took first place.
Belaúnde ran for president once again in the national elections of 1962; this time with his own
party, Acción Popular (Popular Action). The results were very tight; he ended in second place,
following Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre (APRA), by less than 14,000 votes. Since none of the
candidates managed to get the constitutionally established minimum of one third of the vote
required to win outright, selection of the President should have fallen to Congress; the long-held
antagonistic relationship between the military and APRA prompted Haya de la Torre to make a
deal with former dictator Odria, who had come in third, which would have resulted in Odria taking
the Presidency in a coalition government.
However, widespread allegations of fraud prompted the Peruvian military to depose Prado and
install a military junta, led by Ricardo Perez Godoy. Godoy ran a short transitional government
and held new elections in 1963, which were won by Belaúnde by a more comfortable but still
narrow five percent margin.
Throughout Latin America in the 1960s, communist movements inspired by the Cuban
Revolution sought to win power through guerrilla warfare. The Revolutionary Left Movement
(Peru), or MIR, launched an insurrection that had been crushed by 1965, but Peru's internal strife
would only accelerate until its climax in the 1990s.
The military has been prominent in Peruvian history. Coups have repeatedly interrupted civilian
constitutional government. The most recent period of military rule (1968–1980) began when
General Juan Velasco Alvarado overthrew elected President Fernando Belaúnde Terry of
the Popular Action Party (AP). As part of what has been called the "first phase" of the military
government's nationalist program, Velasco undertook an extensive agrarian reform program and
nationalized the fish meal industry, some petroleum companies, and several banks and mining
firms.
General Francisco Morales Bermúdez replaced Velasco in 1975, citing Velasco's economic
mismanagement and deteriorating health. Morales Bermúdez moved the revolution into a more
conservative "second phase", tempering the radical measures of the first phase and beginning
the task of restoring the country's economy. A constitutional assembly was created in 1979,
which was led by Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre. Morales Bermúdez presided over the return to
civilian government in accordance with a new constitution drawn up in 1979.
