Peru

Abstract

Peru, the largest in area of the Andean countries, was the cradle of the most advanced indigenous civilizations and most powerful empire in pre-Columbian South America—that of the Incas. Peru was also the focus of Spanish colonial domination for its first two hundred years of rule. What has remained of pre-Columbian America with regard to people, culture, and settlement is perhaps better represented in Peru than in any other country. The country has a 2,400-kilometer- (1,500-mile-) long coast on the Pacific Ocean and borders Colombia and Ecuador (with which it has boundary disputes) on the north, Brazil and Bolivia on the east, and Chile on the south. It is the only country that borders all the other Andean states.