|[L2 201]c. 18,000BC Archaeological evidence indicates that nomadic hunter-gatherers inhabit the region later known as Peru. They are cave dwellers with a stone culture.
|c. 4000BC Settled agriculture begins. Seeds are planted and simple agricultural methods are developed. Small settlements are established along the coastal strip (which was more fertile than it is today), where the people farm and fish.
|[L2 202]c. 3000BC A few villages are scattered along the coast.
|c. 2500BC The population increases and settlements become more stable. About 100 villages of 50 - 500 people exist along the coast by 2000BC and some villages have populations of 1,000. By 2000BC, the total coastal population is about 50,000.
|c.2000BC Kotosh near Huanuco in the highlands is settled. These people are the earliest ceramics producers in Peru.
|c. 1250BC - 850BC Pottery techniques develop over this period from simple undecorated pots to high quality pots which are colored and sculpted. Agriculture and fishing methods become more sophisticated.
|c. 850BC - 300BC This is the most important period of cultural development known as the Chavin period. Weaving, architecture and agriculture all make significant advances during this period. This culture covers the northern two-thirds of Peru's highlands and coast.
|c. 300BC The unifying Chavin style suddenly disappears and the cultures of Peru become disunified for the next 500 years.
Different cultures emerge including the Salinar culture of the Chicama Valley near Trujillo and the Paracas Necropolis, south of Lima.
|AD100 - AD700 Two distinct cultures, the Moche tribe from Trujillo area and the Nazca tribe from the south coast, develop excellent ceramics which record aspects of their life and society.
|[L2 203]c. AD800 A tribe, possibly the Wari, make the [G 13 / petroglyphs] at Toro Muerto in Arequipa district spread over two miles of desert.
|[L2 204]c. AD1100 The Wari are overthrown by tribes in the different areas of their empire. Out of this disintegrating empire, various tribes develop independent kingdoms.
|c. AD1200 The [G 11 / Incas] become an established tribe in the Cuzco area. Manco Capac is believed to have been the founder of this tribe.
|c. 1200 Manco Capac becomes the first Inca emperor. He is a semi-legendary figure who rules a tribe in the Cuzco region at the beginning of the 13th century.
Early Inca society is based on the [L2 205]'allyu,' an extended family group living together.
|[L2 206]c. 1200 - 1438 Eight Inca leaders rule the small Inca Kingdom between the beginning of the 13th century and 1438.
|1438 The Inca defeat the neighboring Chanca tribe.
|1438 Viracocha is succeeded by his son, Inca Urcon.
Cusi Yupanqui, the younger son and victor of the great battle over the Chancas, does not recognize Urcon as emperor. Cusi Yupanqui usurps the throne as the ninth Inca emperor [L2 207]and takes the name Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui. He is responsible for initiating both the great Inca conquests which would create the vast Inca Empire 100 years later, and for [L2 208][V 004]much of the planning and building of the city of Cuzco.
|[L2 209]1463 Pachacuti's son, Tupac Yupanqui begins to help his father in his military campaigns. As his father gets older, Tupac Yupanqui takes over as military leader of the Inca.
|[M 007]1471 Pachacuti is very old and abdicates in favor of his son, Topa Inca Yupanqui, who becomes the 10th Inca emperor. Pachacuti dies soon after.
[L2 210]Topa Inca Yupanqui continues the expansion of the empire, bringing changes in the administration of the empire [L2 211]and building the Sacsayhuaman Fortress to protect Cuzco. He marries his sister, Mama Ocllo, to ensure the continuation of pure Inca blood. He names his son Titu Cusi Hualpa as successor.
|[L2 212][I 001]1475 Francisco Pizarro is born in Trujillo, near Caceres in Spain.
|1492 Columbus arrives in today's central America, beginning the western exploration of the Americas.
|1493 Titu Cusi Hualpa renames himself Huayana Capac when he succeeds as the 11th Inca emperor after his father's death. He is still a minor and is challenged twice for the throne - once by the son of one of his father's concubines, and once by the regent appointed to rule for him. He defeats both challengers.
[L2 213][M 007]Once in power, Huayana Capac tries to maintain his huge empire. He has a royal son called Huascar by his sister, Mama Ocllo, and another son, Atahuallpa, by a woman of the Quito tribe.
|1523 The Chiriguana Indians attack the Inca Empire from territory in today's Paraguay, at the eastern foothills of the Andes. Alejo Garcia, a Spaniard who had been shipwrecked on the coast of Brazil a few years before, travels with them.
The Chiriguanas continue to make regular raids on the eastern Inca Empire to seize silver, gold and bronze. Fortresses are built in this region by the Inca to protect it from the Chiriguanas.
|1525 Huayna Capac hears rumors of white men exploring down the coast from Panama. In the same year he dies of smallpox, a disease brought by Europeans to South America.
[L2 214]The succession is disputed by Huascar and Atahuallpa and civil war follows.
|1526 Francisco Pizarro explores south from Panama and in 1528 reaches the Santa River in Peru. He sees Inca coastal settlements and learns of the wealth of the Inca.
[I 010]Pizarro returns to Spain to raise funds and men for the conquest of Peru.
|1530 Pizarro sails from Panama, lands on the Ecuadorian coast and marches on Peru.
|1532 Atahuallpa defeats Huascar.
Pizarro lands in northern Ecuador, near Tumbez and marches south into northern Peru. He founds the first Spanish town, San Miguel de Piura. By October, he learns about the civil war and decides to exploit the weakened empire.
|[L2 215][I 009]1532 November Pizarro reaches Cajamarca, where he meets with Atahuallpa. He deceives the [G 11/ Inca] and his unarmed men in a surprise attack and captures Atahuallpa. In return for his freedom, Atahuallpa offers Pizarro enough gold to fill his cell once and silver to fill it twice.
|1533 By the middle of 1533, the ransom of silver and gold is paid and immediately melted down. The Spanish divide the treasure amongst themselves and one fifth of it is sent to the king of Spain.
[L2 216]Atahuallpa is tried and then executed.
Pizarro fights four battles against Atahuallpa's armies during an 800-mile march along an Inca road from Cajamarca to Cuzco. His army consists of a few Spaniards and many conquered Indians forcibly conscripted into the army.
|1533 November 8 Pizarro enters Cuzco.
|[L2 217]1534 Pizarro appoints Manco Inca, a half-brother of Huascar as a puppet ruler. Pizarro becomes the governor of Peru, and initiates the country's colonization.
|1535 Pizarro begins the building of seven towns for his Spanish supporters. The capital of the new Spanish empire of Peru, Ciudad de los Reyes (the city of kings), is built on the coast for easy access to Spain. It is later renamed Lima.
Pizarro rewards his friends with large estates together with Indian labor. Cuzco is looted and, although it is settled by the Spanish, it begins to lose importance as a city. Inca buildings are pulled down to make way for churches and houses.
|1536 Manco Inca escapes from Cuzco and raises an army of 100,000 men. He assembles his chiefs and swears to drive the Spanish from his land. From May to December, the Spanish are beseiged in Sacsayhuaman Fortress and are almost defeated.
Manco Inca is defeated and flees to the fortress of Ollantaytambo. In the jungle hills of Vilcabamba, beyond Machu Picchu, he and his three sons rule a tiny kingdom of Incas for 35 years.
|1537 Pizarro's partner, Diego de Almagro, disputes his share of the empire, claiming that the land he has been given south of Peru and its governorship is an inadequate reward for his part in the conquest. He is unaware of the Potosi silver mines which lie in this territory. Fighting breaks out and escalates into a war between Pizarro and Almagro.
|1538 Almagro is defeated at Cuzco by Pizarro's brother Hernando. Hernando executes 120 of Almagro's men, condemns Almagro as a traitor and kills him. When Hernando returns to Spain, he is imprisoned for his actions.
As governor of Lima, Pizarro decrees that all his descendants, male and female, must bear the Pizarro name.
|1541 July 26 Almagro's son and some of his Spanish supporters hack Pizarro to death in his palace.
|[I 008&I007&I005]1572 Tupac Amaru I, the son of Manco Inca, rebels and tries to raise an army to drive out the Spanish. He is executed by the Spanish in the central square of Cuzco.
|1570s - 1770s The Spanish rule Peru from Lima with few challenges to their authority from the native Indians.
|1650 An earthquake in Cuzco destroys colonial buildings, but Inca walls remain standing.
|1780 Tupac Amaru II, a descendant of the Inca emperors, leads an Indian uprising. It is cruelly suppressed and Amaru is executed.
|1820 High taxation by the Spanish government in Spain and lack of freedom incites the South American colonies to rebel. Jose de San Martin liberates Argentina and Chile.
|1821 Jose de San Martin enters Lima.
Simon Bolivar frees Venezuela and Colombia.
|1822 Jose de San Martin sends Field Marshall Sucre to defeat the Ecuadorians, who still support the Spanish, in the Battle of Pichincha. Bolivar and Sucre continue with the liberation of Peru.
|1824 Two major battles conclude the liberation and independence of Peru from Spain. The supporters of Spain are defeated on August 6 at Junin and on December 9 at Ayacucho.
|1826 The few remaining loyalists are finally defeated at Real Felipe Fortress near Lima on January 22.
|1866 Peru is victorious in a brief war with Spain.
|1879 - 1883 Peru fights Chile over ownership of areas of the northern Atacama Desert rich in nitrate deposits. Peru is defeated and Chile annexes a large part of the southern coast of Peru.
|[P 002][V 002&V006]1911 An American explorer, Hiram Bingham, discovers Machu Picchu, one of the major [G 11 / Inca] ruins.
|1940s onwards Most Peruvian governments are military dictatorships with some periods of civilian rule. Despite rich natural resources, Peru's economy remains weak and most investment in the country is from foreigners.
|1941 Peru goes to war with Ecuador over a border disagreement.
|1942 A treaty giving Peru control of northern parts of the provinces of San Martin and Loreto is drawn up in Rio de Janeiro. Ecuador still claims this land and minor fighting continues periodically.
|1980 President Belaunde Terry heads a civilian government.
|1985 Alan Garcia Perez becomes president.
|1987 Inflation in Peru reaches its highest levels.
Guerilla warfare instigated by the Maoist Sendero Luminoso group, based in the central Andean region, escalates.
