People's State of Peru

Peru, officially the People's State of Peru (Spanish: Estado Popular del Perú) it's a sovereign state located in Western South America. With a population of 42,806,064 it is the fourth most populous country in South America, and its capital and largest city is Lima.

Peru is a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy, the executive branch is headed by a Premier and a General Secretary, while the legislative branch is vested by the National People's Assembly.

Peru is a megadiverse country with habitats ranging from the arid plains of the Pacific coastal region in the west to the peaks of the Andes mountains extending from the north to the southeast of the country to the tropical Amazon basin rainforest in the east with the Amazon River.

Peru has a population that includes Mestizos, Amerindians, Europeans, Africans and Asians. The main spoken language is Spanish, although a significant number of Peruvians speak Quechuan languages, Aymara, or other Indigenous languages. This mixture of cultural traditions has resulted in a wide diversity of expressions in fields such as art, cuisine, literature, and music.

Peru is considered both a regional power and one of the biggest players within Latin American affairs, with its government being involved both directly and indirectly in the majority of South American affairs. It also had a notorious impact in a number of proxy conflicts in Africa, influencing in the military and economic aspects.

Having gone through four recessions and three devastating conflicts at the beginning of the XX century, Peru went from being one of the poorest nations in the world to convert into an industrialized powerhouse. This process became known as the "Peruvian Miracle", being caused by a series of property distributions and a state-run programme of industrialisation. This rapid transformation became a subject of study by many economists and used as an argument for the effectiveness of socialism by many marxists.

= History =

Peruvian territory was home to several ancient cultures. Ranging from the Caral-Supe civilization starting in 3500 BCE, the oldest civilization in the Americas and one of the five cradles of civilization, to the Inca Empire, the largest known state in the pre-Columbian Americas, the territory now including Peru has one of the longest histories of civilization of any country, tracing its heritage back to the 10th millennium BCE.

The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a viceroyalty that encompassed most of its South American territories, with its capital in Lima. Higher education started in the Americas with the official establishment of the National University of San Marcos in Lima in 1551.