2. Purpos
e
Peru represents a part of the world whose
environments and ways life I have been covering in
classes for 20 years. Now I finally have the
opportunitiy to observe and explore these worlds
first-hand!
It’s given me the confidence to embark on more
adventures
3. Peru’s Size and Location
Peru lies on the west coast of South
America, bounded by Ecuador and
Columbia in the north, Brazil and
Bolivia to the east, and Chile to its
south.
Peru covers about 500,000 square
miles. To compare, Alaska covers
about 615,000 square miles and Texas
about 270,000 square miles
6. Peru’s Physical Geography
The physical geography and type of environment
found in any given place is determined by six
climate controls. Peru is influenced by all six
7. Latitude: Peru is entirely within the
tropics
• Two seasons – rainy and dry, high sun is rainy season
• Lying the southern hemisphere, its seasons are opposite of ours
• Its longitude, and thus its daily time, matches that of the US East Coast
8. Elevation – much of Peru lies at high altitudes
Altiplano – the world’s second largest plateau
9. Ocean Currents – the Humboldt Current controls Peru’s Pacifi
coast
• This cold west coast current sweeps
up from Antarctica
• Suppresses the atmosphere /
Upwelling supports a productive
marine ecosystem
10. Landform Barriers and Prevailing
Winds
• Easterly Trade Winds Blow across Peru and over the Andes Mountains
• Result is windward rainforests and leeward dry zones
rain shadowOrographic Uplift
14. The Andes stretch the entire South American continent,
reaching over 20,000 feet of elevation in places
The Andes are a young and active range, the product of subduction
22. Three Drainage Regimes and
Divides
Western Peru
drains to the
Pacific and
eastern Peru
into the
Atlantic via
the Amazon
The Altiplano of Peru and Bolivia has interior drainage into Lake Titicaca
24. Ethnic Composition
• 45% Indigenous Amerindian
• Largest groups Quechua and Aymara
• Distribution – most concentrated in
Andean region
37% Mestizo and 15% European
Largest concentration in Lima
Peru has also had significant migrations from China
(mid-19th Century), Italy (early 20th Century), and
Japan (after WWII)
30. Basic Demographics of Peru
• Population: 30.5 million
• Life Expectancy: 74 years
• Birth Rate: 2.6 births / woman
• Infant Mortality: 17 / 1000
• Rate of Natural Increase: 1.5%
• A “Stage 3” Country
31. Peru – Pre-Inca History
Peru has been occupied by humans for over 14,000 years
and agricultural societies since 7000 BCE
Moche Temple in Lima circa 200 A.D.
32. Peru History – the
Inca
The largest empire in pre-Columbian America / Rose in 13th Century and conquered by Spanish in 1572 / A Highlands empire
33. History: The Spanish and
Catholicism
Madonna and Child in hotel lobby – less
concern about separation of church and
state than U.S.
34. History: The Spanish and Catholicism
The Spanish used pre-existing Inca foundations to build upon
35. The Spanish, Catholicism and Acculturation of Andean Peop
“Guinea Pig Last Supper” in Cusco Cathedral
Andean belief
systems - a
hybrid of
Catholicism and
local Animism
37. Peru Gained its
Independence from the
Spanish in 1821
The Battle of Ayacucho
Bolivar did not embrace the same ideals as the U.S. Founding
Fathers. He saw as risky the constitution and democratic system of
government of the recently independent United States. In South
America, authoritarian governments would become the norm.
38. The Trajectory of History Since
Independence• After Independence, Spanish Peruvians would dominate the country politically and
economically
• Unlike in the U.S., where land would be plotted and parceled by government for
wide distribution to settlers willing to toil and improve it, in Peru the Spanish crown
selectively awarded vast amounts of land – as well as the labor of the indigenous
living upon it – to a few loyal Spaniards who would build lavish estates (Haciendas).
Land would be hereditarily passed on.
• Indigenous peoples “campesinos” were often enslaved and given access to meager
plots of land for subsistence activities.
• Land reform movements and the breaking up of the Hacienda system did not start
until the 1960s.
• Peru’s Quechua Andean regions remain relatively poorer and more traditional
39. Recent
History
• 1970s-1990s: A communist insurgency terrorized
Andean Peru
• “The Shining Path” promised action to address
Peru’s inequities, initially gathering support from
rural poor
• 1980 initiated its “armed struggle” and morphed
into one of the most brutal of all late 20th Century
Maoist guerilla movements
• Ultimately defeated by government forces under
President Fujimori, Guzman captured in 1992
• Estimated 63,000 casualties (Shining Path credited for
half)
Abimael Guzman, philosophy professor
turned Maoist group leader
40. Politics in
Peru
• Three Independent Branches
• Five year Presidency
• Unicameral 130 Seat Congress
• Multi-party System
• Mandatory Voting
President Ollanta Humala
Quechua with Military
Background
Alberto Fujimori – President
1990-2000, credited with
modernizing Peru and
defeating Shining Path, now
serving 25 year prison term
Alan Garcia Perez –ran economy into
ground in 1980s (inflation 2 million%).
Apologized and got re-elected in 2006
42. Peruvian
Economy
Primary Sector
• Mining
• Andean region is mineral rich
• Major exporter of metals to China and US
• Fishing
• World’s leading exporter of fish meal
• Agriculture
• Irrigated export sector
Secondary
• Construction boom
• Emerging manufacturing economy
Tertiary
• Tourism
• Services: micro-entrepreneurs
Characteristics
• World Bank Designation: “Upper Middle
Income”
• Aggregate GNP: $330 billion (47th)
• GNP PPP Per Capita: $10,200
• Rapid growth: >6.5% annually
• Export-led development strategy
• Fiscally Sound
• Income Equality: Gini = 48 (similar to US)
• Peru has cut its poverty rate in half from
50% to 25% in recent decades
43. GDP per capita in PPP 2012
Source: World Economic Outlook 2012
44. My Observations: a bee-hive of activity, construction
everywhere, a hard-working and practical people, palpable
optimism, but also lots of marginal small businesses
64. Slum Sprawl of Self-Constructed Housing Marks Lima’s
Outskirts
• Lima’s newest migrants are insecure of land tenure, but have been gaining political power
66. Many recent urban residents are migrants from rural
areas
Push and Pull factors include agricultural modernization, Political Instability, Globalization, the lure of the city
85. Monastery of Santa
Catalina in Arequipa
Where the Sisters had servants, private bedrooms and
kitchens – the Vatican finally cracked down 300 years later
103. Left: remnants of indigenous
settlement destroyed by Spanish.
The Canyon’s scattered
settlements deemed ungovernable
Right: Town of Chivay built by
Spanish to concentrate and
Christianize the Colca people
