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military engagement. To make matters worse for the Peruvians, their president, Mariano Prado, abandoned the country for Europe on the eve of the conflict. The war was a disaster for Peru at every level (not to mention Bolivia, which lost its entire coastline). Despite the very brave actions of numerous military figures – such as Navy Admiral Miguel Grau – the Chileans were simply better organized and had more resources, including the support of the British. In 1881, they led a land campaign deep into Peru, occupying the capital of Lima, during which time they ransacked the city, making off with the priceless contents of the National Library. By the time the conflict came to a close in 1883, Peru had permanently lost its southernmost region of Tarapacá – and it wouldn’t regain the area around Tacna until 1929.

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The arrival of Peru’s sizeable Japanese population began at the turn of the 20th century, with most migrants working in agriculture before settling into cities.

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As the 20th century loomed, however, things would look up for Peru. A buoyant world economy helped fuel an economic recovery through the export of sugar, cotton, rubber, wool and silver. And, in 1895, Nicolás de Piérola was elected President – beginning an era known as the ‘Aristocratic Republic.’ Hospitals and schools were constructed and de Piérola undertook a campaign to build highways and railroads.

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A NEW INTELLECTUAL ERA

The dawn of the 20th century would witness a sea change in Peruvian intellectual thought. The late 1800s had been an era in which many thinkers (primarily in Lima) had tried to carve out the notion of an inherently Peruvian identity – one largely based on criollo experience. Key among them was Ricardo Palma, a scholar and writer renowned for rebuilding Lima’s ransacked National Library. Beginning in 1872, he published a series of books on criollo folk tradition known as the Tradiciones Peruanas (Peruvian Traditions) – now required reading for every Peruvian schoolchild.

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Peruvian Traditions, by Merlin Compton, provides a worthwhile selection – in English – of 19th-century scholar Ricardo Palma’s celebrated folk tales.

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But as one century gave way to the next, intellectual circles saw the rise of indigenismo (Indianism), a continent-wide movement that advocated for a dominant social and political role for indigenous people. In Peru, this translated into a wide-ranging (if fragmented) cultural movement. Historian Luis Valcárcel attacked his society’s degradation of the indigenous class. Poet César Vallejo wrote critically acclaimed novels and verse that took on indigenous oppression as themes. And painter José Sabogal led a generation of visual artists who explored these ideas in their work. In 1928, journalist and thinker José Carlos Mariátegui penned a seminal Marxist work – Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality – in which he criticized the feudal nature of Peruvian society and celebrated the communal aspects of the Inca social order. (The book remains a vital treatise to Latin American leftists and historical scholars.)

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A 1920 law passed by the Peruvian legislature protected communal indigenous lands, but was rarely enforced – which ultimately helped give rise to indigenismo (Indianism), a social movement.

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In this climate, in 1924, Trujillo-born political leader Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre founded the Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (American Popular Revolutionary Alliance) – otherwise known as APRA. The party espoused populist values, celebrated ‘Indo-America’ and rallied against US imperialism. It appealed overwhelmingly to the lower and middle classes, but it was abhorred by the ruling oligarchy. Augusto Leguía, who was in the midst of an 11-year dictatorship, made the party illegal – and it would remain so for long periods of the 20th century. Haya de la Torre, at various points in his life, lived in hiding and in exile, and endured a 15-month stint as a political prisoner.

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Celebrated poet C