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Peru POSTINDEPENDENCE DECLINE AND INSTABILITY, 1824-45
Peru's transition from more than three centuries of
colonial
rule to nominal independence in 1824 under President
Bolívar
(1824-26) proved torturous and politically destablizing.
Independence did little to alter the fundamental
structures of
inequality and underdevelopment based on colonialism and
Andean
neofeudalism. Essentially, independence represented the
transfer
of power from the Spanish mainlanders
(peninsulares) to
sectors of the elite creole class, whose aim was to
preserve and
enhance their privileged socioeconomic status. However,
the new
creole elite was unable to create a stable, new
constitutional
order to replace the crown monolith of church and state.
Nor was
it willing to restructure the social order in a way
conducive to
building a viable democratic, republican government.
Ultimately,
the problem was one of replacing the legitimacy of the old
order
with an entirely new one, something that many postcolonial
regimes have had difficulty accomplishing.
Into the political vacuum left by the collapse of
Spanish
rule surged a particularly virulent form of Andean
caudillismo.
Caudillo strongmen, often officers from the liberation
armies,
managed to seize power through force of arms and the
elaboration
of extensive and intricate clientelistic alliances.
Personalistic, arbitrary rule replaced the rule of law,
while a
prolonged and often byzantine struggle for power was waged
at all
levels of society. The upshot was internal political
fragmentation and chronic political instability during the
first
two decades of the postindependence era. By one count, the
country experienced at least twenty-four regime changes,
averaging one per year between 1821 and 1845, and the
constitution was rewritten six times.
This is not to say that larger political issues did not
inform these conflicts. A revisionist study by historian
Paul E.
Gootenberg shows in great detail how the politics of trade
(free
or protectionist) and regionalism were central to the
internecine
caudillo struggles of the period. In this interpretation,
nationalist elites--backing one caudillo or
another--managed to
outmaneuver and defeat liberal groups to maintain a
largely
protectionist, neomercantilistic, postcolonial regime
until the
advent of the guano boom at mid-century. This view stands
in
opposition to the dominant interpretation of the period,
according to which unrestricted liberalism and free trade
led to
Peru's "dependency" on the international economy and the
West.
However bewildering, the chaotic era of the caudillo
can be
divided into several distinct periods. In the first,
Bolívar
tried, unsuccessfully, to impose a centralist and utopian
liberal
government from Lima. When events in Colombia caused him
to
relinquish power and return to Bogotá in 1826, his
departure left
an immediate vacuum that numerous Peruvian strongmen would
try to
fill. One of the most successful in terms of tenure was
the
conservative General Agustín Gamarra (1829-34) from Cusco,
who
managed to crush numerous rebellions and maintain power
for five
years. Then full-scale civil wars carried first General
Luis de
Orbegoso (1834-35) and then General Felipe Salaverry
(1835-36)
into the presidential palace for short terms. The power
struggles
reached such a chaotic state by the mid-1830s that General
Andrés
de Santa Cruz y Calahumana marched into Peru from Bolivia
to
impose the Peru-Bolivia Confederation of 1836-39. This
alliance
upset the regional balance of power and caused Chile to
raise an
army to defeat Santa Cruz and restore the status quo ante,
which,
in effect, meant a resumption of factional conflict
lasting well
into the 1840s.
The descent into chronic political instability, coming
immediately after the destructive wars for independence
(1820-
24), accelerated Peru's general postindependence economic
decline. During the 1820s, silver mining, the country's
traditional engine of growth, collapsed, while massive
capital
flight resulted in large external deficits. By the early
1830s,
the silver-mining industry began to recover, briefly
climbing
back to colonial levels of output in the early 1840s.
Economic
recovery was further enhanced in the 1840s as southern
Peru began
to export large quantities of wool, nitrates, and,
increasingly,
guano.
On the other hand, the large-scale importation of
British
textiles after independence virtually destroyed the
production of
native artisans and obrajes, which were unable to
compete
with their more technologically advanced and
cost-efficient
overseas competitors. For the most part, however, the
economy
continued in the immediate decades after independence to
be
characterized by a low level of marketable surplus from
largely
self-sufficient haciendas and native communities.
The expansion of exports during the 1840s did help,
finally,
to stabilize the Peruvian state, particularly under the
statesmanlike, if autocratic, leadership of General
Marshal Ramón
Castilla (1845-51, 1855-62). Castilla's rise to power,
coming as
it did at the onset of the guano boom, marked the
beginning of an
age of unparalleled economic growth and increasing
political
stability that effectively ended the country's
postindependence
decline. Indeed, to many observers, Peru during the
so-called
guano age (1845-70) seemed uniquely positioned to emerge
as the
preeminent country in all of South America.
Data as of September 1992
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