1895-1914 - The Aristocratic Republic
Where the people at large exercise the supreme power it is a Democracy. Nor does it make any difference in these forms of government, that the ruling body exercises its power by delegation to individuals or to smaller bodies. Thus a government would be Aristocratic in which the select body elected a chief to whom a portion, or even the whole, of its power should be intrusted: provided he held his appointment during the pleasure of his electors, or during some definite but short period of time, it would not be a Monarchy. So a government would be Democratic in which the bulk of the people appointed a chief magistrate with full powers, or a council with full powers: provided those powers were only exercised during the pleasure of the electors, or during some definite but short period of time, it would neither be a Monarchy in the one case, nor an Aristocracy in the other.
Where the supreme power in any state is in the hands of a portion of the community, and that portion is so constituted that the rest of the people cannot gain admittance, or can only gain admittance with the consent of the select body, the government, is an Aristocracy.
The Aristocratic Republic in Peru began with the popular "Revolution of 1895," led by the charismatic and irrepressible Jose Nicolas Baltasar Fernandez de Pierola y Villena (known as "El Califa" ("The Caliph").
In 1874 Nicolas de Pierola rose in arms in the department of Moquegna anil occupied a strong position at the famous "Cuesta de los Angeles," but Pardo sent forces against him, and soon the revolution was quelled. Senor Nicholas Pierola promoted a series of intrigues and conspiracies against the constituted authorities in 1876, and these resulted in a rising near Moquegua. The movement was suppressed by the defeat of the insurgents at Yacango, but only after severe fighting, in which both sides sustained heavy losses. Some eighteen months later another revolt was organised by Pierola at Callao.
On December 23, 1879, Pierola entered Lima once more, and was proclaimed Supreme Chief of the Republic pending the outcome of the war with Chile. Senor Pierola at once commenced energetic measures to defend Peru against the Chilian invasion by organising additional bodies of troops, and by fortifying and occupying a number of strategic positions. The Peruvians were so far satisfied with the man now at the head of affairs that no active opposition was raised to his assumption of dictatorial attributes. After the disasters of Peru had culminated in the rout of the defence at the battle of Miraflores, the power of Pierola for the time was ended, and he retired to the interior of the country, and there unsuccessfully endeavoured to organise further resistance.
Finding such action of little practical avail, he returned to Lima under the protection of a safe-conduct issued by the Chilian authorities, and then left the country, to reside first in Europe and afterwards in Chile. Pierola was still a young man, having been born on January 5, 1839.
The revolutionary movement was continued against General Caceres, and found many supporters; but the army was opposed to it, and for several months the insurgents made no substantial progress. Arms and ammunition were not easy to obtain, and little money was available for the purchase of supplies, but Pierola gradually succeeded in overcoming the difficulties in the formation of a force of sufficient strength to march on Lima.
He overthrew the increasingly dictatorial Caceres, who had gained the presidency again in 1894 after having placed his crony Colonel Remigio Morales Bermudez (1890-94) in power in 1890. Pierola, an aristocratic and patriarchal figure, was fond of saying that "when the people are in danger, they come to me."
Although he had gained the intense enmity of the Civilistas in 1869 when, as minister of finance in the Balta government, he had transferred the lucrative guano consignment contract to the foreign firm of Dreyfus and Company of Paris, he now succeeded in forging an alliance with his former opponents. This alliance began a period known as the Aristocratic Republic (1895-1914), during which Peru was characterized not only by relative political harmony and rapid economic growth and modernization, but also by social and political change.
From the ruins of the War of the Pacific, new elites had emerged along the coast and coalesced to form a powerful oligarchy, based on the reemergence of sugar, cotton, and mining exports, as well as the reintegration of Peru into the international economy. Its political expression was the reconstituted Civilista Party, which had revived its antimilitary and proexport program during the period of intense national disillusion and introspection that followed the country's defeat in the war. By the time the term of Pierola' s successor, Eduardo Lopez de Romana (1899-1903), came to an end, the Civilistas had cleverly managed to gain control of the national electoral process and proceeded to elect their own candidate and party leader, the astute Manuel Candamo (1903-1904), to the presidency.
Thereafter, they virtually controlled the presidency up until World War I, although Candamo died a few months after assuming office. Elections, however, were restricted, subject to strict property and literacy qualifications, and more often than not manipulated by the incumbent Civilista regime.
The Civilistas were the architects of unprecedented political stability and economic growth, but they also set in motion profound social changes that would, in time, alter the political panorama. With the gradual advance of export capitalism, peasants migrated and became proletarians, laboring in industrial enclaves that arose not only in Lima, but in areas of the countryside as well. The traditional haciendas and small-scale mining complexes that could be connected to the international market gave way increasingly to modern agroindustrial plantations and mining enclaves. With the advent of the Great War, Peru's international markets were temporarily disrupted and social unrest intensified, particularly in urban centers where a modern labor movement began to take shape.
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