‘Turning Guano into Railroads’: Hopes for ‘Progress’ in
Nineteenth-Century Peru
By Claire McDonald
Davidson, North Carolina
April 2013
A Thesis Submitted for the Seminar of the
Kendrick K. Kelley Program in Historical Studies
(History 488-489)
Acknowledgements
I would like to start by thanking Dr. Mike Guasco, Director of the Kelley Program.
Your support and advice throughout this process has been incredibly valuable and I have
learned so much. I am also very grateful to my second reader, Dr. Jane Mangan, You
really inspired me to think more critically about the history of Peru and your
encouragement helped me to get invested in this project. Thank you also to my advisor,
Dr. Sally McMillen, and all of the other professors who have been so influential in my
academic experience.
To my roommates and friends, I could not have completed this thesis without
your company during long hours in the library, moments of laughter, and the support you
provided. Thank you also to my family—your encouragement for four years really
motivated me and kept me going.
To my fellow Kelleys, I am so glad to have met you and gone through this
experience together. You made this year much more enjoyable—our email chains and
dinners were vital to the completion of my thesis.
Through participating in this program, I have learned so much about the history of
Peru. The chance to travel to Peru for additional research was an experience I will always
remember and value, and for this opportunity I owe the friends and family of Kendrick
Kelley a final big thank you.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction…………………………………………………………1
2. Chapter One: Geographical Diversity and Political Turmoil: Peru
After Independence……………………………………..………….12
3. Chapter Two: Peru’s ‘Manifest Destiny’ and Elite Plans for
Greatness through Railroad Building………….…………………25
4. Chapter Three: Foreigners with ‘Grand Objectives’: British and
American Investors in Peru and their Takeover of the Country’s
Railroad Industry…………………………………………………..46
5. Chapter Four: Reactions of “Savage” Indians, British Travellers,
and Peruvian Politicians to the Railroads Post-Construction: A
Failure to Achieve Elite Goal……………………………………...66
6. Conclusion………………………………………………………….89
Introduction
Only a few days after Christmas in 1870, the city of Arequipa in southern Peru
erupted in celebration. For fifteen days, the city filled with government officials, upperclass visitors from Lima, and native Arequipans who crowded city streets. All had come
to celebrate the inauguration of Peru’s newest and most ambitious rail line to-date,
running from Arequipa to the coast. A newspaper writer from Lima recorded the
disappointment in the city at the celebration’s end: “The shouts of the multitude, the
uniformity with which all waved their scarves, hats and other objects, the sad songs with
which the martial music suggested melancholy and sadness in impressionable spirits,
awoke the sentiments of a heartbreaking goodbye.”1 One of the biggest celebrations
Arequipa had seen in years, the dramatic jubilation surrounding the railroad’s opening
reflected the importance of railways to Peruvian society in this era.
Though railroads had physical significance in their transportation capabilities,
they also symbolized the hopes elite Peruvians had of transforming their country. In this
era, which also encompassed the Belle Époque in France and the Victorian Era in
England, Peruvian elites began to reach for ideals of civilization and modernity, drawing
from European examples. Railroads presented an opportunity for Peru to better its global
standing, appear more “civilized” in the eyes of the world, and bring modernity into rural
communities that were previously difficult to reach. Peruvian politicians hoped the
railroads would allow them to achieve their goals of emulating European ideals of
modernity and better integrating the indigenous population into the country.
1
El Nacional, 8 January 1871.
1
Ultimately, however, railroads themselves failed to bring these changes to Peru.
Their construction did not change foreign perceptions of Peru in any significant way, as
many Europeans continued to see Peruvian society and individuals as somewhat inferior.
In addition, the indigenous population generally did not embrace railroads as a new form
of transportation, so there was little integration of these rural communities with the rest of
Peru. In fact, the railroads’ most lasting effect was to force Peru further under foreign
control, as the construction was such an expensive endeavor that Peru had to cede control
of the lines to the British after amassing a debt they could not repay. In short, though
railroads symbolized elite hopes of bringing “progress” to Peru, they ultimately made it
increasingly difficult for the country to become economically profitable in its own right.
Although historians have paid only limited attention to railroads in Peru, many
have studied the transformative effects railroads had in other countries. In the U.S.,
historians have paid a great deal of attention to the transcontinental railroad and its effect
on economic and social policies in the North American West. John H. White, for example,
discusses the “east-to-west transfer of society and culture” that occurred once the
transcontinental railroad connected the two coasts. White also emphasizes the economic
benefits of railroads, explaining that beyond functioning to transport goods and people,
railroads created both construction and repair jobs.2 Other scholars have focused
primarily on how railroads affected American political development. Zachary Callen, for
example, argues that railroad building contributed to the centralization of government and
2
John H. White, Jr., “The Railroad Reaches California: Men, Machines, and Cultural
Migration,” California Historical Quarterly 52 (Summer 1973):131-144. For more on the
economic and social impact of American railroads, see Leland H. Jenks, “Railroads as an
Economic Force in American Development,” The Journal of Economic History 4 (May 1994): 120; D. Lane Hartsock, “The Impact of Railroads on Coal Mining in Osage County, 1869-1910,”
Kansas Historical Quarterly 37 (1971): 429-440.
2
the strengthening of federal power. He explains that because railroad building was such
an expensive endeavor, individual states had to rely on the federal government for
assistance with these projects.3
Historians have also examined the role of labor in building U.S. railroads. Paul
Ong, for example, compared wages of white laborers to those of Chinese immigrants,
finding that Chinese wages were lower and their jobs frequently more dangerous. He
therefore argues that white and Chinese laborers were “complementary rather than
interchangeable,” and suggests that railroad companies generally exploited Chinese
laborers.4 On the other hand, scholar George Kraus argues that while Chinese workers
may have had to live and work in difficult conditions, the railroad company officials who
employed them actually came to respect Chinese workers as a dependable labor source.5
Though all of these scholars specifically studied North American railroads, their studies
have a wider applicability because issues of labor and political involvement certainly
affected railroad-building projects in Peru and other countries.
Within Latin America, historians have most thoroughly studied railroads in
Mexico. Scholars generally agree that Mexican railroads stimulated some economic
growth by facilitating the transport of goods, but high operation costs and a lack of
3
Zachary Callen, “Congress and the Railroads: Federalism, American political
development, and the migration of policy responsibility,” American Politics Research 40 (2012):
293-326. For more on how railroads tied in to American politics, see R. Alton Lee, “The Populist
Dream of a ‘Wrong Way’ Transcontinental,” Kansas History 35 (Summer 2012): 74-89. Lee
argues that the Populist Party incorporated railroad reform into their political platform in the
1890s because of railroads’ importance to farmers transporting goods from the interior of the
country.
4
Paul M. Ong, “The Central Pacific Railroad and the Exploitation of Chinese Labor,”
Journal of Ethnic Studies 13 (1985): 119-124.
5
George Kraus, “Chinese Laborers and the Construction of the Central Pacific,” Utah
Historical Quarterly 37 (January 1969): 41-57.
3
established industrialization inhibited real development.6 Other scholars have noted that
railroads affected national political structures. Teresa M. Van Hoy, for example, argues
that the building process made local power structures more complex because both the
federal government and local authorities wanted some control over the process.7 In the
social realm, historians have also examined how railroads affected rural communities.
Van Hoy suggests that while railroad promoters frequently tried to displace residents
from their land, residents were able to find gaps among increasingly complex government
structures to successfully protest their eviction. However, she emphasizes the
aggressiveness of railroad promoters as they tried to obtain land, highlighting the division
between the goals of the political elite and the rural poor.8 Similarly, John Coatsworth
argues that because railroads increased rural land value, hacienda owners tried to
appropriate as much Indian land as possible using whatever means possible.9 Both
scholars stress the tension between railroad promoters and the indigenous groups on
whose land they hoped to build.
6
John H. Coatsworth, “Indispensable Railroads in a Backwards Economy: The Case of
Mexico,” The Journal of Economic History 39 (December 1979): 940; Gustavo G. Garzo
Merodio, “Technological Innovation and the expansion of Mexico City, 1870-1920,” Journal of
Latin American Geography 5 (2006): 109-126.
7
Teresa M. Van Hoy, “La Marcha Violenta?: Railroads and Land in 19th Century
Mexico,” Bulletin of Latin American Research 19 (2000): 38.
8
Teresa M. Van Hoy, 37. Van Hoy notes that railroad promoters generally had major
economic and political advantages over local residents, giving them added power to obtain the
land. Also, a law of expropriation passed in 1882 gave the federal government greater oversight
over the acquisition of land for the railroads. However, Van Hoy maintains that despite these
advantages of the railroad builders, indigenous communities were still able to resist being
overtaken.
9
John Coatsworth, Growth Against Development: The Economic Impact of Railroads in
Porfirian Mexico, (Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1981).
4
Although few scholars have extensively studied railroads within Peru, some do
mention railroads in connection with economic and political trends. On the political side,
historians have noted that two presidents, José Balta and Manuel Pardo, particularly
emphasized the importance of railroad building. Ulrich Mueke points out that though the
two men were political opponents, they had in common the belief that railroad building
was crucial for economic development.10 In 1868, Balta signed a contract with American
railroad builder Henry Meiggs, financing his project with profits from the slowly
declining guano industry and a major increase in foreign borrowing.11 Although the
guano boom ended and Balta’s financial plan proved unstable, Peru managed to continue
constructing railroads. Because of the significant economic benefits afforded to
landowners living along rail lines, many local elites agreed to finance railroad projects for
their own personal gain.12
Though President Balta started the railroad-building project, it was the Civilista
Party, which President Pardo founded in 1872, that most strongly promoted railroads as
part of its “developmentalist” platform.13 In fact, historians Carlos Contreras and Marcos
Cueto describe Pardo as the “railroad prophet” because of his long-time interest in the
project.14 His agenda for development extended beyond railroads, however. Peter Klaren
10
Ulrich Mueke, Political Culture in Nineteenth-Century Peru: The Rise of the Partido
Civil, (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004): 43.
11
Peter Klaren, Peru: Society and Nationhood in the Andes, (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2000): 179.
12
Ulrich Mueke, 30.
13
Ulrich Mueke, 43.
14
Carlos Contreras and Cueto, Marcos, Historia del Perú Contemporáneo, (Lima:
Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2000): 146. Pardo wrote in 1862—ten years before he became
5
notes that Pardo’s plan included “the construction of public works (railroads, roads,
irrigation) to facilitate production, commerce, and exports; the encouragement of foreign
immigration, which would bring progressive skills and values from Europe while
‘improving’…the racial composition of the nation.”15 Ulrich Mueke similarly emphasizes
that railroads were part of a growing bourgeoisie movement among the upper class to
bring “progress” to Peru. He points, for example, to the founding of a national library, a
literary society, a Traveller’s Club, and various other associations devoted to the
promotion of “civilized” pursuits.16 Many scholars therefore discuss the enthusiasm for
railroads as part of the growing interest in bringing progress to Peru.
Historians generally seem to agree that Pardo’s hope of bringing economic
development through railroad building ultimately failed. Peter Klaren explains that Pardo
had expected railroads to open the interior of the country to industrialization and create a
domestic market for Peruvian consumers. However, Klaren argues that this never came to
fruition as railroads “[served] the narrow class interests of the new export oligarchy and
president—of his hope to “turn guano into railroads.” He later published a number of articles in a
Lima newspaper advocating the same ideas.
15
Peter Klaren, 177. A number of historians have written about the push to “whiten”
Latin American in the nineteenth century. For more on Peru, see Mario Marcone, “Indigenas e
Inmigrantes Durante la República Aristocratica: Población e Ideologia Civilista,” Historica 18
(December 1994): 73-93. Marcone notes the growing influence of Positivist theory in Latin
America and states that Peruvian elites wanted two things: European capital and immigrants. See
also Richard Graham, ed. The Idea of Race in Latin America, 1870-1940 (Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1990); Alberto Spektorowski, “Nationalism and Democratic Construction: The
Origins of Argentina’s and Uruguay’s Political Cultures in Comparative Perspective,” Bulletin of
Latin American Research 19 (January 2000): 81-99; Richard Gott, “Latin America as a White
Settler Society,” Bulletin of Latin American Research 26 (April 2007): 269-289; Eduardo A.
Zimmerman, “Racial Ideas and Social Reform: Argentina, 1890-1916,” The Hispanic American
Historical Review 72 (February 1992): 23-46. In the case of Argentina, Zimmerman particularly
notes the growing importance of racial purity to elites at the turn of the century, and an interest in
scientific regulation as a potential state solution to this problem.
16
Ulrich Mueke, 59.
6
tied Peru’s neocolonial economy to foreign markets in an increasingly dependent
relationship.”17 Similarly, Heraclio Bonilla emphasizes that railroads reinforced Peru’s
dependency on foreign powers because of the established dominance of European
capitalism.18 Moreover, Carlos Contreras and Marcos Cueto argue that some level of
industrialization needed to happen first in the interior of the country for the railroads to
be successful. Without a base of productive industry, simply building the railroads was
not enough to promote economic growth.19
Few historians have extensively examined how the railroads affected indigenous
communities. Heraclio Bonilla, using writings of President Pardo, argues that the
Civilista party was cognizant of these rural groups as it planned for increased
development. Arguing that Pardo hoped the railroads would “bring moral and spiritual
improvement to Peruvian villages,” Bonilla suggests that Pardo’s civilizing agenda
extended beyond Peru’s cities into its isolated rural regions.20 On the other hand, Erick
Langer, in a study of Latin American frontier areas, argues that railroads made it easier to
move troops into rural areas that were previously hard to reach, giving the central
government increased power over indigenous groups.21 He suggests that the government
was less interested in “civilizing” these rural communities, but rather wanted to use
17
Peter Klaren, 174.
18
Heraclio Bonilla, Guano y Burgeusía en el Perú, (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos,
1984): 55.
19
Contreras and Cueto, 148.
20
Heraclio Bonilla, 51. Translated from Spanish.
21
Erick D. Langer, “The Eastern Andean Frontier (Bolivia and Argentina) and Latin
American Frontiers: Comparative Contexts (19th and 20th Centuries),” The Americas 59 (July
2002): 33-63. Langer discusses the growing importance of “frontier goods,” such as rubber from
the Peruvian Amazon, that made outlying regions more valuable to the federal government.
7
railroads to consolidate its power throughout the country. Ultimately, however, these
scholars do not look in depth at how the presence of the railroads changed rural social or
political structure.
Though historians have not comprehensively examined the effect of railroads on
indigenous communities, a great deal of scholarship exists on Andean indigenous groups
during the late nineteenth century. Florencia Mallon has extensively studied the transition
of indigenous society from traditional economic practices to capitalism over the end of
the nineteenth century. She argues that as capitalism reached Peru’s interior, particularly
during the mining boom of the 1860s, peasant community structures broke down.
Traditional economic practices, such as reciprocity and kinship networks, had little
relevance in a capitalist system.22 Similarly, historian Erick Langer has suggested that
economic motivations played an increasingly important role in Andean peasant life
during this period. He argues that as indigenous communities gained access to the free
market, they had less time to spend on traditional community activities.23 Both of these
scholars provide insight into how broader economic changes affected aspects of
indigenous social life.
More scholarship exists on general attitudes towards the indigenous population,
particularly earlier in the nineteenth century. Several historians have examined how
newly formed governments confronted the “Indian problem” directly after independence.
Guillermo de la Peña, in a comprehensive study of nineteenth-century Latin American
22
Florencia E. Mallon, The Defense of Community in Peru’s Central Highlands: Peasant
Struggle and Capitalist Transition, 1860-1940, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983).
23
Erick Langer, “Bringing the Economic Back In: Andean Indians and the Construction
of the Nation-State in Nineteenth-Century Bolivia,” Journal of Latin American Studies 41
(August 2009): 527-551.
8
politics, points out that new politicians wanted to transform indigenous groups into “a
prosperous class of small landholders and artisans through schooling and access to the
market.” Creole elites in small communities disagreed with this plan because they were
accustomed to dominating local markets and wanted to continue using Indians as a labor
source. This contradiction seemed insignificant, however, as both political and regional
elites joined in attacking indigenous landholdings, which contributed to a communal way
of living elites now saw as “backward.”24 Furthermore, historian Jean Piel points out that
the Peruvian government also saw the large indigenous population as a potential solution
to their economic worries in the years after independence. In 1829, for example, the
government introduced the “contribución de indigenas,” a type of colonial tax for Indians,
in an effort to assuage its economic worries. Piel emphasizes the idea that Peruvian elites,
who constituted most of the national government, viewed Indians with a “neocolonial
attitude,” seeing this large population mainly in light of what economic benefit they could
have for the nation.25
A number of historians have therefore studied the many transitions Peru faced in
the nineteenth century. As the Civilista Party came into power, espousing ideas of
progress and modernization, Peru faced major economic difficulties with the end of the
24
Guillermo de la Peña, “Social and Cultural Policies Toward Indigenous Peoples:
Perspectives from Latin America,” Annual Review of Anthropology 34 (2005): 721. De la Peña
further discusses the attack that elites mounted both on indigenous and Church property, because
both constituted communal holdings. Elites saw this as a misuse of land which, if consolidated to
small owners, would lead to economic “progress” for individuals.
25
Jean Piel, “The Place of the Peasantry in the National Life of Peru in the Nineteenth
Century,” Past and Present 46 (February 1970): 124. For more information on government
attitudes towards the “Indian problem,” see Thomas M. Davies, Jr., “Indian Integration in Peru,
1820-1948: An Overview,” The Americas 30 (October 1973): 184-208; Jose Deustua, “Mining
Markets, Peasants, and Power in Nineteenth-Century Peru,” Latin America Research Review 29
(1994): 29-54.
9
guano boom. Socially, a clear division remained between the small group of elites and the
majority indigenous population. Little scholarship exists, however, on how the
introduction of railroads affected these various cultural currents. A study of railroads
helps to shed light on the elite Peruvian conceptions of nationhood and modernity, both
terms that had complex meanings at the time. In addition, railroads symbolize the
ultimately insurmountable difficulty Peru faced in attempting to gain global standing as a
politically and economically prosperous country, reputable on the world stage, after years
of turmoil. Though Peruvian politicians and intellectuals claimed a variety of reasons that
motivated their push to build railroads, their fundamental goal was to achieve
“civilization,” as defined by contemporary European ideals.
Railroad construction was one of the most important programs that shaped Peru
during the late nineteenth century. To provide a greater understanding of how that
occurred, the first chapter gives an overview of Peruvian culture and covers important
political shifts that happened in the years after independence from Spain. In the second
chapter, I examine the hopes Peruvian elites had for their railroads before construction
and the ideals of both progress and building they hoped to achieve through building. The
third chapter covers the actual construction process and how it reflected the neocolonial
era, in which British investors spread their influence throughout Latin America. Though
Peru had won independence from Spain almost fifty years earlier, British and American
investors managed to insert themselves in so many aspects of Peruvian industry that
foreign powers again controlled much of Peru’s economy. Finally, in the fourth chapter, I
argue that railroads ultimately did not change the country in the way elites had hoped,
10
failing to bring indigenous communities into an era of “progress” and instead leading to
greater internal divisions and foreign control.
11
Chapter One
Geographical Diversity and Political Turmoil: Peru After Independence
Located on South America’s west coast, Peru is notable for its extraordinary
environmental diversity. It can be divided into three main regions—the coastal desert on
the west, the Andes mountain range in the center, and the Amazon jungle in the east that
borders Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador. Such climatic diversity has led to the exploitation
of various natural resources over the years. In the sixteenth century, the Spanish
discovered silver mines high in the Andes. Potosí, the most important mine, was located
in present-day Bolivia and became a major source of income for Spain’s colonial empire.
Varying elevations and alternating rainy and dry seasons also allowed for the cultivation
of a number of different crops in the highlands, some of which made their way to the
international market.26 Historians have recognized the Andean potato, for example, of
which Peru cultivates over 3,000 varieties, as crucial to population stabilization in Europe
in the eighteenth century. On the western side of the country, the Amazon region came to
the forefront of Peru’s economic landscape at the turn of the twentieth century when a
rubber boom emerged. A few years later, during World War I, cotton and sugar
plantations on the east coast experienced their own export boom.27 Beginning in the
colonial era, Peru’s natural resources made it a significant supplier of raw materials on a
global scale.
26
Peter Klaren, Peru: Society and Nationhood in the Andes, (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2000): 2. At higher elevations, wheat, barley, quinoa, and rye can be grown,
while miaze, alfalfa, and vegetables survive at lower elevations.
27
Klaren, 227.
12
13
In the late nineteenth century, however, Peru’s most significant resource was
guano, or bird droppings mined from small islands that serve as a nitrate-rich fertilizer.
Beginning in 1840, the guano boom ushered in a new era of economic prosperity for Peru.
European and American markets, having recently begun their own agricultural revolution,
suddenly had a much higher demand for this natural resource. Between 1840 and 1880,
exporters sold 11 million tons of guano for almost $750 million.28 Shifting from a
previous commitment to protectionist policies, Peru’s upper class began to embrace free
trade as they benefited from active participation in the international market.29 State
revenues increased dramatically, climbing from 5 percent of government income in 1846
to 80 percent by 1869.30
This sudden surge in state income helped to stabilize Peru’s political landscape.
Military caudillos, having contended among each other for power since Peru’s
independence from Spain in 1824, saw guano as a source of revenue relatively immune to
their continuing political conflicts.31 In 1845, one of these caudillos, Ramon Castilla,
used this new revenue to consolidate his power as president. Creating state institutions
like congresses and governmental agencies, expanding the military, and raising
employment, Castilla shaped what became known as the “pax Andina” as Peru moved
28
Jesus Chavarría, “The Colonial Heritage of National Peru: An Overview,” Boletín de
Estudios Latinoamericanos 25 (December 1978): 46.
29
Paul Gootenberg, Between Silver and Guano: Commercial Policy and the State in
Post-independence Peru, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989): 6.
30
Klaren, 162.
14
into a new period of political stability.32 In his second term as President, beginning in
1855, Castilla also granted illiterate citizens the vote, abolished slavery, and officially
ended the collection of tribute payments from Indians, thereby gaining recognition for
spurring Peru’s “liberal revolution.”33 Guano, which provided politicians with the fiscal
capability to carry out these measures, catalyzed a move toward a more consistently
functioning government and opened up new possibilities for the state to improve the
standard of living for the rural indigenous population.
Guano also led to a shift in Peru’s labor force. In 1854, after General Castilla
abolished slavery and officially outlawed the “contribución indígena,” the indigenous
labor requirement, Peruvian elites realized they needed a new labor supply. A debate
emerged between those who hoped to attract European workers and those who wanted to
bring over Chinese workers. Known as “coolies,” the Chinese had first arrived in Peru in
1849 and were typically willing to work for less than Europeans. On the other hand,
others suggested that European workers would bring with them characteristics of
European culture that would help “modernize” Peru.34 Eventually, the low cost involved
in hiring Chinese workers turned them into the primary labor force for coastal plantations,
32
Klaren, 160-163. See also “The Peruvian Bonds,” The Morning Chronicle, London,
England, 24 July 1847. This article discusses the number of British investors who held bonds in
Peru and their hope to be repaid now that Peru had such significant revenue from guano.
33
Carlos Contreras and Marcos Cueto, Historia del Peru Contemporaneo, (Lima:
Instituto
de Estudios Peruanos, 2010): 114.
34
Contreras and Cueto, 138-140.
15
the guano islands, and eventually railroad construction projects. Between 1849 and 1874,
a system of indentured servitude functioned to ship over 100,000 “coolies” to Peru.35
Ultimately, the guano boom benefited only a narrow sector of Peru’s social strata.
Historian Paul Gootenberg states, “[it] served mainly to facilitate unimpeded relations
between national export elites and overseas interests….ensuring the oligarchy its lopsided
share of the fruits of Peru’s open economy.”36 Guano served the economic interests of
only a small elite, meaning that a major division continued to exist between this upper
class and Peru’s large indigenous population. In fact, wages of lower-class urban workers
decreased and unemployment spiked during this period. The guano boom also had
geographical implications, since the guano deposits off the coast fed mostly into Lima’s
economy. In addition, much of the revenue silver mines generated went back into the
guano market, so the sierra region received little profit during this era.37 Increasingly,
Peruvian political leaders saw the coast as the “modern” region and the highlands as
35
Michael J. Gonzalez, “Chinese Plantation Workers and Social Conflict in Peru in the
Late Nineteenth Century,” Journal of Latin American Studies 21 (October 1989): 385-424. See
also Klaren, 163. Although Chinese workers were technically meant to replace the system of
slavery, the conditions of the coolie workers were little better than those of slaves. Making the
journey across the Pacific in ships, they suffered up to 30 percent mortality rates. Once in Peru,
the workers had to live in barracks on plantations and suffered harsh punishments like whippings
and lockdowns.
36
Gootenberg, 6. Many scholars have examined the high level of foreign investment,
particularly British, in Peru during the guano period. Some of the most prominent businessmen
included the Dreyfus brothers, who started a guano export company, and William Russell Grace,
who moved from Ireland to New York to Peru, where he founded a shipping company. See Rory
Miller, “The Making of the Grace Contract: British Bondholders and the Peruvian Government,
1885-1890,” Journal of Latin American Studies 8 (May 1976): 73-100; C. Alexander G. de
Secada, “Arms, Guano, and Shipping: The W.R. Grace Interests in Peru, 1865-1885,” The
Business History Review 59 (Winter 1985): 597-621; Catalina Vizcarra, “Guano, Credible
Commitments, and Sovereign Debt Repayment in Nineteenth-Century Peru.” The Journal of
Economic History 69 (June 2009): 358-387.
37
Klaren, 165-170.
16
“backward.”38 A strict economic hierarchy continued to divide a small urban elite from a
large, mostly rural peasant population.
Highland peasant communities, though geographically isolated, did participate in
regional economic activity. A number of soldiers took advantage of Peru’s war of
independence, which caused financial devastation and subsequent low property costs, to
buy up land in the central sierra.39 Their large haciendas operated on valley floors and in
less mountainous regions, while small peasant landholders occupied the hills.40 Peasants
engaged in subsistence agriculture and provided labor to haciendas and local mines, a
requirement that President Castilla had technically abolished but that many regional
landholders continued to demand. Though some of these highland haciendas did enter the
national market to sell coffee and livestock, they also engaged in regional trade,
supplying peasant communities with the coca leaf and aguardiente, a type of alcohol.41
This created a system of regional elites who used local government and relationships with
urban merchants to strengthen their control over the peasant labor force. Municipal
councils could, for example, call for labor drafts of a specified number of local peasants
38
Guillermo de la Peña, “Social and Cultural Policies toward Indigenous Peoples:
Perspectives from Latin America,” Annual Review of Anthropology 34 (2005): 720.
39
Florencia Mallon, The Defense of Community in Peru’s Highlands: Peasant Struggle
and Capitalist Tradition, 1860-1940, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983): 54.
40
Lewis Taylor, “Indigenous Peasant Rebellions in Peru during the 1880s,” Indigenous
Revolts in Chiapas and the Andean Highlands, eds. Kevin Gosner and Arij Ouweneel,
(Amsterdam: Center for Latin American Research and Documentation, 1996): 200.
41
Mallon, 60. There was high demand for both coca and aguardiente within peasant
communities. Coca was both part of traditional Andean religious practices and used to combat the
physical effects of high altitude, while aguardiente formed part of many ritual celebrations.
17
to work on construction or agriculture projects, thereby forcing indigenous deference to
elite goals.42
Though these communities did not directly benefit from increased guano revenues,
they did feel some effects of the changes in Peru’s economy. As the guano boom led to
higher prices in the Lima market, local hacienda owners increased production of goods
like wool, meat, and butter to send to the coast.43 Regional elites also began greater
diversification of their economic activity, many of them engaging simultaneously in
agriculture, mining, and raising livestock. This diversification meant that hacienda
owners could be ready to respond to any increases in demand for certain goods in the
international market, especially because Peru had a relatively inactive internal market for
most of these products.44 As guano encouraged increasing interaction with European and
American markets, highland producers responded by placing themselves in a position to
benefit from these national changes. This economic expansion did not produce only
positive effects, however. In 1867, for example, an Indian rebellion broke out in the
highland region of Puno. Forced to compete with large landholders for participation in
the wool trade, these indigenous communities had a difficult time paying taxes and
fulfilling labor quotas. The rebellion remained regionally contained and was eventually
42
Jean Piel, “The Place of the Peasantry in the National Life of Peru in the Nineteenth
Century,” Past and Present 46 (February 1970): 124.
43
Jose Deustua, “Mining Markets, Peasants, and Power in Nineteenth-Century Peru,”
Latin America Research Review 29 (1994): 34.
44
Mallon, 56.
18
repressed, but it pointed to continuing tension over economic conditions of indigenous
communities.45
Over the course of the guano era, the emergence of the new export elite also led to
new political trends. The Civilista Party, Peru’s first non-military political party, “became
the political expression of the new oligarchy.”46 The Civilistas primarily focused on how
they could invest guano revenues to encourage Peru’s development and espoused the
importance of “civilization” and “progress.” Manuel Pardo, the founder of the Civilista
Party and eventually the Party’s first President in 1872, wrote in the early 1860s of his
concern that guano revenues were being unwisely wasted on projects that did little to
advance Peru. He explained his hope of “turning guano into railroads” in an effort to
open internal markets and bring interior indigenous communities into the national
economy.47 In 1860, Pardo presented a work called “Estudios sobre la provincia de Jauja,”
which explained that the largest barrier to Peru’s success was the lack of connection
between its different regions.48 The Civilista manifesto also encouraged immigration
from Europe and planned for the extension of educational programs into rural Indian
communities.49
In the same era, a number of new institutions helped to unify the Peruvian elite
and, at the same time, signal their hope for “progress.” In the early 1860s, guano
45
Klaren, 176.
46
Klaren, 172.
47
Klaren, 172.
48
Ulrich Muecke, Political Culture in Nineteenth Century Peru: The Rise of the Partido
Civil, (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004): 40.
49
Muecke, 41.
19
investors began developing Peru’s private banking system, and the National Bank of Peru
was founded in 1872. At the same time, Lima’s elite founded a number of social clubs
based on the English model to try to boost the elite’s unity as a social class.50 A number
of literary groups founded libraries, while a historical society and educational club
focused on “improving knowledge of the natural sciences and mathematics, increasing
literary scholarship and enhancing moral behavior.” On the other hand, many of these
organizations served only the elite. Sporting clubs, for example, built a horse racecourse
and organized sailing competitions, but charged a steep entrance fee and therefore
allowed only wealthy men to participate.51 Similarly, a Lima newspaper described a
colonel as having a “brilliant social position,” partly due to his membership in Lima’s
Jockey Club.52 These new programs, drawing together the small group of guano elite,
reflected both the social implications of Civilista goals and the unification of the upper
strata of Peruvian society.
Despite the growing influence of the Civilista Party, however, it did not gain
power on the national level until 1872. Following General Castilla’s Presidency, which
ended in 1862, a series of other military presidents took power. Most significant to the
development of political events was the Presidency of Colonel Mariano Prado, which
began in 1865. Forced to confront a number of political crises, Prado took power after a
fleet of Spanish ships attempted to seize the guano islands off Peru’s coast. An army
General, Prado managed to defeat this attack by building an alliance with Chile, Ecuador,
50
Klaren, 171; Muecke, 28.
51
Muecke, 50-52.
52
El Comercio, 3 Saturday 1859.
20
and Bolivia, and was then proclaimed Provisional President.53 Prado never achieved full
political stability, however. A liberal, Prado almost immediately submitted reform
measures to Congress, which led to the formation of a conservative opposition faction
looking to overthrow him. Though Congress did name Prado Constitutional President in
1867, he immediately had to contend with the outbreak of hostilities from conservative
resistance leaders.54
It was in this turbulent environment that Arequipa, a city in the south of Peru,
came to the forefront of Peruvian politics in 1867. At an altitude of seven thousand feet,
Arequipa sits at the beginning of Andes mountain range, a strategic location between the
coast and highlands. After Spanish conqueror Garci Manuel de Carvajal founded the city
in 1540, it quickly became an important stop on trade routes because of its relative
proximity to both Lima and highland economic centers like Puno, a center of the wool
trade, and Potosí, the silver mine.55 With an heavily Spanish population in its early years,
Arequipans began to call their city the “White City,” a label indicating their selfperception as a city with strong ties to Europe. Though research has shown that a great
deal of racial intermarriage had occurred by the nineteenth century, Arequipans continued
to self-identify as culturally and intellectually “modern” because of the “myth of the
White City.” 56 Also, though Arequipa felt many of the effects of national economic and
political currents, it tended to maintain a sense of independence. As historian Paul
53
Klaren, 175.
54
Charles Edmond Akers, A History of South America, 1854-1904 (London: John Murray
Publishers, 1904): 511.
55
Sarah C. Chambers, From Subjects to Citizens: Honor, Gender, and Politics in
Arequipa, Peru, 1780-1854, (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999): 21.
56
Chambers, 245.
21
Gootenberg notes, “the south leaned toward liberal secessionism, not hegemony.”57
Southern Peru typically maintained a sense of separation from the typically dominant
political forces on the coast.
It made sense, then, that the 1867 movement to oust Colonel Prado began in
Arequipa. Two conservative army officers, General Pedro Diez Canseco and Colonel
José Balta, began a revolt that ended in the overthrow of Prado’s government and the
installation of Balta as President.58 Unwilling to accept Prado’s installation as President
after the conflict with Spain ended, Balta and Canseco mounted a rebellion, though
observers in Lima initially believed that Prado would easily defeat the uprising. A U.S.
representative wrote to Secretary of State William Seward that, “if Colonel Prado takes
Arequipa speedily, as there is every reason to believe, the rebellious faction in the north
will instantly disappear.”59 Over the next month, however, Diez Canseco and Balta
mounted a two-pronged attack from both Arequipa and Cajamarca in the north that Prado
was unable to repel. The U.S. legation reported in January 1868 that Prado had returned
from a siege of Arequipa with “a shattered and repulsed army…[his] loss will probably
amount to fifteen hundred men, killed and wounded.”60 On January 7, Prado resigned the
Presidency.61
57
Gootenberg, 32.
58
Klaren, 176.
59
Alvin P. Hovey to William H. Seward, Lima, Peru, 28 November 1867 in Foreign
Relations of the United States, Volume 2, (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1869): 839.
60
Alvin P. Hovey to William H. Seward, Lima, Peru, 14 January 1868, in Foreign
Relations of the United States, 839.
61
Mariano Prado, in Foreign Relations of the United States, 842.
22
The success of this rebellion prompted the initiation of work on the railroad
running from Arequipa to Peru’s coast. Though the rebel forces eventually named Balta
as president, Diez Canseco first took executive power as interim president.62 In March
1868, Diez Canseco, originally from Arequipa himself, signed a contract with American
railroad builder Henry Meiggs to begin construction of the Arequipa railroad.63 The
signing of this contract provided the impetus for Peru’s biggest railroad construction push,
a project President Balta and later President Manuel Pardo espoused as necessary for
Peru’s economic and cultural development.
Ultimately, however, guano was a finite resource, and could only supply the
government with the revenue needed for railroad construction for a limited time. In 1869,
Peru transferred its monopoly for selling guano in Europe to Dreyfus, a French trading
house. The loss of European guano sales, along with high foreign debt, meant that Peru
saw the first signs of impending financial struggle at the beginning of the 1870s.64 A lack
of capital, however, did not change elite mindsets about the importance of railroad
building. Regardless of changing economic conditions, both Peruvian politicians and
foreign investors continued to view the construction of rail lines as central to Peru’s
prosperity. The political discourse surrounding railroads, as well as the responses to their
construction from both inside and outside of Peru, reflect some of the ideas about what
62
Alvin P. Hovey to William H. Seward, Lima, Peru, 14 January 1868, in Foreign
Relations of the United States, 841.
63
Máximo Neira Avendaño, Historia General de Arequipa, (Lima, Peru: Fundación M.J.
Bustamante de la Fuente, 1990): 513.
64
Muecke, 25-27. See also Catalina Vizcarra, “Guano, Credible Commitments, and
Sovereign Debt Repayment in Nineteenth-Century Peru.” The Journal of Economic History 69
(June 2009): 358-387.
23
constituted modernity in Latin America and how these ideas affected political and
economic decisions.
As Peru moved into an era of increased political stability and economic prosperity
(albeit short-lived), politicians and other elites saw the country as primed for progress in
the form of railroad building. As the upper class believed they were just as civilized as
their European and American counterparts, they wanted the rest of the world to see them
that way as well, and a decrease in political turmoil gave them a chance to focus on
improving their global status. At the same time, heavy reliance on guano, a finite
resource, meant that plans for advancement through expensive railroad construction were
shaky at best, and foreign debt only grew. Further, the relative prosperity of the mid
nineteenth century had brought little change to indigenous status, and ideas of what it
meant to be a Peruvian citizen grew only more complicated. Though elites believed
railroads were sure to improve the country, their construction proved more complex as it
occurred in conjunction with other nineteenth-century changes.
24
Chapter Two
Peru’s ‘Manifest Destiny’ and Elite Plans for Greatness through Railroad Building
In 1861, the Peruvian government sent an order for two steamships to a company
in London. Named the Yaravi and Yapura, both Quechua words, the pieces of the ships
travelled across the Atlantic to the port of Arica. Destined for Lake Titicaca, a large lake
on the Peruvian-Bolivian border, the Peruvian government had to devise a plan to
transport the ships across the Andes. Deciding at last to send the pieces across the
mountain range on the backs of mules, the government expected to launch the ships
within a year or two. But the mule train, navigating difficult terrain and steep paths, lost
several of the pieces. The project then languished for years until the Navy assigned a
Captain Melgar to take charge of ordering new parts the ships, which finally reached the
water in 1871 and 1872, respectively. A few years later, in 1874, a British observer noted
that had a railroad existed across the highlands in the early 1860s, the steamships would
have reached their destination with no trouble. The railway, he explained, “was a
stupendous undertaking which, even 15 years ago, was scarcely dreamed of by the most
enthusiastic speculator.” Now that the railroad had actually been constructed,
communication and transportation was both faster and easier, particularly over the
treacherous Andes mountain range.65
Peruvian politicians’ interest in railroad building did not result solely from a hope
for more secure transportation. In 1860, future Peruvian President Manuel Pardo wrote,
“railroads…bring a true growth in civilization, in the moral and intellectual betterment of
65
Clements R. Markham, “Railroad and Steam Communication in Southern Peru,”
Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London 18 (1873-1874): 214.
25
the nation whose territories have been enriched by the locomotive.”66 In fact, though
Peruvian politicians established railroad-building programs for multiple reasons, they
primarily focused on the power of railroads to transform Peru into a nation the rest of the
world would see as modern and progressive. While some of these politicians did speak
about how railroads could aid in integrating the indigenous population, others believed
railroads would primarily benefit the upper class, focusing on the economic benefits
railroads provided foreign investors and hoping the new lines would change European
perceptions of Peru as a country. Some division therefore emerged among elite Peruvians
who differed in which sector of the population they believed the railroads would
ultimately benefit. Though these politicians had notably different perspectives on the
purpose of railroad construction, however, all agreed in their enthusiastic endorsement of
the project as highly beneficial to Peru’s prosperity and global standing. Elite Peruvians
saw railroad building as essential to achieving economic prosperity, attracting foreign
investors, creating political stability, and making Peru a “modern” country in its own
right.
Though many of these politicians spoke of railroad building as a kind of
nationalistic project for a unified Peru, the actual concept of the nation existing in Peru at
this time was a complex one. Peruvian politicians generally conducted national affairs
from the top down, providing little opportunity for the development of a national
conscious in rural peasant communities. The process of gaining independence in the early
nineteenth century, for example, was “orchestrated from outside by the armies of José
66
Manuel Pardo, “Estudios sobre la provincia de Jauja,” 1859, in Heraclio Bonilla,
Guano y Burguesía en el Peru (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1984): 51.
26
San Martín and Simón Bolívar…Guerrilla participation was the exception rather than the
rule.” After independence, questions of state development were almost entirely decided
in Lima, further excluding highland communities from any kind of political
participation.67 Despite this seeming exclusion of indigenous voices, however, other
historians have also suggested that, “various notions of peruanidad existed, including
more inclusionary concepts that contradicted the exclusionary views espoused by the
state and national elite.”68 Further, the question of a national conscious was complicated
in the years following independence as different social classes maintained various
political loyalties. Historians have suggested that during the war for independence, “the
Lima elite had been ambivalent, if not downright royalist, and…the lower classes did not
massively support the patriot movement—they were either not interested or not
invited.”69 A lack of enthusiasm for the independence movement meant that many
Peruvians, both elites and indigenous, maintained a deep attachment to Spain and the
colonial state post-independence, while others envisioned a new republic. Though
independence was clearly permanent, Peru’s various social and ethnic groups were hardly
unified in their political views.
67
Florencia Mallon, Peasant and Nation: The Making of Postcolonial Mexico and Peru
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995): 16.
68
Charles Walker, Smoldering Ashes: Cuzco and the creation of Republican Peru, 17801840 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999): 227, Florencia Mallon suggests in Peasant and
Nation that during the War of the Pacific, which lasted from 1879-1883, highland peasants
demonstrated their nationalist identity as they fiercely defended their communities from invading
Chileans.
69
Walker, 85. Walker cites historians Heraclio Bonilla and Karen Spalding, who
published these ideas in a piece titled La independencia en el Perú in 1972, leading to a great deal
of controversy over the reality of the independence movement and its cohesiveness. Other
scholars have pointed out, for example, that parts of the elite did support independence, indicating
that little consensus existed among any social class.
27
In fact, an almost constant state of internal conflict persisted in Peru after it won
independence in 1821. A writer for the widely read newspaper El Comercio addressed the
Peruvian population in 1855, describing Peru as “fluctuating between exaltation or
complete downfall,” and exhorting Peruvians, “you have to choose one of these two
extremes.”70 Only a year later, another editorial writer despaired, “in no other era have
we judged more necessary the presence of the state in this divided country…to save the
Republic from anarchy and from despotism.”71 Despite movement toward increased
political stability during the first half of the nineteenth century, a major division remained
between the north and south, particularly because Lima, in the north, favored a
protectionist economic program, while southern Arequipa preferred to promote their
wool economy with a free trade policy. Though the guano boom, beginning in the 1840s,
helped resolve this tension, regional conflict remained.72 A proponent of building
Arequipa’s railroad explained in the early 1860s, “Arequipa is feared in the north of the
Republic, for the repeated revolutions for which it has been the theater…you will see that
the root of this is in the malaise, the fault of industry in this part of the Republic, reduced
70
“Revolución y Progreso,” El Comercio 24 January 1855. Translated from Spanish.
“Nacionales Gobierno,” El Comercio 4 December 1856. Translated from Spanish.
Besides political turmoil, Peru also faced a difficult economic transition following independence.
Mining profits, for example, were cut almost in half because of flooding, lack of technology, and
damage from the wars. Although Peru did receive some investment from the British, most of this
initially went to purchase British ammunitions, as investors were interested in “selling not
buying,” and did contributed little to the development of Peru’s agriculture or export industries.
Although the guano boom helped catalyze economic recovery, economic difficulties in the
immediate post-independence period contributed to the “decadencia” era of the nineteenth
century. See Jesús Chavarría, “The Colonial Heritage of National Peru: an Overview” Boletín de
Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe 25 (December 1978): 37-49.
71
72
Paul Gootenberg, “North-South: Trade Policy, Regionalism, and Caudillismo in PostIndependence Peru” Journal of Latin American Studies 23 (May 1991): 273-308.
28
to look for solutions through political commotion.”73 The country faced, therefore,
seemingly continuous internal conflict along regional lines.74
Beyond regional tensions, conflict between a small elite and a large rural
indigenous population added to the increasingly complex question of Peruvian nationality.
The upper class typically held a two-fold position—while elites expressed sympathy for
the plight of the impoverished indigenous population, many saw Indians as outside the
bounds of the nation until they achieved some cultural uplift. One newspaper reporter
from Lima wrote in 1854 that, “the Indian pays tribute, that ominous tribute, that
contribution of blood—That those stupid Spanish established it and originated it, is
something I understand easily.” Condemning tribute payment as a relic of a domineering
colonial empire, the writer went on to urge readers to “make the Indians understand the
importance of institutions, give them education, rid them of the tribute payment, and
much later you will have made a great number of patriots.”75 The indigenous population,
in other words, needed education and confidence in government institutions to become
“patriots.” A Señor Cabero, who advocated for Indians in front of Congress, called them
73
Ferrocarril de Arequipa: Informe de los Empresarios (Arequipa: Imprenta de
Francisco Ibañez, 1864): 6. Translated from Spanish.
74
Although the presidency of Ramón Castilla, beginning in 1845, began the period of
“pax andina,” a time of relative political stability, rebellions continued to emerge. In 1867, for
example, an indigenous uprising broke out in the highlands protesting high taxes and labor quotas
involved in the wool trade. Later the same year, two conservative army generals in Arequipa,
Pedro Diez Canseco and José Balta, began a movement to overthrow then-President Mariano
Prado. It was after this overthrow that Balta signed contracts to begin his railroad building
program, making his declaration of the railroad as a “machine of peace” somewhat ironic, since
he was responsible for the latest political turmoil. See Peter Klaren, Peru: Society and
Nationhood in the Andes, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000): 160-163.
75
El Comercio, 22 April 1854. Translated from Spanish. Scholar Charles Walker further
argues that Peruvian elites believed that Indians needed certain “necessities”—primarily, specific
types of housing and clothing—in order to qualify as citizens. Walker describes this as the
“authorities’ exclusionary definition of a citizen.” See Walker, 199.
29
the “majority and nucleus of the nation,” but qualified this with the statement that they
were also “the most unhappy and most forgotten class of Peru.”76 Such a statement
summed up the indigenous position in Peru—though Indians constituted a majority of the
population, they rarely received recognition in Peru’s political sphere.
Elites’ advocating for railroad building as a tool to unify the country or aid the
indigenous population therefore reflects the deeper issue of the development of Peru’s
national conscious. As the country faced political, geographical, and ethnic divisions that
showed little sign of fading, politicians hoped to better integrate a diverse population.
While Peruvian elites did not necessarily expound on the idea of nationhood in their
discourse on the railroads, many of the political and social aims they pursued through
railroad building seemed directed towards unifying the country into a more cohesive
entity. Though elite Peruvians’ goals for railroad building seemed far-ranging—from
bringing “civilization” to indigenous communities to more quickly transporting the
military to far-flung rural regions—all of their stated goals for railroad construction tied
back to this basic idea of nationhood. Importantly, this idea of nationhood frequently
meant, for elites, an emulation of European ideals of cultural uplift, though the
indigenous population rarely fulfilled these ideals.77
Manuel Pardo, who later became President, wrote extensively in the early 1860s
about the power of the railroad to transform both Peru’s economy and its society. The
founder of Peru’s first civilian political party, Pardo played a number of important roles
76
El Comercio, 12 October 1855.
Interestingly, the development of the nation in Peru did not immediately lead to
conflict with the Church, as it did in many other countries. Charles Walker asserts that, “Peruvian
nationalism, in fact, developed hand in hand with the Catholic Church.” Many priests advocated
for political leaders in their sermons, and authorities similarly embraced their faith in speeches.
See Walker, 167.
77
30
in Peruvian political and economic development in the late nineteenth century. Born in
Lima in 1834 into a politically influential family, Pardo studied in Europe, where he
became a major proponent of capitalism.78 Upon his return to Peru, Pardo helped to found
the Revista de Lima, a publication that ran from 1859 to 1862 in which he and his
supporters laid out the reforms they believed Peru needed. He quickly became one of the
top guano merchants and important figures on the financial scene, founding the national
bank Banco del Perú in 1862 and serving as president of the National Company of Guano
in the early 1860s.79 Then, under the military dictatorship of Colonel Mariano Prado in
the late 1860s, Pardo served as finance minister, a position that gave him direct control of
economic policy. He resigned after a short time, however, citing Congress’s resistance to
passing his fiscal reforms.80 He then became the mayor of Lima until 1872, at which time
he organized the Partido Civil into a nation-wide campaign that put him into power as
Peru’s first civilian President.
Much earlier in his political career, however, Pardo began espousing the
importance of railroad construction for Peru’s development. In 1859, he published in his
Revista de Lima an article titled “Studies of the Province of Jauja,” in which he examined
the practicability of building a railroad from Lima to Jauja. One admirer explained in a
letter to a Lima newspaper, “D. Manuel Pardo has studied the province of Jauja and
demonstrated to the public, in luminous writings, the large and beneficial results that the
78
Paul Gootenberg, Imagining Development: Economic Development in Peru’s
‘Fictitious Prosperity’ of Guano, 1840-1880” (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993):
71.
79
Gootenberg, 72.
80
Gootenberg, 72.
31
locomotive will produce when it comes from the Andes.”81 Explaining the outsize effect
he believed railroads would have, Pardo explained that, “in Europe, [railroads] facilitate
traffic and commerce, bolstering commerce and giving property greater value; in Peru,
they will create all of this: commerce, industry, and property, because they will give
value where today there is none.”82 He argued that railroads would create the economic
institutions already in place in much of Europe. Besides publishing his theory of the
railroad as a tool for development, Pardo was also named to a commission charged with
studying a proposal from a mining company for the construction of a railroad to Lima.
Recommending the plan for a railroad as a positive one, the commission determined, “we
believe firmly that one year after the establishment of the rail line it will not pay only
seven percent of the invested capital, but will surpass this limit.”83 The commission
therefore suggested the railroad would be a worthwhile economic investment, as its
advantages would soon begin to repay the cost of construction.
Interestingly, Pardo seemed particularly prescient in these early writings about the
future of Peru’s guano industry and the necessity of stimulating economic development.
Writing in 1859, he noted that fifteen years had passed since the discovery of guano, but
“[only] ten or twelve years still remain.” Pardo argued that Peru had wasted its guano
revenue so far by spending it without investing, and insisted that politicians needed to
consider how “to create returns that supplant those of guano, to create fiscal income that
81
Jose Pablo Melgar to Felipe Barreda, 19 December 1859, in El Comercio, Lima, Peru,
20 December 1859.
82
Manuel Pardo, “Estudios sobre la provincia de Jauja,” 1859, in Heraclio Bonilla,
Guano y Burguesía en el Peru (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1984): 53.
83
El Peruano, Lima, Peru, 19 December 1867.
32
replaces that from guano: here is the problem.”84 Proposing that Peru use its guano
income to create a national economy that would sustain itself after guano reserves
disappeared, Pardo wrote, “…what easier, faster, and more powerful measure to augment
national production…what measure more simple than the routes of communication?”85
Pardo therefore introduced railroads as a kind of salvation to Peru’s potential future
problems, cautioning readers that guano revenues alone were not enough to sustain the
country in the long run.
Pardo was not alone in voicing his support for railroad construction as a means of
development. A Peruvian government official was quoted in The New York Times in 1886,
for example, stating that, “one of these days not very far distant Peru will be something
like the United States—settled with flourishing elites, intersected by railroads, civilized,
rich powerful, and combining in itself all the ingredients that go toward making up one of
‘the’ countries of the globe.”86 He saw railroads as an integral part of becoming a
“civilized” nation. In a similar vein, engineers vying for the contract to build a railroad
from Arequipa explained that rail lines would, “inspire respect and confidence in the
other countries of the world and increase the national credit that Peru will need for its
future exaltation.”87 These upper-class proponents of rail building saw the machines as
capable of improving Peru’s global standing by putting Peru on par with the United
States and Europe.
84
Pardo, “Estudios sobre la provincia de Jauja,” in Heraclio Bonilla, 49.
85
Manuel Pardo, “Estudios sobre la provincia de Jauja,” in Heraclio Bonilla, 51.
“Peru’s Sanguine Hopes: The scheme to connect the two oceans,” The New York Times
27 September 1886.
86
87
Ferrocarril de Arequipa: Informe de los Empresarios (Arequipa: Imprenta de
Francisco Ibañez, 1864): 19.
33
Many elite Peruvians observed the development of railroads in other countries,
describing them as important factors in these foreign nations’ economic prosperity. One
writer for El Comercio, a Lima-based newspaper, wrote in 1860 that, “Spain…has truly
enlarged itself through its railroads, its commerce, and the impulse which has taken the
spirit of progress.”88 The writer described the advantages railroads had afforded to Spain
with an admiring tone, connecting the building of railroads to both industriousness and an
active economy. Other writers pointed specifically to the ability of railroads to connect
various areas of foreign countries. One reported of France, for example, “railroad
businesses appear very attractive. Havre will be united with Estraburgo. Paris with the
borders of Belgium.”89 Similarly, another writer professed that Panama, “continued
favored above all the other [countries] for the advantage of possessing an interoceanic
railroad.”90 These writers emphasized the benefits railroads presented in connecting
different parts of a country, which in the case of Panama meant two coasts. Placing such
weight on the success other nations had found in railroad construction indicated that
Peruvian elites had an eye trained on the global stage, hoping to emulate the emerging
popularity of railroad construction as a public work. In addition, the description of
railroads as an economic tool, connecting different areas of the country to the coast,
pointed to elite hopes to use the railroads to stimulate economic growth.
Some political voices noted that geographically, Peru’s railroads had to traverse
more difficult terrain than in many countries already crossed by many rail lines. A
88
“España,” El Comercio 25 February 1860. Translated from Spanish.
89
“Francia y España,” El Comercio 10 March 1842. Translated from Spanish.
90
“Confederación Granadina,” El Comercio 25 November 1859. Translated from Spanish.
34
Colonel Santa Maria, speaking to Congress in the late 1860s, explained, “…while the
railroad line in the United States only climbs a distance of eighty leagues, to an altitude
of 2,800 meters, the railroad from Oroya will climb in the Cordillera of the Andes, and in
a distance of only 26 leagues, to the prodigious height of 4,800 meters above sea level.”91
The mountainous terrain of Peru’s highlands made railroad construction a daunting task,
but would result in impressive feats of engineering superior to those in the United States.
Some of the political discourse surrounding the railroads went even further,
presenting them as part of some kind of divine plan for Peru’s greatness. At the
inauguration of Arequipa’s railroad, one speaker proclaimed, “because the blessing of
God, which opens the railroad from Mollendo, descends always in Peru on every
business and every man, so that the noble homeland of the Incas, will be lifted to the
height of its destiny!”92 Using the word “destiny” and referring to God’s blessing, the
speaker portrayed the railroad construction as part of some higher calling for Peru.
Similarly, in a speech President Balta gave to Congress in 1860, he proclaimed, “Destiny
subjects people at times to painful trials, at times to happy undertakings. We have passed
through the former and are now beginning to realize the latter.”93 Using the same image
of destiny, Balta suggested that a grander plan was at work for the country, of which
91
El Ferrocarril de Arequipa: historia documentada, 74. Many observers noted the
geographical difficulties which made railroad construction relatively difficult in Peru. In 1876, for
example, British geographer Clements R. Markham visited Peru and described its railroads as
“some of the most stupendous monuments of engineering in the world.” Clements R. Markham,
“Peru,” The Geographical Magazine, April 1, 1876, 89.
92
Inauguración del Ferrocarril de Mollendo a Arequipa (Lima: Imprenta del Comercio,
1871): 23.
93
“Message of the President of Peru, on the Opening of the Congress,” Lima, Peru, 28
July 1870, in British and Foreign State Papers (London: William Ridgway, 1876): 1322.
35
railroads played an important role. In this discourse, railroads became not just a manmade
tool for economic achievement, but part of God’s plan for Peru’s looming success.
Many politicians also saw the railroads as particularly attractive to foreign
investors. In 1874, President Pardo issued a decree to Europeans bringing to their
attention the “character and extent of riches to be found within the territory of Peru, and
the means of communication which place these riches within the reach of private
enterprise.” The decree then listed all the operating railroads in Peru as well as those
under construction.94 Pardo attempted to use the newly constructed railroad system as an
incentive to lure European visitors to Peru, emphasizing that railroads made it easier to
access the riches found in Peru’s interior. Similarly, proponents of building a railroad
from Arequipa to the coast stated in their early report that Peru should not rely on the
popularity of guano to earn its place in the world, “but on the inexhaustible resources of
its interior, which until now are hardly known. The great success of the railroads in this
rich country will produce in the European capitalists avidity to invest their funds in these
businesses.”95 The writer saw the railroads and the access they provided to Peru’s natural
resources as an important attraction for foreign investors. In like manner, builders on the
Arequipa railroad suggested, “there will be many new mining businesses that today do
not want to risk establishing themselves in an unknown country almost without
resources.”96 The railroads would help Peru to become attractive on a global scale by
94
Markham, “Railroad and Steam Communication in Southern Peru,” 216. Though this
decree was not reproduced exactly, a British geographer who had received a copy described its
contents.
95
Ferrocarril de Arequipa: Informe de los Empresarios, 2.
96
Ferrocarril de Arequipa: Informe de los Empresarios, 5.
36
giving the country greater name recognition and providing investors greater access to its
resources.
Besides pointing out that investors would have greater access to resources,
builders also noted that rail lines travelled the other way, carrying products from the
interior of the country to the coast. In a collection of railroad documents, one engineer
noted, “the railroads of the Republic generally being the means of communication
between the interior and the coast, it has been necessary in their termini to build piers
adequate for the traffic.”97 The need to build piers suggested not only that railroads were
important links between the center of the country and the coast, but also that they would
allow for the transportation of exportable products to the coast, giving indigenous
communities access to markets. Similarly, at the inauguration of the railroad from
Arequipa to the coast, President Balta stated, “this line, friends, represents the
indestructible alliance of the villages of the mountains with those of the distant coast.”98
Pointing out that the railroad connected two very different parts of Peru, Balta
emphasized the integration of the country railroads would achieve. Though Peru’s
environmental diversity had led to the existence of three very distinct regions within one
country, the railroad presented a physical symbol of the continued unity of these different
areas.
Beyond unifying different geographical regions, President Balta proposed that his
plan for “progress” through railroad construction would pave the way to prosperity after
years of political turmoil. In a speech to Congress two years after taking power, Balta
97
Los Ferrocarriles Del Peru, 1430. Translated from Spanish.
98
El Ferrocarril de Arequipa: historia documentada de su origen, construcción, e
inauguración (Lima: Imp. Del estado, 1871): 248.
37
rejoiced at the transformation he claimed to have witnessed throughout Peru. He
lamented the difficult years Peru had faced, stating, “so many spurious elements conjured
up by 40 years of civil strife, incorrigible habits of barren waste…would make it appear
as if nature and men alike had conspired against the common weal.”99 Balta went on to
explain, however, that this had changed, with Peru now holding a “respectable and
dignified” global position. He emphasized the importance of his public works projects,
describing how he “[launched the Republic] with ardour into the path of progress and
public improvements…Public works have always been the happy dream of the
people.”100 Because Balta’s most ambitious public works project came in the form of
railroad construction, the connection he made between prosperity and infrastructural
improvements most likely referred to railroads. In another speech at the inauguration of
Arequipa’s line, President Balta specifically declared the railroad a “machine of peace.”
He went on to explain, “villages a hundred times drenched in blood of their brothers, will
no longer hear the harmful fighting of different parties or the bang of the destructive
cannon.”101 Presenting the railroads as a solution to the terrible violence many villages
had seen, Balta painted them as a much-needed change that would carry Peru into a new
era of peace.
Others politicians agreed with this assessment, arguing that railroads would
ameliorate the lack of active industry that had led to the numerous rebellions since Peru’s
independence. A speaker at the Arequipa railroad’s inauguration saw the rail line as the
99
“Message of the President of Peru, on the Opening of the Congress,” Lima, Peru, 28
July 1870, in British and Foreign State Papers (London: William Ridgway, 1876): 1316.
100
“Message of the President of Peru,” in British and Foreign State Papers, 1318.
101
El Ferrocarril de Arequipa, 389-392. Translated from Spanish.
38
solution to this problem, stating, “give the railroad to Arequipa and they will no more
think of revolutions nor will the Peruvians of the north have reason to complain that a
revolution in the south interrupted or impeded some improvement for the country.”102
Another politician, Señor Echegaray, proclaimed at the same event that, “yesterday they
wrote with blood, today those same villages will write proudly of peace and abundance
that their industry and commerce will bring, and tomorrow all will bless the names of
those who contributed to their happiness.”103 Repeatedly, politicians seemed to view the
railroads as solutions to the violence and rebellion that had plagued the country since
independence. President Manuel Pardo, writing years before his election in 1872, further
claimed that railroads would help work against, “the advances of tyranny on one hand
and on the other, against the efforts of the anarchists.”104 Like other elites, Pardo painted
the introduction of these rail lines as a kind of catalyst for a new era of stability.
Besides noting the potential railroads had to moderate revolutionary tendencies,
proponents of the railroads also suggested they would aid police and military efforts. In
the proposal for the building of Arequipa’s railroad, one proponent explained, “in a
country crossed by railroads and telegraphs, the criminal will be always within reach of
the justice that observes him, of the hand that punishes him—abuses…in isolated places
will disappear or be avoided by the immediacy of a greater force, formerly distant.”105
102
Ferrocarril de Arequipa: Informe de los Empresarios, 8. Translated from Spanish.
103
Inauguración del Ferrocarril de Mollendo a Arequipa (Lima: Imprenta del Comercio,
1871): 86.
104
Manuel Pardo, “Estudios sobre la provincia de Jauja,” in Heraclio Bonilla, 52.
Translated from Spanish.
105
Ferrocarril de Arequipa: Informe de los Empresarios, 19. Historian Erick Langer has
argued that railroads made it easier to move troops into rural areas, and that the government did
39
The speaker suggested that railroads could make the federal government an increasingly
important presence in rural areas that were previously too distant for it to reach.
Criminals would have less advantage over their pursuers as police or military forces
could more quickly travel into rural areas.
The Peruvian government also emphasized the benefits of facilitating rail
transport for the military by making it legally free. In 1863, the government published a
notice stating, “troops that are transported from one point to another along rail
lines…should be transported for free by the operating business.”106 Proposing early on to
facilitate military transport suggested that the government saw the military’s quick
transport as a primary benefit of an extensive rail system. Also, although few newspaper
writers explicitly mentioned military extension into rural areas as a goal of the railroads,
newspapers frequently published notices indicating that the military received special
benefits from the railroads. After conflict with Spain erupted in 1866 over the guano
islands, a colonel in the Peruvian army wrote that there would be twelve cars in the
railroad station, “with the exclusive object of driving those wounded that have come from
combat.” Furthermore, he wrote that all the “sisters of charity will be given free passage
to and from Callao…to lend services to the wounded.”107 Although these examples
not want to “civilize” these villages but rather establish greater control over them. He further
discusses the growing importance of “frontier goods,” such as rubber from the Amazon, that
came from outlying regions and therefore made these areas more valuable to the federal
government. See Erick Langer, “The Eastern Andean Frontier (Bolivia and Argentina) and Latin
American Frontiers: Comparative Contexts (19th and 20th Centuries),” The Americas 59 (July
2002): 33-63.
106
“Pasaje de los Empleados del Gobierno,” Los Ferrocarriles del Peru, 122. Translated
from Spanish.
107
M.G. Mugaburu, El Peruano, Lima, Peru, 28 May 1866. Translated from Spanish.
40
correspond to a specific instance of fighting and do not necessarily illustrate entrance into
indigenous communities, they indicate that politicians saw facilitation of the military’s
goals as a key function of railroad construction.
Attitudes toward how the railroads would affect indigenous communities differed
among politicians. In much of his early work supporting the railroads, President Pardo
seemed to advocate for the increased integration of Peru’s different social classes. In his
“Estudios sobre la Provinica de Jauja,” for example, Pardo stated, “if in European nations
the role of a railroad is to facilitate and stimulate the communication between two points
of territory, in Peru its mission is to create these relations that do not exist between places
that are isolated from each other.”108 Pardo suggested that the railroads could connect
areas that typically had little communication, indicating a wish for greater unification of
the country overall. Similarly, as early as 1844, a speech published in El Comercio from a
meeting of an agricultural society explained, “the construction of bridges, roads, canals,
and railroads…is one of the most powerful resources that can help governments achieve
the prosperity of the state and bring blessings to the villages.”109 Even before the
construction of Peru’s first railroads, this speaker specifically mentioned the positive
effect railroads would have in villages, suggesting they would benefit not just elites but
the country as a whole. Furthermore, supporters of constructing a railroad between
Arequipa and Peru’s coast published an early report stating, “[we will come] to know
108
Manuel Pardo, “Estudios sobre la provincia de Jauja,” 1859, in Heraclio Bonilla,
Guano y Burguesía en el Peru (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1984): 53. Translated from
Spanish.
109
El Comercio, Lima, Peru, 30 October 1844. Translated from Spanish.
41
with greater certainty and opportunity the needs of each village and each province.”110
This discourse on the benefits of railroads suggested that they could make distant villages
more accessible and their conditions more transparent to the federal government.
Many railroad builders also seemed to believe their railroads would help
consolidate formerly rural areas into urban environments with the characteristics of wellplanned cities. When planning for the railroad from Arequipa, builders debated where the
line should end on the coast. Supporting the railroad’s terminus being established in the
town of Mejía, the builders explained, “it would have the advantage of forming there a
comfortable city, with regular and wide streets with continual and smooth slopes and with
water in abundance.”111 They went on to assert, “Mejía has all the…advantages to
establish a large population.”112 Suggesting that the railroad would lead to the growth of a
city at its terminus, the builders insisted that rail lines could bring structural development
to rural areas along their routes.
Other politicians also proposed that rail lines would bring cultural improvement to
rural villages along the routes. Engineers for Arequipa’s railroad stated, for example,
“education will improve and will be extended…and superstitions will disappear—the
stimulation and the example of village to village will be incredibly beneficial—the arts
will be born.”113 They presented the railroads as abolishing “superstitions,” likely
referring to indigenous religious practices. As Catholicism was a key feature of
110
Ferrocarril de Arequipa: Informe de los Empresarios, 3. Translated from Spanish.
111
El Ferrocarril de Arequipa: historia documentada, 144. Translated from Spanish.
112
El Ferrocarril de Arequipa: historia documentada, 147. Translated from Spanish.
113
Ferrocarril de Arequipa: Informe de los Empresarios, 19. Translated from Spanish.
42
contemporary ideas of what constituted the Peruvian nation, politicians who aimed for
cultural uplift focused on ensuring that all Peruvians accepted Catholicism. Similarly,
Manuel Pardo, in his early writing on the value of railroad construction, explained, “the
increase in material wealth the railroads produce will appear also in a true increase in
civilization…men will come to achieve the elevation of their moral sentiments, especially
the first and foremost of these: personal dignity.”114 Pardo described “civilization” as a
kind of quality that could increase as a village’s material wealth improved. Just as
Arequipa’s railroads spoke of the disappearance of superstitions, Pardo’s idea of
civilization included moral elevation and improvements in the character of village
inhabitants. He emphasized the power of railroads to bring about changes in rural areas
that went beyond simple structural improvements.
Other politicians, however, saw railroads as a primarily upper-class endeavor
unsuited for the indigenous population. Felipe Barreda y Osma, a politician who lived in
Paris during the 1880s, wrote from there discouraging the construction of a rail line
between Oroya and Jauja. He argued that, “it is enough to consider the scarce population
it would unite, the limited amount they produce and the lack of necessities of its residents,
almost all of them Indians with little civilization.”115 Barreda went on to explain that
building a railroad for a small indigenous population would have little overall economic
benefit for Peru, and would in fact be more of an aggravation to the state than it would be
profitable. Focusing on the prosperity of the country as a whole, Barreda insisted that
114
Manuel Pardo, “Estudios sobre la provincia de Jauja,” in Heraclio Bonilla, 51.
Translated from Spanish.
115
Felipe Barreda y Osma, Los Ferrocarriles y el Proyecto de los Tenedores de Bonos
(Lima: Imp. Liberal de F. Masías, 1888): 3.
43
having railroad termini in two rural areas, both sparsely populated and filled with
uncivilized people, brought little benefit to the country.
Other elites similarly seemed uninterested in benefits railroads could have for the
indigenous population and instead primarily focused on their own economic gain. In
1872, for example, a Lima newspaper published a proposal from a Don Santiago San
Martín to “construct a railroad from the village of Chancay to the hacienda of Huando,”
both locations within the region of Lima.116 Because Chancay had a port, San Martín
presumably wanted to construct a railroad from his hacienda directly to the coast,
facilitating the easy transport of his goods to the market. Such a proposal represents how
some elites saw the railroads as tools to further their personal success, with little thought
to aiding the indigenous population. On a deeper level, because many haciendas still
required indigenous inhabitants of surrounding villages to fill labor quotas, San Martín’s
interest in transporting goods from his hacienda could represent the continued
exploitation of the Indians as a labor source.117 In this view, the railroad would not
improve the lives of the rural poor but rather cement their existing labor system.
Peruvian elites had therefore discussed the great transformative power of railroads
since the 1840s, though arguments supporting their construction varied. Manuel Pardo,
perhaps the most vocal proponent of railroad construction, emphasized a lack of
sustainability in the guano industry that, he believed, made railroad building necessary
for economic survival. He also promoted the idea that railroads would aid in the
integration of the country’s various regions, helping to unify a diverse population and
116
“Rúbrica de S.E.,” El Peruano, Lima, Peru, 4 May 1872.
117
Guillermo de la Peña, “Social and Cultural Policies Toward Indigenous Peoples:
Perspectives from Latin America,” Annual Review of Anthropology 34 (2005): 720.
44
uplift a poor indigenous population. Other elites, though their arguments had perhaps less
depth than Pardo’s, agreed that railroad building was essential to the country’s success.
Railroads, they insisted, would bring economic progress as well as lift Peru’s global
standing and usher in an era of greater peace. Though not all believed that the indigenous
condition should hold any interest for railroad builders, all coincided in their approval of
railroad construction as a worthwhile endeavor. In many ways, Peruvian elites saw
railroads as representative of the future success they imagined for Peru—a prosperous,
peaceful nation with a population united in its “civilized” status. As questions of
nationhood grew only more complex, politicians believed railroads would help create a
nation with the cultural characteristics they valued. These dreams politicians placed in
railroads were, ultimately, only dreams, as railroads failed to drastically change either
conditions within Peru or opinions outside of it.
45
Chapter Three
Foreigners with ‘Grand Objectives’: British and American Investors in Peru and their
Takeover of the Country’s Railroad Industry
In May 1874, Isaac T. Coates, an American doctor, spoke before a meeting of
the American Geographical Society of New York. Coates described his ascent of the
volcano Misti just outside the city of Arequipa, prompted by his “veneration for every
thing great and sublime in nature.” After a treacherous journey crossing terraced rock
that “formed dangerous precipices,” and while suffering dehydration and altitude
sickness, Coates made it to the summit of the volcano. Looking out over the city,
Coates described his sudden fascination with the railroads below: “What a speck is
man, thought I, beside the mountain; yet he triumphs over it…he tears the granite
crest from its imperial head, disembowels it, overcomes it, subdues it, sends the iron
horse with the voice of thunder and speed of lightning, like an omnipotent messenger.”
Coates concluded, “daring American engineers have come to this land of the Chimoos,
and of the Incas, and of the Spaniards, and built these great iron highways…these
evidences of American genius will stand to record for the most remote posterity its
achievements in this extraordinary country.”118 Coates immediately associated the
railroads with their American builders.
It was no anomaly, in fact, that Peru’s railways were known not as inherently
Peruvian, but rather were primarily associated with the foreign countries that built them.
In 1892, an American government official living in Peru wrote a report detailing the
118
H.C. Cochrane, “The Misti, and Travels in Peru and Chili,” Journal of the American
Geographical Society of New York 6 (1874): 216.
46
country’s transportation systems. Distinguishing between two rail lines, he explained,
“[the oldest] line runs from the capital to its port of Callao, and is known as the ‘English
line,’ to distinguish it from the parallel built by Henry Meiggs and known as the
‘American line.’”119 Although Peruvian politicians had promoted the railroads as a kind
of nationalistic project to improve conditions for native Peruvians, the actual building
process involved primarily foreign actors and, in fact, Peru was forced to cede control of
its rail lines to the British after incurring a large foreign debt. British involvement in
Peru’s railroad construction took on an almost sinister feel as British actors, with little
regard to Peru’s national development, pursued profit in the railroad industry whenever
possible.
The British empire of the nineteenth century did, in fact, reach far into Latin
America. Settler colonies in places such as Australia, Canada, and the United States were
perhaps the most obvious examples of the extension of British influence, but London
markets took interest in and supplied capital to many other regions.120 In light of this
heavy British influence throughout the world, the overwhelming involvement of British
actors in the Peruvian railroad industry is hardly unique, but it remains significant. In
tying Britain to Latin America during the nineteenth century, historians have primarily
focused on Argentina, as it had strong cultural ties to Europe through immigration. On
119
Peru (a handbook) (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1892), 42.
120
James Belich, Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the
Anglo World, 1783-1939 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). Although Belich focuses
primarily on the importance of colonies that drew large numbers of British immigrants and had
strong cultural ties to Britain, he more generally points out the strong interest British investors
took in almost every part of the globe. Similarly, scholar Gary B. Magee has focused on the
establishment of British colonies that thrived because of a shared sense of “British-ness” with the
government in England. See Gary B. Magee, Empire and Globalisation: Networks of People,
Goods, and Capital in the British World, 1850-1914, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2009.
47
the other hand, Peru presents an example of a Latin American country that saw a great
deal of British investment and involvement despite receiving little to no British
immigration. Peru’s railroad construction therefore reflects the neocolonial reach of the
British in an arena that has historically been perhaps less obvious.
British investment overseas far exceeded that of its closest European competitors.
Scholar James Belich notes, “British money flooded overseas in a myriad of forms:
immigrant nest-eggs, direct and indirect investments, loans and debentures, stocks and
bonds, to private concerns and to all types of governments—central, colonial, state,
provincial, and municipal.” Though about 40 percent of this investment went to the
Empire, the rest went to other countries, indicating that “investors rationally pursued
profit wherever it might be found.”121 In other words, British investors ruthlessly sought
financial gain around the world, focused less on spreading any religious or social mission
than on making a profit. In Peru, and specifically in Peru’s railroad construction, this
hope for profit meant that the British attempted to insert themselves wherever they saw
potential financial gain. One contemporary writer described this as the, “permanent
acceptance by the British people of their destiny as the world’s great colonizers.”122
Though Peruvians sometimes seemed resentful of the forceful British push into
their country, elites typically accepted the intrusion as necessary to accomplish their
construction and development goals. A Lima newspaper writer complained in 1844, “we
have seen England constantly exercise itself over the entire globe, dispossessing all of the
121
Belich, 115.
122
Alleyne Ireland, “The Victorian Era of British Expansion,” The North American
Review 172 (April 1901): 562.
48
nations, and particularly ours, of the possessions that we had acquired legitimately.”123
Despite this apparent dissatisfaction with the English interest in extending itself over the
globe, Peruvians heavily relied on British financial markets. A Señor Galvez, apparently
involved with the guano market, was quoted in a Lima newspaper explaining, “the price
of guano and of all fertilizer in London is regularly doubly better than that in France and
the Antilles—this seems to me an uncontestable fact.”124 Beyond benefiting from the
market England supplied for guano, Peru also depended on England for capital loans to
finance many of its infrastructure projects. One writer in Lima noted in 1847, “England
has had a lot of patience with its debtors, who have trusted in [England’s] benevolence,
who have abused its credulity, and who have lived according to the means England has
provided them.”125 Peru, lacking the financial resources to fund many of the projects it
wanted to pursue, heavily depended on England as both a market for its goods and as a
source of loans. This meant, however, that as Peru’s railroad construction progressed, the
project elites had originally conceived of as one that would foster a sense of nationalism
actually served to transfer many of Peru’s most profitable resources to Britain. With little
regard to Peru’s national development, British (and some American) investors came to
control almost every aspect of railroad construction and operation, leaving little room for
Peru to benefit from the process.
Early in the building process, many European and American observers saw the
railroads as key to increasing returns on their investment in Peru. In particular, rail lines
could provide access to hard-to-reach but potentially profitable interior regions, such as
123
124
125
El Comercio, 14 March 1844. Translated from Spanish.
El Peruano, 12 September 1857. Translated from Spanish.
El Peruano 25 September 1847. Translated from Spanish.
49
mines high in the Andes and rubber trees deep in the Amazon jungle. The Bureau of the
American Republics, a U.S. government organization that distributed information on
Latin American countries, published a handbook on Peru in 1892, pointing out that as
“English enterprise reaches still farther into the eastern provinces of Peru…surveys are
now in progress from the terminus of the Central Railroad of Peru, as the transandean line
is called, that shall pass by Tarma to the head of steamboat navigation at the foot of the
falls on the Perene, a principal tributary of the Amazon…the principal traffic is in crude
Indian rubber.”126 Besides providing opportunities for further extension into the Amazon
region, the railroads also presented the potential for greater agricultural development. A
writer for the New York Times explained that railroads would allow foreigners to “reach
the high plateaus of the interior, where…they may cultivate the sugar cane, corn, coffee,
rice, and, in fact, every known cereal.”127 Such assertions suggest that foreign investors
viewed Peru’s railroads in light of their own economic interests, focusing on how the rail
lines would facilitate their access to profitable regions.
Highland mines, many of which the Spanish had abandoned years earlier, were a
particularly notable focus of foreign investors’ belief in the railroads’ capacity to increase
126
Peru (a handbook) (Washington, DC: Bureau of the American Republics, 1892): 38.
The Bureau of the American Republics was the result of the first inter-American conference,
which took place in Washington, D.C. in 1889-1890. Though the Bureau was meant to represent
eighteen Latin American governments, “the United States from the outset acquired direct
responsibility for Bureau organization, administration, and operations.” Its purpose was to freely
publish and distribute information on Latin American countries, hence the publication of a
handbook on Peru. See James F. Vivian, “The Commercial Bureau of American Republics, 18941902: The Advertising Policy, the State Department, and the Governance of the International
Union” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 118 (December 1974): 555-566.
127
“Something About Peru: A Glance at the Country and Its History,” The New York
Times 22 December 1889. Peru (a handbook) also notes the importance of the railroads in
encouraging agricultural development, pointing out that “the construction of the [Transandean rail
line] would lead to the agricultural development of the valley of Jauja, celebrated for its wheatproducing capacity” (36).
50
their income. Coal mines near to rail lines provided an easily accessible source of fuel,
but more significantly, foreigners saw the potential profit available in previously closed
silver mines.128 The construction of a railroad to the valley of Jauja, initially proposed to
connect the fertile land of the interior with the coast, quickly became more significant
because of the line’s proximity to the Cerro de Pasco mines, which had generated a lot of
profit for the Spanish.129 Though these mines had flooded years earlier, their possession
became the “grand objective” of those involved in railroad construction. With the arrival
of Henry Meiggs, the American railroad builder, it “[seemed] practicable to relieve the
mines of water by driving a tunnel from a point down the mountain slope to the bottom of
the mine and open a drainage channel that should keep the silver drifts free from
flood.”130 Though the project to open the mines was a complicated one and stalled several
times, foreign investors remained interested. William Grace, the mayor of New York City
and founder of a guano business in Peru, explained to the New York Times in 1885 that a
railroad “[was] to run from Callao to the Cerro de Pasco silver mines…I do know that
there are a number of English capitalists interested.”131 The lure of profits to be made
from precious metals remained a key factor in foreigners’ interest in Peru’s railroads.
128
“Peru,” The New York Times 29 May 1873. This article notes that, “the Ica and Pisco
railroad now uses the coal of a mine discovered not far from the line, instead of Chili coal as
before.”
129
An article in The Washington Post from 1878 professed the riches that Peru’s mines
had yielded under the Spanish, explaining, “creditable authority estimates the total yield of
precious metals in Peru from 1630 to 1803 at $1,232,000,000….nearly two-fifths of this
enormous sum was the product of the Cero de Pasco mine.” See “The Richness of Peru,” The
Washington Post, 19 July 1878.
130
Peru (a handbook), 37.
131
“A Peruvian Enterprise,” The New York Times 11 February 1885.
51
The railroad’s actual construction process also reflected the highly foreign nature
of Peru’s railroad industry. Although Peruvian builders constructed small rail lines in the
early 1860s, the extensive rail construction project that President Balta began in 1868
depended largely on the American railroad builder Henry Meiggs. “The names of Señor
Don Eugenio Higueras, as of Señores Valdea, Vellano, and Derteano, appear amongst the
number of those whose proposals ended in nubibus,” explained Thomas Hutchinson, a
British visitor.132 These early proposals, however, failed to materialize in actual
construction. It was only when other engineers recommended Henry Meiggs, an
American who had escaped San Francisco on charges of fraud, that President Balta
signed a successful railroad contract. Other engineers had recommended Meiggs—one
explained, “the special man to whom I allude is Mr. Henry Meiggs, who with loyalty to
the completion of his responsibilities…commands an army of engineers, mechanics,
special men for every class of work, and innumerable operators; a man who with one
signal gets thousands to come, where other contractors try in vain to consign
hundreds.”133 Meiggs quickly became the central figure in the construction of Peru’s
railroads.
A eulogy published in The New York Times upon Meiggs’ death highlighted both
his status as an outsider in South America and the prominence he attained in the region.
“None but a man of the Anglo-Saxon race,” the American writer proclaimed, “could have
achieved such a career as has just been closed by the death of Henry Meiggs, railroad
132
Thomas Joseph Hutchinson, Two Years in Peru, with Exploration of Its Antiquities
(London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Low and Sable, 1873): 127.
133
El Ferrocarril de Arequipa: Historia documentada de su origen, construcción, e
inauguración (Lima: Imp. del Estado, 1871): 49. Translated from Spanish.
52
king of South America.”134 Born in New York, Meiggs moved to California during the
Gold Rush and became involved in supplying lumber to the budding city of San
Francisco. Though locals knew him as “Honest Harry,” Meiggs had to flee to South
America in 1854 after forging bonds and making over $500,000 at the city’s expense.135
Arriving first in Chile, where he gained notoriety as a capable bridge-builder, Meiggs
then moved to Peru and, in 1868, was contracted to build the railroad between Arequipa
and the coast, a project that marked the beginning of Peru’s push for railroad
construction.136 Soon recognized as something of an engineering genius, Meiggs tackled
“landslides, falling boulders, sorroche (or the difficulty of breathing in high altitudes),
and verrugas, a disease known only on the line of this road, characterized by a species of
warts breaking out all over the body and bleeding.”137 By the time of his death in 1877,
Meiggs’ work on the railroads had made him “not only rich, but famous,” with one report
calling his work the “eighth wonder of the world.”138 That Meiggs himself gained such
134
“A Remarkable Career,” The New York Times 12 October 1877.
135
“A Remarkable Career,” The New York Times 12 October 1877.
136
Ferrocarril de Arequipa a Puno: Documentos (Lima: Imp. de El Nacional
Mechormalo, 1870): 3. Translated from Spanish.
137
“Peru has a High Railway: Crosses Mountain Range at an Altitude Never Before
Attained,” The Washington Post 20 March 1904.
138
“Henry Meiggs’s Railroad: The Splendid Purchase of Mayor Grace and His Partner
Brother in Peru,” The New York Times 22 June 1885. In the early to mid-twentieth century, a
handful of historians detailed Meiggs’ life and work on the railroads. See Mary Margaret Harker,
“‘Honest Harry’ Meiggs: Who Left San Francisco Discredited, Later to Become South America’s
Builder of Railroads,” California Historical Society Quarterly 17 (September 1938): 195-207 and
Watt Stewart, Henry Meiggs: Yankee Pizarro (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1946).
Stewart, comparing Meiggs to Pizarro, suggests that Meiggs was somewhat responsible for the
financial ruin Peru faced because of his over-indulgence in spending to build the railroads. Both
Harker and Stewart suggest that Meiggs was primarily focused on making his personal fortune
and was less concerned with what would benefit Peru as a country.
53
notoriety from the railroads indicates the extent to which his personal fame
overshadowed the construction of the railroad itself. It was Meiggs, an American, who
became well known, minimizing the significance of Peru’s newly constructed rail lines.
Besides Meiggs, a number of other European and American entrepreneurs became
involved in Peru’s railroad building process. In 1870, Mariano Paz-Soldan, a fiscal
official on Peru’s Supreme Court, recorded that a representative of a railroad company,
William Sterling, appeared before them. Paz-Soldan wrote of his concern over the many
foreign officials working for the railroad company, explaining, “it is necessary to know
how many representatives the company has, because sometimes certain associates appear,
sometimes Mathison and Bohe, sometimes Sterling…the variation of personnel serves
only to introduce confusion.”139 Such a complaint, protesting that foreign companies sent
so many workers to Peru that confusion ensued, points to the large foreign presence in the
railroad building process. Similarly, in October 1870, an engineer named John Thorndike
sent a note from Arequipa to the superintendent of the rail line under construction
between Mejía and Arequipa, explaining, “I have been occupied with taking the
necessary data, which I will then give to the engineer of the Ministry…I am from the
United States.”140 Though there were some Peruvian railroad engineers, the industry was
largely dominated by European and American immigrants.
Most of these railroad builders also opted to hire foreign labor to actually
construct the lines. An Arequipan writer, for example, explained that, “Mr. Meiggs
139
Mariano Paz-Soldan, “Dictamen del señor Fiscal de la Excma. Corte Suprema de
Justicia, en el recurso presentado por D. Guillermo Sterling representante de la empresa de los
ferrocarriles” in Los Ferrocarriles del Peru: Colleción de Leyes, Decretos, Contratos (Lima:
Imp. del Estado Calle de la Ripa, 1871): 155. Translated from Spanish.
140
John Thorndike to the Superintendent of the line between Mejía and Arequipa,
Arequipa, Peru, 27 October 1870 in Los Ferrocarriles del Perú. 481. Translated from Spanish.
54
introduced 10,000 foreign immigrants for the railroad from Arequipa.”141 One writer
from Lima explained that although the first railroad builders in Callao had promised to
only use Peruvian workers, most disregarded this requirement and employed foreign
workers without restriction. Workers from Chile came in large numbers, and, the writer
explained, “the emigration has been so much, especially from Chile, that the government
of that country has become alarmed and decreed measures to impede such flight.”142
Even more than Chileans, Chinese workers came to work on the railroads in large
numbers.143 The contract for the railroad between Arica and Tacna stipulated that the
government “concedes to the business permission to import four hundred Chinese for
work on the railroads, and it will pay them the determined price of thirty soles.”144
Although these writers generally fail to explain why railroad builders preferred foreign
workers, the fact that they chose to import either Chilean or Chinese workers suggests
141
El Ferrocarril de Arequipa, 88. Translated from Spanish.
142
Los Ferrocarriles del Peru, 1419. Translated from Spanish. Interestingly, railroad
construction seemed an important enough task to the government that they released from military
service all men working on the railroads. In 1883, for example, the sub-prefect of Trujillo
released a notice stating that all rail workers were freed from obligatory military services,
“because their services are quite necessary for the traffic of the line.” A. Suaraz, Sub Prefecto de
La Provincia de Trujillo, 22 September 1883.
143
Chinese laborers first began arriving in Peru in 1849, imported from the port of Macao
in China. They served on sugar plantations, the railroads, and on guano islands, and were required
to work for eight years, receiving one dollar of silver and food provisions each month. In 1856,
the Peruvian Congress prohibited Chinese immigration, but they reversed this in 1861 when black
slaves were freed, making cheap labor scarce. Under President Pardo, a “coolie registry” was
established in Lima in an effort to regulate the labor system and improve conditions for Chinese
workers. The registry hired officers, for example, who notified Chinese workers once the terms of
their contracts were up so they would be free to pursue other work. This registry also assigned a
Chinese interpreter to each department to better facilitate communication. See Peru (a Handbook)
(Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1892): 24.
144
Los Ferrocarriles del Peru, 38. Translated from Spanish.
55
that native Peruvians typically did not obtain jobs from the railroad construction
projects.145
Interestingly, the use of Chinese labor reflected not only reliance on non-native
workers but, on a deeper level, pointed once again to the heavy influence the British had
in Peru during this era. When Peru abolished slavery in 1853, it did so after years of
British pressure, with the incentive of having greater access to British capital once they
did away with the institution.146 In 1847, the British took over a fleet of Peruvian ships
carrying slaves near the port of Arica, arguing that because of a treaty prohibiting the
slave trade, “the Peruvian government did not have the right to any compensation for the
capture and loss of the fleet.” The Peruvian government disputed the seizure, pointing out
that “between Peru and Great Britain there exists no treaty that prohibits the traffic of
slaves.”147 Ultimately, Peru relented and abolished slavery completely, but only after
intense British pressure. The loss of slave labor eventually led to the growth of Chinese
labor as the primary source for railroad building. A Lima newspaper writer pointed out in
1859, only six years after slavery was abolished, that many plantation workers had begun
importing Chinese workers and asked, “do Asian immigrants truly value more than
African ones?”148 The use of Chinese and other foreign workers to build the railway
145
Historians have suggested that the upper class typically believed Indians were
unwilling to work and stereotyped them as lazy, which perhaps explains why foreign business
owners preferred to hire outside labor. See Walker, 195.
146
Christine Hunefeldt, Paying the Price of Freedom: Family and Labor among Lima’s
Slaves, 1800-1854 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 214.
147
148
“Gran Bretaña,” El Peruano, 16 October 1847.
“Crónica del Callao,” El Comercio, 8 August 1859.
56
therefore came as a direct result of British pressure to abolish slavery, again pointing to
the overwhelming British influence in Peru during this time.
Besides the importation of outside labor, many of the materials used for rail
construction came from British and American sources. The Peruvian government decreed
that “the necessary materials to construct, repair, conserve, and make use of the rail line
will be introduced free from import taxes…provisions from abroad for the consumption
of workers and employees will also enjoy the same exemption for the time they are used
in the construction of the railroad.”149 Making it easier to import materials specifically for
railroad construction indicates that much of the needed equipment was obtained from
outside the country. For the Arequipa to Puno railroad, a detailed list of supplies made it
clear that many of the railroad’s parts had to be imported. The list included, “American
bolts made for machinery, sleep cars…of colored pine from California…[and] crossings
and pieces of Bessemer steel.”150 Peru’s railroad construction depended, therefore, not
only on foreign labor but also on imported materials, as Peru did not have the established
industry to supply these materials itself.
149
Los Ferrocarriles del Perú, 314. Translated from Spanish.
150
Ferro-carril de Arequipa a Puno: Documentos, 41. Translated from Spanish. The
“Bessemer steel” mentioned here originated with Henry Bessemer, who patented a process of
pneumatic conversion to create steel in 1855. Though his principles helped initiate the steel age in
both the United States and Europe, another breakthrough in the steel creation process in 1880,
known as the Siemens-Martin process, made steel production on a large scale more feasible,
though it would continue to be adjusted into the twentieth century. See Walter Adams and Joel
Dirlam, “Big Steel, Invention, and Innovation” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 80 (May
1966): 167-189. Despite the emphasis on the “steel age,” however, by 1880 70 % of rail track in
the United States was iron and only 30% steel. Between 1880 and 1890, there was a dramatic
increase in steel track because of decreased cost. Though no clear statistics exist on Peruvian
tracks, it seems likely that they may have followed the same pattern. See Jeremy Atack and Jan K.
Brueckner, “Steel Rails and American Railroads, 1867-1880,” Explorations in Economic History
19 (October 1982): 339-359.
57
In some ways, British interest in Peruvian railroad construction reflected a
worldview specific to the colonial era. In London, for example, the Royal Geographical
Society took a specific interest in how railroads would benefit British investors,
publishing a report in 1874 titled “Railroad and Steam Communication in Southern
Peru.”151 In light of the Royal Geographical Society’s close relationship with Britain’s
colonial ventures, their publication of a report specifically about Peru’s railroads
indicates the colonial eye with which the British viewed potential profit in Peru.152 The
report asserted, for example, that by reducing the cost of transportation, “[railroads]
would lead to the re-opening of many of the formerly abandoned mines…which would
return incalculable dividends to the capitals invested therein.” The Society also
encouraged agricultural investment, noting that Peru’s environmental diversity “renders
every cultivation possible in Peru, because there are all kinds of climate, and every
variety of soil.”153 The report, published in a journal with an audience of primarily upperclass men who had interests in Britain’s colonies, focused on how British investors could
use Peru’s railroads for greater profit. Though the Society did not make any particularly
unique points as they encouraged investment in Peru, the nature of their work as a society
151
Clements Markham, “Railroads and Steam Communication in Peru, Proceedings of
the Royal Geographical Society of London 18 (March 1874): 212.
152
Clive Barnett, “Impure and Worldly Geography: The Africanist Discourse of the
Royal Geographical Society, 1831-73,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 23
(1998): 239-251. The Society was heavily involved with the European exploration and scientific
study of Africa. In the 1850s and 60s, it sponsored exploration of Africa and published findings
in two regular publications, its Journal and the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society,
where the report on Peru appeared.
153
“Discussion on the Papers of Peru,” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of
London 18 (1873-1874): 218.
58
makes the report more significant as an example of the colonial perspective Britain had
towards Peru in this era.
Such European and American interest in Peru’s railroads aided Peruvian
politicians as they attempted to find the capital necessary to finance their ambitious
construction project. In the early 1870s, the guano market began to collapse as guano
reserves ran out, and Peru lost its most significant source of revenue. In 1869, 1870, and
1872, the Peruvian government floated loans on the London market, selling bonds in
order to fund the railroad building.154 A correspondent for the New York Times explained
the system: “The first dividend of the new road…will be declared to the payment of
interest on the European capital, and to its gradual reimbursement; afterward that of the
shareholders…sure repayment and positive advantages thus accrue to foreign capital.”155
Though the Peruvian government itself did not have the financial capability to fund the
railroad project, they found many willing foreign investors who believed they would
quickly profit from investment in the railroads. Thus, Peruvian railroad construction was
largely funded by outside capital.
This reliance on foreign investment in the railroads led to the concession of other
industries to foreigners as well. When planning to build a railroad from Paita, a port on
Peru’s eastern coast, to a point on the Marañon River further to the west, the government
did not offer “any guarantee for interest…but mining and land concessions are offered as
154
Los Ferrocarriles del Perú: Economía y Reseña Histórica (Lima: Imprenta Torres
Aguirre, 1932): 37. Translated from Spanish.
155
“Peru—Railroad Building—Reconstruction,” The New York Times 16 November 1868.
59
an inducement to intending investors.”156 Financially instable, the Peruvian government
hoped to lure capital through other means, ceding control of some of their most valuable
resources. A notice in the Financial Times of London summed up the plans a group of
British investors had for Peru’s railroads: “Objects: to acquire, construct, equip, maintain,
prolong and work railways and their appurtenances, tramways, telegraph and telephone
lines and other means of communication in Peru…and to carry on the general business of
contractors for public and other works, coalmasters, ironmasters, dealers in cole, coke,
ironstone, clay and minerals.”157 Though these investors identified themselves as
primarily involved in Peru’s railroads, they clearly did not believe their investment was
limited there. The mention of mining for coal and other minerals indicates that, at some
level, the investors assumed that involvement in the railroad industry naturally
corresponded with participation in other industries as well.
Though these plans to finance the railroad construction initially helped Peru to
begin building, dependence on outside investment made the country increasingly
susceptible to foreign control when it encountered later financial difficulties. In 1879,
when a conflict between Bolivia and Chile erupted over the exportation of minerals from
a nitrate-rich region of the Atacama Desert, Peru became involved in the War of the
Pacific.158 Unable to afford the war, which lasted until 1883, Peru became increasingly
indebted to European powers. In 1881, still early in the war, newspapers reported that
156
“Railway Developments in Peru,” The Financial Times, London, England 1 October
1904.
157
“Northern Railway and Coalfields of Peru, Ltd,” The Financial Times, London,
England, 21 February 1905.
158
R.A.F. Penrose Jr., “The Nitrate Deposits of Chile,” The Journal of Geology 18
(January 1910): 3.
60
“the English holders of Peruvian bonds are almost in despair…the total foreign
indebtedness of Peru amounts to about $215,000,000…English investors hold about
$115,000,000 of these bonds…the interest has been defaulted on since the breaking out
of the war.”159 By the end of the war, with many regions devastated and a civil war
brewing between two opposing generals, Peru was completely unable to repay its foreign
loans. After several years of failed repayments and increasing debt, the Peruvian
government ratified the Grace contract, an agreement in which they ceded complete
control of their railroads to the English bondholders, as well as “3,000,000 tons of guano,
2,000,000 hectares of agricultural lands and navigation of the Amazon, and thirty-three
annuities of 80,000 pounds.”160 Unable to repay the bondholders who had initially
financed the railroad construction, the Peruvian government was forced to relinquish
159
“The Finances of Peru,” New York Times 23 December 1881. Peru’s financial
difficulties were compounded by the collapse of the guano market in the early 1870s, which
actually contributed to the start of the War of the Pacific. Because merchants worried that guano
reserves would soon run out, they became increasingly focused on nitrate extraction as an
alternative export with the potential to be very lucrative. See C. Alexander G. de Secada, “Arms,
Guano, and Shipping: The W.R. Grace Interests in Peru, 1865-1885,” The Business History
Review 59 (Winter 1985): 606.
160
“The Grace Contract: The Peruvian Bondholders’ Claims Against Chili,” The New
York Times 14 January 1890. William Russell Grace was originally from Ireland, but came to
Peru in the early 1850s, where he formed a shipping company that quickly became known as “the
leading inter-American trading and shipping house.” Grace built ties with many other Europeans
and Americans living in Peru, including the Dreyfus brothers, who owned one of the most
profitable guano exporting companies, and Henry Meiggs, the American railroad builder. He was
responsible for negotiating this contract to finally allow Peru to settle its debt after years of debate.
See C. Alexander G. de Secada, “Arms, Guano, and Shipping: The W.R. Grace Interests in Peru,
1865-1885,” The Business History Review 59 (Winter 1985): 606. According to the contract, the
English bondholders also formed a committee that in turn formed a “Compañía de Ferrocarriles,”
or Railroad Company, which promised to build another 160 kilometers of rail lines. See
Ferrocarriles del Perú: Economía y Reseña Histórica (Lima: Imprenta Torres Aguirre, 1932): 37.
See also Rory Miller, “The Making of the Grace Contract: British Bondholders and the Peruvian
Government, 1885-1890,” Journal of Latin American Studies 8 (May 1976): 73-100. Miller
further explains that the original loans the Peruvian government received from the British
indebted them more than expected because the loans were partially hypothecated on the country’s
guano reserves, and the government did not foresee how quickly the reserves would be depleted.
61
some of the country’s most valuable natural resources to the British. The desire to build
railroads for the good of Peru, a project expensive by nature, ultimately led to greater
foreign ownership and control of Peru’s most valuable resources. The added pressure
from the War of the Pacific, though impossible to predict, compounded Peru’s foreign
obligation and made it truly impossible for them to repay European bondholders.
Foreign observers also seemed to credit the success of Peru’s railroads and other
modern institutions to their own involvement, not that of native Peruvians. After the
ratification of the Grace Contract, sources asserted that foreign takeover signaled major
improvements for the railroads. A New York Times article, for example, explained that,
“since the bondholders assumed control of the railroads traffic has been gradually
increasing on all the lines…under government administration this service was slowly
falling into disfavor, owing to its slowness and irregularity.”161 This article identified the
British corporation as responsible for improvements in the running of the railroads.
Similarly, British traveller A.J. Duffield wrote in the 1870s that, “foreigners surveyed and
built [Peru’s] railways, their one pier, gave them gas, and would give them water…there
is nothing of importance in the whole country that does not owe its existence to foreign
161
“American Capital in Peru,” The New York Times 18 August 1890. Another article in
The Times of London also explained that the group of bondholders who took control of the
railroads would make necessary extensions to the railroad system that Peru had been unable to
complete. The article noted, “[the bondholders] had undertaken to build extensions of certain
railways…perhaps the most important of all was the connection with the Bolivian rail, by which
they would ‘tap’ the great riches of Bolivia, besides opening out further Peruvian territory.” The
article presented the extension of the railroad system, a project Peruvian officials had discussed
for years, as finally underway now that the British had control. See “The Peruvian External Debt,”
The Times, London, England, 14 February 1890.
62
capital and foreign thought.”162 He credited all of Peru’s “modern” institutions to foreign
interest in Peru’s development.
Despite this seemingly overwhelming foreign presence in the railroad
construction process, however, the Peruvian government did attempt to limit foreign
dominance, though they were not completely successful. Contracts for rail lines to be
managed by third party operators frequently included a stipulation against handing over
control to foreign enterprise. One contract read, for example, “Don José Maria Costas and
Don Federico Pezet will be able to transfer, completely or in part, their rights to the rail
line…but they are absolutely prohibited from transferring their rights to any foreign
government.”163 Though many British settlers in Peru obtained the rights to operate rail
lines, the Peruvian government attempted to ensure that only foreign individuals and not
their governments would have control. In another case, when three different engineers
submitted proposals to build the railroad from Lima to Pisco, a government official noted
that one of them “has the special quality of not requiring deals for credit in foreign
countries. I believe that because of this it will be preferable to the others like it and
deserves being taken into consideration by the government.”164 Despite the Peruvian
government’s seeming willingness to finance the railroad construction through foreign
loans, this official’s endorsement of a plan that did not require loans suggests that the
government tried to limit their dependence on foreign capital. These early attempts to
restrain overdependence on foreign power reflect that although overwhelming enthusiasm
162
A.J. Duffield, Peru in the Guano Age (London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1877): 37.
163
Los Ferrocarriles del Perú, 65. Translated from Spanish.
164
Los Ferrocarriles del Peru, 248. Translated from Spanish.
63
for railroad building may have overwhelmed any attempt at restriction, Peruvians did
recognize and attempt to limit British control.
In some instances, the Peruvian government used their oversight of the railroads
to protect the economic interests of Peruvian citizens. The Bureau of the American
Republics noted in 1892 that, “in the concessions made by Peru…that Government has
protected with patriotic care the interests of her own children by specification that secure
them a share of employment on the various works. In the present case one-half of all the
railroad employees are to be Peruvians.”165 Though this meant half of the rail workers
would still be foreigners, the government clearly wanted to maintain a Peruvian presence
on the rail lines. In another case, the Peruvian government used their veto power to
prohibit the building of a railroad that would create a monopoly of the salt extraction
industry. The Miró Quezada brothers proposed in 1869 to build a rail line between salt
mines in Huacho and a port on the coast at Playa Chica, which would make them “the
only extractors of salt, and this would not be for the Peruvian consumer, but to export to
foreign countries; in a word, this would kill the freedom of industry…that favors all
Peruvians.”166 Though the Peruvian government was generally eager to encourage rail
construction, they prevented it in this case to protect domestic economic interests. Again,
though the Peruvian railroad industry had an overwhelming foreign presence, especially
after the Grace Contract, the government did attempt to ensure that the railroads would
provide some benefit to Peruvian citizens.
Though Peru officially ceded control of its railroads to the British in 1890, they
were largely a foreign enterprise long before this. British and American investors, eager
165
Peru (a handbook), 36.
166
Los Ferrocarriles del Peru, 47. Translated from Spanish.
64
to reach the riches of Peru’s interior, pushed for railroad construction even as Peruvian
politicians espoused the benefits it would have for Peru as a country. When the
construction process actually began, most of the engineers were Europeans or Americans,
and the majority of the labor force, coming from Chile or China, lived in isolated
immigrant communities along rail lines. Construction materials, too, were largely
imported. Despite some early attempts to protect Peruvian interests and prevent foreign
control, it was impossible for the Peruvian government to escape dependence on foreign
resources in this industry. Ultimately, what Peruvian politicians once promoted as the
answer to Peru’s problems only led them to become increasingly susceptible to foreign
control.
65
Chapter Four
Reactions of “Savage” Indians, British Travellers, and Peruvian Politicians to the
Railroads Post-Construction: A Failure to Achieve Elite Goals
In 1889, Peruvian author Clorinda Matto de Turner published the book Birds
Without a Nest. Part of the indigenista movement, the novel largely focuses on the plight
of Peruvian Indians living at the whim of local elites, the government’s taxes, and abuse
from the church, but its paternalistic tone portrays the indigenous as a separate
intellectual and social class. Late in the novel, several characters take a train from Killac,
their small town in the highlands, to Cusco. The varying responses to the railroad indicate
how perceptions of this new form transportation differed among socio-economic classes.
A servant named Gabino, for example, sees the railroad as something almost
supernatural: “On seeing [the railroad], Gabino crossed himself, devoutly exclaiming,
‘Most holy Trinity….! There goes the devil….! Who else could move it? Supay!
SupayI’”167 Not only did he associate the railroad with the supernatural, but with the
devil, giving it a decidedly negative connotation. Furthermore, the indigenous characters
do not ride the railroad but rather sell merchandise at the station: “vicuña gloves, peach
preserves, butter, cheeses, and fried pork rinds from the finest livestock of the
mountainous interior.”168 Matto de Turner portrays native characters as either incapable
of understanding the railroads or, even if using it to their advantage, as operating outside
the passenger class.
167
Clorinda Matto de Turner, Birds without a Nest (Austin, TX: University of Texas
Press, 1996): 157. Originally published Aves sin Nido in 1889.
168
Matto de Turner, 160.
66
On the other hand, Matto de Turner and the upper-class characters in the novel
describe the railroad in positive terms. When the train comes into the town, Matto de
Turner writes, “Suddenly the sharp whistle of the locomotive reached their ears, shrilly
announcing the progress brought by rail to the threshold where once stood the Inca
Manco Capac.”169 Describing the railroad as “progress,” Matto de Turner also associated
its arrival with the Inca kingdom, a symbol of the onetime grandeur of the indigenous
population. The characters who actually ride the railroad, most of them local elites,
similarly portray their rail travel in very positive terms. Don Fernando, for example, a
mining administrator, says of his family’s train ride, “’A marvelous journey, is it not?
And without the slightest trouble, we shall soon be in the city.’”170 Don Fernando’s wife,
Lucia, also tells their young Indian charge, Margarita, to change her dress before
boarding the train. She explains, “’We will not need our riding habits anymore…Put on
your grey dress with blue ribbons…the colour is a good one for travel.’” Then, once they
board the train, she decides to read a book of poetry while Margarita sleeps.171 She
emphasizes the ease of rail travel, allowing passengers to ride in comfort without
enduring the hardships associated with more traditional forms of travel like riding. The
characters’ different social positions therefore determined their perception of the railroad
as either positive or negative.
Just as the characters in the novel remained divided in their perception of the
railroad’s effects, real Peruvian elites did not succeed in unifying the country through
169
Matto de Turner, 156.
170
Matto de Turner, 162.
171
Matto de Turner, 156.
67
railroad construction, nor did they make the indigenous population “civilized.” Though
elites had espoused numerous goals they hoped to achieve through railroad building,
including improving Peru’s global reputation and bringing characteristics of “modern”
cities to rural areas, the underlying elite hope was to achieve “civilization.” Ultimately,
however, an examination of whether the railroads achieved any of the more specific goals
upper class Peruvians had for them reveals that in general, the lines failed to meet the
broader goal of reaching civilization.
The hopes elite Peruvians had for their railroads principally included making Peru
a more reputable country on a global scale and addressing the “Indian problem” by
bringing modernity to rural communities. To address the first, because ideas of what
progress meant during this period originated in Europe, British assessment of Peruvian
railroads gives some indication of the extent to which Peruvians had succeeded in
meeting contemporary ideals of progress. If European travellers’ accounts are to be
believed, railroads failed to change foreign perceptions of Peru as inferior to Europe.
Foreign visitors continued to view Peru as culturally backward, focusing on its economic
potential rather than seeing it as a civilized nation.
In terms of the second elite goal of reaching the indigenous population, the
railroads again failed, as elites found that most rural Peruvians did not embrace them as a
new form of transportation. The railroads seemed only to symbolize the stark divide
between a small upper class and the large rural population. Despite government efforts to
make railroads accessible, native Peruvians often refused to ride the railways and
preferred more traditional forms of transportation. In addition, the railroads never created
newly “civilized” communities, but instead led to the formation of makeshift villages of
68
immigrant laborers who lived in isolation from the rest of the country. The failure of
railroads to achieve many more specific goals reflects an overall failure to reach the
“progress” that nineteenth-century Peruvian elites strove for.
The ideals of civilization that the Peruvian upper class wanted to disseminate
arrived primarily from Europe. In England, the Victoria Era lasted for much of the
nineteenth century, and resulted in important changes in common notions of what
progress and modernity meant. Perhaps the most significant physical changes involved
new forms of transportation, such as steam ships and railroads, which by mid-century
crossed much of the English landscape. By 1850, “the Britisher was becoming
accustomed to having a railroad near his home,” with over 7,000 miles of railway
constructed across England.172 Beyond the introduction of these faster forms of
transportation, telegraph lines and a standardized postage system facilitated much easier
communication. These technological developments did not appear without cultural
significance, however, as “Victorian notions of technological development were closely
tied to ideas of moral progress.”173 As the upper and middle class came to focus more
intensely on moral and spiritual uplift, the number of charitable and self-help
organizations also grew, and philanthropy was seen as a worthy endeavor for women of
elite social standing.174 The marriage of technological innovation coupled with
172
Eric L. Waugh, “Railroads and the Changing Face of Britain, 1825-1901,” The
Business History Review 30 (September 1956): 275.
173
Magee, 137.
174
Jonathan Dickens, Social Work and Social Policy: An Introduction, (Abingdon,
England: Routledge Publishers, 2010): 30. In 1834, a Royal Commission introduced the New
Poor Law, which was meant to raise eligibility standards for state aid so that only the most needy
could claim help. Despite this seeming decrease in help from the state, the growing middle-class
philanthropy movement helped to fill in the gaps in aiding the poor.
69
improvements in moral standards and social welfare therefore came to signify modernity
in England and other parts of Europe.
Influenced by these currents of thought about progress coming from Europe, the
Peruvian elite worried about how to reach a state of “civilization” in their own country.
Articles appeared in major Lima newspapers relating various opinions about how best to
achieve cultural uplift for “inferior races.” One writer gave a detailed explanation of how
a group of people could reach a civilized state:
“In the first steps of a society, the muscular and animal parts of the
mental system are predominant, as we see in the savages of today.
Putting in effect moral and intellectual influences, those parts of the
system are exercised in a lower grade…the next generation passes with
these advances…therefore over the course of numerous generations,
there is effected a change sufficiently considerable to arrive at what is
called civilization.”175
The writer saw moral and intellectual development as key to advancing “savages” so that
they could eventually reach civilization. Other Peruvian elites more specifically referred
to the British model they hoped to emulate. A Lima newspaper published a history of the
United States, describing with some envy how, “they furthermore enjoyed the benefits of
the knowledge and literature of England, without having to translate the language…they
had the knowledge and experience of all the nations and all the ages to guide them.”176
Peruvian elites therefore displayed not only a focus on civilization as an ideal to strive for,
but also an admiration for specifically British and American societal development.
In an effort to emulate these British notions of civilization, Peruvian politicians
and intellectuals attempted to bring educational and moral improvements to the country,
175
El Peruano, 1 February 1843.
176
El Comercio, 23 May 1849.
70
primarily focusing their efforts on Lima. A group of authors, including Ricardo Palma
and José Antonio de Lavalle, began distributing the publication Revista de Lima in 1859,
which published articles about, “geography, literature, history, economy, politics, [and]
medicine.”177 The authors emphasized educating Lima’s elite and disseminating the latest
intellectual trends. In addition, Palma became the director of Peru’s National Library,
where he gained a reputation for his unrelenting pursuit of monetary donations. Beyond
this emphasis on intellectualism, Lima also saw a renewed focus on charity and social
work. A variety of aid organizations formed, including a Sisters of Charity group, which
aimed to improve public health, and a “Society of Charity,” which had apparent ties to
the government and was charged with a variety of projects.178 The Society’s work
included operating a House of Shelter, which the Society’s director described in 1857 as
having “an intimate connection with elevated thinking.”179 Lima’s political and
intellectual elite continued, throughout the nineteenth century, to emphasize education,
intellectualism, and the uplift of the poor, all goals that tied back to British ideals of
civilization.
As the Peruvian upper class attempted to embrace the European standards of
modernity, however, they saw the state of the indigenous population as a major barrier to
achieving true “civilization.” Scholar Charles Walker notes that while “journalists and
political ideologues were largely silent about the rural population, regional authorities
177
Bonilla, 48.
178
When Peru entered military conflict with Spain in the 1860s, the Society of Charity
was held responsible for operating hospitals for the wounded, but this task to specially assigned.
The responsibilities of the Society seem to have depended, to some extent, on the changing needs
of the city as different problems emerged. See El Peruano, 10 November 1866.
179
El Peruano, 16 January 1857.
71
were not,” and that the regional Peruvian elite generally believed Indians had remained
“backward” and uneducated.180 Beginning in the sixteenth century, the Spanish colonial
state had consolidated a widely scattered indigenous population by forcing them into
settlement villages known as “reductions,” but nineteenth-century elites noted that this
had not led to Indian acceptance of Spanish culture. A newspaper writer in Lima pointed
out in 1861 that, “each reduction has a different quality, some already old, composed of
solely Christian inhabitants, others of neophytes just recently converted to religion, and
some of only infidels.”181 As the Catholic religion represented one of the most basic
requirements of “civilization,” elites saw a lack of uniform acceptance of Christianity as a
significant barrier to bringing progress to rural villages. Other typical characteristics of
Indian life, such as the continued use of Quechua as a primary language and clothing that
authorities repeatedly described as “wretched,” added to the elite perception of the
indigenous population as far from civilized and in desperate need of help.182
It was in this environment that railroads came to play a major role in politicians’
hopes for achieving progress. As a physical symbol of technological advancement, the
upper class celebrated the introduction of railways and took pride in their arrival. On the
other hand, any hopes they had of bringing civilization to the indigenous population
ultimately failed, as Indians seemed to have little interest in embracing either railroads or
the characteristics of civilization they supposedly brought with them. British and
American observers, furthermore, never recognized Peru as a country that had embraced
modernity, but rather continued to see it as culturally inferior. Though elites had viewed
180
Walker, 194.
181
El Peruano, 16 January 1861.
182
Walker, 199.
72
railroads as tools to achieve moral and cultural progress, they ultimately changed neither
the state of the indigenous population nor outside perceptions of Peru.
Despite the failure of railroads to meet some of their expectations, the Peruvian
upper class repeatedly displayed their pride in the rails’ construction, seeing them as a
symbol of measurable progress. In 1877, Lima’s main newspaper, El Comercio,
published an article describing the dedication of a statue of Christopher Columbus. After
championing the advancements Peru had made since the first Europeans arrived in the
Americas, the author explained, “and in the same manner, [Peru] would realize other
successes, phenomena in any other country, but natural in this one…one of the most
formidable steamship lines, one of the most magnificent ports in the world, and two
railroad lines…things of Peru!”183 Describing Peru’s railroads and other new forms of
transportation as rivaling those around the world, the author conveyed a clear sense of
pride in Peru’s achievements, of which railroads played a large part.
Elites also frequently embraced the inauguration of railroad lines with elaborate
celebrations, further indicating a sense of pride and gratification in the construction of the
railways. A collection of documents on Peru’s railroads ordered by Henry Meiggs, the
American railroad builder, described the ceremonies surrounding the completion of
railroad lines. Arequipa’s railroad, for example, was “inaugurated with great splendor by
the President of the Republic, Colonel don José Balta, in December of 1870.”184 The
celebration, which lasted 15 days, began with the President and other government
officials traveling from Callao, outside of Lima, to Arequipa. One Arequipan writer
183
El Comercio, Lima, Peru, 11 October 1877. Translated from Spanish.
184
Los Ferrocarriles Del Peru: Coleccion de Leyes, Decretos, y Contratos (Lima: Press
of the State, 1871): 1419. Translated from Spanish.
73
explained, “few times has the station in Callao been seen so crowded…the multitudes
crammed in.”185 This extensive celebration reflects how those responsible for the
railroads’ construction believed them to be of paramount significance to the country’s
development.
The festive atmosphere surrounding the railroads suggests that Peruvian elites
viewed their railroads as major accomplishments that deserved recognition. Besides
including Peruvian political figures in the celebrations, for example, the government
invited foreign officials to the ceremonies as well. One Peruvian writer documenting the
inauguration in Arequipa explained that the government had ordered medals minted for
foreign diplomats to “commemorate the inauguration of the railroad of Arequipa…for the
countries that maintain commercial relations with our Republic.”186 Including foreign
representatives in their celebration illustrated Peruvian elites’ belief in the importance of
their railroad completion and the high level of attention they thought it deserved.
Attendees to the ceremony also described the overwhelming sense of celebration there. A
newspaper writer in Arequipa wrote an article titled “Glory to Progress!” in which he
professed, “an entire town, intoxicated with enthusiasm, fascinated and delirious,
celebrates with all the effusiveness of delight.” He further noted that the railroad was
“one of the most outstanding spectacles happening in our view.”187 Describing the
185
El Ferrocarril de Arequipa: Historia Documentada de su Origen, Construcción, e
Inauguración (Lima: Press of the State, 1871): 169. Translated from Spanish.
186
“Medallas,” in Los Ferrocarriles Del Peru, 1428. Translated from Spanish.
187
J.M.M., “Gloria al Progreso!” La Bolsa, Arequipa, Peru, 2 January 1871. Translated
from Spanish.
74
railroad in such sensational terms highlighted its construction as a highly noteworthy in
the elite Peruvian conscious, deserving of both celebration and attention.
Though these Peruvian elites repeatedly celebrated their rail construction, foreign
observers continued describing rural Peruvian culture as inferior, illustrating that they did
not believe the railroads had substantially improved “civilization” in Peru. Thomas
Hutchinson, a British traveller, primarily used the railroads for transportation during his
time in Peru in the 1870s. Riding through indigenous communities and interacting with
Indians several times, Hutchinson repeatedly described native Peruvians as inferior to
Europeans. He recounted a story of “the most miserable, ragged-looking specimen of
Indian humanity I have ever seen—scowling face, seeming never to be washed.” This
Indian climbed on a train Hutchinson was riding, but when the conductor asked for a
ticket or money, the man could not produce either. Hutchinson explained that, “he began
to plead—even began to whimper about his poverty.” Once the guard moved to throw
him off the train, however, the man “took out of his pocket a small bag, as dirty-looking
as himself, and full of silver…I must confess that my sentiments of commiseration
towards him were at once changed.”188 Hutchinson pointed out that the man was not
living in poverty—he actually had a great deal of money—but was still “shabby” and
uncivilized. Emphasizing the man’s lack of hygiene, Hutchinson clearly classified him by
his appearance and thereby associated the indigenous population with both uncleanliness
and dishonesty.
Other foreign visitors did not even distinguish between the indigenous population
and upper class Peruvians. A British observer, upon arriving in Lima, wrote that the
188
Thomas Joseph Hutchinson, 171.
75
people, “looked to me like so many buzzards…you see there the native shore-Indians, or
cholos, mixed with a low Spanish type.”189 Such a generalization somewhat discredits the
elite Peruvian belief in their own superiority above the indigenous population. Upper
class Peruvians tended to see themselves as “civilized,” superior to the rural Indians, and
hoped their railroads would convince the rest of the world of this as well. Observations
like the one from this British visitor suggest that foreigners did not always make the
distinction between Indians and upper class Peruvians, instead viewing them all as more
or less the same.
Other accounts emphasized the contrast between Peru’s celebrated Incan past and
their current state of backwardness. One visitor from San Francisco watched a Good
Friday procession in Arequipa and concluded that, “the Peruvians, once so advanced in
art and science, judging by the wonderful ruins of ancient cities, now, with few
exceptions, seem to have the shell of civilization hardly cracked, hence their queer
fancies in religious matters and other things.”190 Similarly, American E.G. Squier visited
the city of Cuzco and explained, “for many years after the Conquest, and long after Lima
was founded, Cuzco continued to be the chief city of Peru, the seat of its wealth and
learning, and the residence of its most noble families.” He went on to explain that after
years of decline, however, “the aspect of the place is that of a thoroughly Indian
town…there is hardly anything that can be called society.”191 Though Cuzco was one of
189
May Crommelin, Over The Andes: From Argentina to Chile and Peru (New York:
The Macmillan Company, 1896): 283.
190
F.M. Edselas, “In a City of the Clouds: Land of Pizarro and the Incas,” Catholic
World 59 (1894): 601.
191
E. George Squier, Peru Illustrated: Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of
the Incas (New York: Hurst and Company, 1877): 455.
76
Peru’s largest cities and situated on a rail line, Squier still described it as lacking true
civilization.
Still other sources disparaged Peruvians as unwilling to work. An American
newspaper article noted that the province of Huamachaco contained large gold deposits,
but that the Indians in the region only extracted enough to barter for daily necessities. The
writer explained, “these Indians are an ignorant, superstitious, and jealous race…they will
not work anymore than they can help, and they will not allow anyone else to work the
gold deposits if they can help it.”192 The author of the article seemed to resent Indians for
preventing American use of the mines, disparaging what he saw as Indians’
unwillingness to exert themselves. Further, the description of them as “superstitious”
suggested a lack of Christian values, quite central to British ideas of civilization at the
time. Another American newspaper writer similarly disparaged the Peruvian work ethic,
warning that Americans who moved to Peru would find life difficult, as “[the natives] do
not grow enthusiastic over anything but are generally disposed to indolence and
idleness.”193 These repeated descriptions of Indians as unwilling to work reveal a
continued foreign belief in their inferiority.
Other foreign visitors described native Peruvians in positive terms, but they
displayed paternalistic attitudes that clearly saw indigenous Peru as below the civilized
state of Europe. E.B. Clark, an American traveller, described with curiosity the Indians he
encountered and explained that they were excited to see any foreigners. Travelling
through a rural village and interacting with its inhabitants, Clark explained, “the Cholo192
“Peru and its Resources,” The New York Times 21 December 1890.
193
“Business Affairs in Peru: U.S. Minister Hicks talks on the situation,” The New York
Times 12 May 1892.
77
Indian dwellers in the few surrounding huts look kindly on us as they murmur Quichua
blessings, and the children soon become our friends.”194 He later described his
experience at an indigenous Christmas celebration, noting, “it was no unusual thing, even
in the church, for women to rise from their knees, kiss our hands, and then return to
prayer…This Christmas was said to be the gayest held there for many years, and likely to
be handed down to Indian posterity as worthy of remembrance.”195 Clark described his
visit as a major event in an otherwise monotonous indigenous life. Other paternalistic
sources also described native Peruvians as less intelligent. An article from the New York
Times, for example, explained that the Indians “pass their lives in that happy state which
can only be understood by those who, like them, believe that where ignorance is bliss ‘tis
folly to be wise.”196 Though they did not explicitly deride the indigenous population,
these sources used a paternalistic tone to describe Indians as disconnected from the
civilized world.
Ultimately, though Peruvian political leaders believed railroads would make the
country a civilized and modern nation, they failed to achieve this goal in the eyes of
European and American observers. Because the ideas of progress and modernity
circulating in the late nineteenth century originally came from these countries, their
judgment of Peru’s progress had some significance. As in many other Latin American
countries, Peru’s embrace of railroads failed to convince foreign visitors that it had
become a more civilized nation. Travellers’ accounts and newspaper articles reveal a
194
E.B. Clark, Twelve Months in Peru (New York: Macmillan and Co, 1891): 122.
195
Clark, 130.
196
“South American Railroads,” The New York Times 20 June 1887.
78
continued belief in the inferiority of native Peruvians and a predominant focus on the
economic profit Peru could produce.
In addition, elites failed to achieve their goal of bringing “civilization” to
indigenous communities, though the government actually attempted to make railroads
more accessible to the indigenous population by providing discounted rates for both
passengers and their products. One newspaper writer, for example, reported that, “with
the goal of alleviating as much as possible the situation of the beggar class in this capital,
the supreme government has made available free railroad transportation of all the fish
they catch from Ancon.”197 The government presented this measure as an easy way for
poorer villages to transport their products to the market, thereby helping to relieve some
of their economic struggle. Furthermore, the U.S. Commissioner to Peru wrote in 1877
that a railroad running from Mollendo on the coast up the Andes to Puno travelled a
distance of 218 miles, and that the government offered Indians free passage.198
Attempting to make the railroads more accessible to the indigenous population, Peru’s
government did not seem to view the railways as a form of transportation reserved for
elites.
Peruvian railroad builders had also generally failed to consider indigenous land
rights or traditional customs as they built, meaning that railroads often disrupted
traditional land use. Traditionally, peasant communities depended on the use of
communal property to provide funds for village activities like saint’s days or other
197
“Buena Medida,” El Comercio, Lima, Peru 3 July 1877. Translated from Spanish.
198
E. George Squier, Peru Illustrated: Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of
the Incas (New York: Hurst and Company, 1877): 222.
79
religious celebrations.199 Railroads cutting through this land upset community dynamics.
A government decree published in 1871 stated, “the government will cede freely to the
business all those lands in the public dominion where the [rail]line passes and they will
facilitate for the same business the sale of private lands for the same object, paying the
current value established by legal valuation.”200 The government, eager to build railroads,
readily professed their willingness to aid the companies charged with constructing the
railroads in obtaining land along the lines. Furthermore, officials had little regard for land
that had specific religious significance. Thomas Hutchinson, for example, described his
railroad journey through country “full of burial-mounds.” Travelling through southern
Peru, he further noted that, “the burial-ground here has more than half a mile of railroad
cutting passing through it.”201 Focused on building direct railroad lines along routes of
commerce, railroad builders generally disregarded Indian property use.
Some evidence does suggest that railroad builders did consider indigenous
preferences before constructing the railroads. A notice published in 1886 in Huancavelica,
a city in the highlands, explained that a group of residents had come together “with the
objective of manifesting their opinions about the proposals presented to the Supreme
Government for the establishment of a rail line from the capital Lima to the city of
Ayacucho, and especially about the working of the mines of Cinabrio de Santa Barbara,
199
Florencia E. Mallon, The Defense of Community in Peru’s Central Highlands
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983): 34.
200
Los Ferrocarriles de Peru, 24. Translated from Spanish.
201
Thomas Joseph Hutchinson, Two Years in Peru, with Exploration of Its Antiquities
(London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Low and Sable, 1873): 210.
80
located right outside this city.”202 According to the recorded testimony, the citizens of
Huancavelica voted at the meeting to approve the railroad construction, noting the many
benefits that would come to them from having an open mine so close by. Upon first
glance, such a meeting seems to indicate the government’s interest in hearing local
opinions about plans for railroad construction; however, a closer reading suggests that the
citizens involved in the meeting were most likely part of a regional upper-class. The
notice explains, for example, that it was the municipal mayor who invited residents to
participate in the discussion, which took part in the town hall. Furthermore, all the
citizens present signed the meeting’s record, indicating that all were literate—much of
the indigenous population at the time spoke Quechua.203
An apparent disconnect therefore existed between the development elite
Peruvians hoped railroads would bring to the interior and their actual communication
with indigenous communities during the construction process. In turn, the indigenous
population did not readily embrace the railroads as a new form of transportation. The U.S.
Commissioner to Peru who reported that the government offered Indians free passage on
the railways, for example, also noted that “the natives prefer to walk from Puno to
Arequipa, a distance of 218 miles, to riding on a train.”204 Though the Commissioner did
not explain why the natives rejected the railroads, he made it clear that they preferred to
continue with more traditional forms of transportation.
202
“Testimonio del Acto Suscrito por los vecinos del pueblo de Huancavelica expresando
su complacencia por el proyecto de construcción del ferrocarril Lima-Ayacucho.” Huancavelica,
8 September 1886.
203
Bruce Mannheim, “Una nación acorralada: Southern Peruvian Language Planning and
Politics in Historical Perspective,” Language in Society 13 (September 1984): 292.
204
Squier, 222.
81
Besides choosing not to ride the trains, native Peruvians tried to make use of the
railroads in other inventive ways that allowed them to continue their traditional ways of
life. One newspaper reporter in Lima, for example, complained that a rail line was “a
little uneven…which can be attributed to those people who live near the line who have
the custom of always throwing their dirty waters there…between the rails.”205 While
these people saw the rail lines as a convenient place to dispose of waste, others began
using the railways as a route to follow while traveling by other means. A newspaper
writer from Lima explained, “many of the people who travel by foot or on burros in the
direction of the railroads are accustomed to walk always between the rails. During my
travels…more than forty people invaded the line on foot and on burros.”206 Although the
choice to walk on the rails indicates that native Peruvians may have seen the railroads as
useful, they did not embrace them in the traditional sense, preferring not to ride them but
instead use them as a guide.
The Atusparía Rebellion further provides an example of the railroad as an
illustration of how indigenous and elite worldviews greatly varied. This uprising began in
March of 1885 in Huaraz, a village located in a valley on Peru’s west coast that relied
primarily on subsistence agriculture. Although successful hacienda owners engaged in
trade further away and several small silver mines operated in the region, most inhabitants
of the village were indigenous peasants who either engaged in local trade or farmed.207 In
205
“El Ferro-Carril,” El Peruano, Lima, Peru, 4 April 1866.
206
El Peruano, Lima, Peru, 4 April 1886.
207
Lewis Taylor, “Indigenous Peasant Rebellions in Peru during the 1880s,” Indigenous
Revolts in Chiapas and the Andean Highlands, eds. Kevin Gosner and Arij Ouweneel,
(Amsterdam: Center for Latin American Research and Documentation, 1996): 199.
82
1883, after Peru lost the War of the Pacific to Chile, civil war erupted as General Cáceres,
who had wanted to continue fighting the war, opposed General Iglesias, who had
facilitated the surrender to Chile and then taken power.208 Trying to consolidate his power,
Iglesias installed a new prefect in Huaraz who quickly reinstated measures reminiscent of
the colonial era, including a labor draft for construction projects and a head tax to raise
salaries for local officials.209 Opposition to these policies grew quickly, and Pedro Pablo
Atusparía, a community leader, petitioned the prefect to reverse the orders. Instead, the
prefect jailed Atusparía, leading to the eruption of the rebellion with peasants protesting
both the incarceration of their leader and increased taxes. The rebels overtook Huaraz and
moved down the coast, but the federal government in Lima eventually sent in troops that
defeated the revolt.210
The role of the railroad in this rebellion helps to reveal differing perceptions of its
function in different social classes. Mr. S.L. Phelps, the American agent to Peru, wrote
that, “Truxillo having been captured by the revolutionists, and the railroad operated by
Americans having been seized by them, this Government has already closed several
ports…the presence of a war vessel on the coast is rendered necessary by reason of the
revolutionary movements.”211 The rebels overtook the railroad in order to further their
208
Mark Thurner, From Two Republics to One Divided: Contradictions of Postcolonial
Nationmaking in Andean Peru (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997): 64.
209
Thurner, 68.
210
Taylor, 203.
211
S.L. Phelps to Mr. Bayard, Lima, May 21, 1885, In Papers Relating to the Foreign
Relations of the United States, (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1886): 600. This was
certainly not the first example of Peruvians using railroad destruction as a tool for rebellion. In
1872, when rebels overthrew and then assassinated President Balta, the people of Callao tore up a
portion of the railway to impede military travel. British traveller Thomas Hutchinson reported
that, “finding this not sufficient to keep the troops from being sent down from Lima, they
83
uprising, indicating that they believed it to be significant to the elite power structure they
opposed. Using the railroad to extend their rebellion throughout the country transformed
it into a symbol of indigenous-elite conflict. The indigenous population may not have
wanted to ride the railroad, but they were willing to use it to further their resistance to the
government. In addition, the fact that the government closed ports in response to the
appropriation of the railroad points to the railways’ increasing significance to the
economically powerful portion of the population. The revolt emerged from tensions
between the divided social classes, so the fact that the railroad became a central part of
the rebels’ strategy illustrates its function as a symbol of increasing class conflict.
Although Peru’s political elite celebrated their railroads with pride, the indigenous
population largely resisted their introduction. The government attempted to make them
more accessible with discounted rates, but native communities typically did not ride the
rails, using them instead as routes to follow or places to dump waste. In addition, despite
the government’s professed hope of making railroad transport available to the indigenous
community, builders tended to disregard indigenous property rights. Events like the
Atusparía Rebellion and examples from contemporary literature further illustrate the
divide between elite understandings of the railroad and the actual indigenous use of them.
Ultimately, the rural Indian population expressed little pride, ownership, or interest in the
railroads, which did little to integrate the country as proponents had hoped.
The communities that foreign railroad workers formed along the rail lines present
a symbolic image of the failure of railroads to either unite the country or create
“civilization” along the lines. Known as faenas, these communities were composed of
proceeded farther up, and had the track removed between Bella Vista and Lima.” See Hutchinson,
7.
84
Chinese and Chilean workers, existing almost entirely separated from the rest of Peru.212
D.E. Larrabure, who observed the construction of the Arequipa railroad, wrote, “the
number of operators in every faena is not fixed, but is in relation to the obstacles that
each site presents where the line continues; in some faenas there are only 300
individuals…[in others] there are a thousand men or more.”213 Each camp consisted of a
“provisional village,” with a makeshift wooden house for a supervisor to live in and reed
houses for the rest of the workers. Despite the somewhat crude nature of the buildings,
Larrabure found that the faena was a relatively livable place. He explained, “you find all
the articles necessary for men: the stores sell everything, fresh meat, vegetables…there
are barbershops, and stores that sell tobacco, and cooks.”214 In fact, Larrabure found that
the railroad workers were very content with their living situation. With a salary high
enough to provide for a family and a village arrangement that allowed them to have their
wives and children live nearby, the workers seemed to Larrabure very satisfied.215
The faenas frequently appeared in areas previously uninhabited. Thomas
Hutchinson, the British traveller, reported observing a railway community that had
formed next to a bay along the Orroya line. He explained, “although, up to the time of
occupation by the railway people, it was nothing but a deserted and barren spot, it has
now extensive stores, dwelling-houses, workshops…” Hutchinson went on to describe
the Chinese workers’ living conditions, explaining that Peru was the only place one
212
El Ferrocarril de Arequipa: historia documentada de su origen, construcción, e
inauguración (Lima: Imp. Del estado, 1871): 219. Translated from Spanish.
213
El Ferrocarril de Arequipa, 219. Translated from Spanish.
214
El Ferrocarril de Arequipa, 221. Translated from Spanish.
215
El Ferrocarril de Arequipa, 221. Translated from Spanish.
85
would see a “fat Chinaman,” as “[he] saw them regaling on rice, and beef in great plenty.
Before starting in the morning on their work, they all get bread and tea.”216 Though these
communities represented small pockets of exclusively foreign workers, they seemed to
maintain suitable conditions in which workers received plenty of necessities, including
homes and food.
On the other hand, conflict did erupt in these small communities of foreign
workers at times. A representative from the Tax Ministry wrote of the construction of the
Arequipa railroad that, “at first it cost no small amount of work establishing order among
the workmen imported for the construction. For causes not unknown—love, gambling,
and rum principally—there occurred frequent disputes.” He went on to explain that the
workers “belonged to the most ignorant class of the human species.” 217 Not only did the
representative speak of conflict between the workers themselves, but also, deriding the
workers as a lower class needing to be forced to stay in line, suggested that some tension
may have existed between Peruvian observers and the railroad laborers. Similarly, the
contract for an early railroad between Lima and Callao, its nearby port, stated, “any
individual who in any form bothers the engineers or the other workers, preventing the
216
Hutchinson, 126, 66.
217
El Ferrocarril de Arequipa, 218. Translated from Spanish. A number of historians
have written extensively about the culture that formed among the workers on rail lines in the
United States. Paul Michel Taillon, for example, argues that railway men embraced railroad work
as an expression of masculinity and were therefore more willing to do dangerous work and take
risks. See Paul Michel Taillon, “Casey Jones, Better Watch Your Speed!: Workplace Culture,
Manhood, and Protective Labor Legislation on the Railroads 1880s-1910s,” Australasian Journal
of American Studies 30 (2011): 20-38. Others have also explored the use of Chinese labor in the
construction of American railways, and have noted the frequent mistreatment of Chinese workers
were forced into dangerous work blasting stone and laying rails through mountains. See
Christopher Merritt, Gary Weisz, and Kelly Dixon, “‘Verily the Road was Built with Chinaman’s
Bones’: An Archaeology of Chinese Line Camps in Montana,” International Journal of
Historical Archaeology 16 (December 2012): 666-695.
86
work, ignoring directions, or destroying work, will be obligated to repair the cost of the
damage he causes.”218 Such an assertion in the contract for the railroad suggests that
conflict among workers was, if not expected, at least viewed as a likely possibility.
Ultimately, the formation of these isolated rail communities presents another symbol of
the failure of the railroads to accomplish elite cultural goals. While upper-class rail
proponents had emphasized the potential for railroads to create “civilized” communities,
the villages the groups of workers formed were just the opposite. Crude buildings,
conflict among inhabitants, and an “ignorant class” of men comprised the communities
that formed as a direct result of railroad building, an outcome that railroad builders
almost certainly did not intend.
The wide variety of hopes Peruvian elites had placed in the railroads seemed, for
the most part, unrealized by the end of the nineteenth century. The root of all their goals,
including improving Peru’s global standing and bringing modernity to indigenous
communities, was a belief in the idea of “civilization” as some kind of attainable state to
strive toward. Though Peruvian elites celebrated their railroads and took pride in their
construction, many of their other goals were ultimately unsuccessful. Peruvian hopes to
become more reputable in the eyes of the world, for example, failed as British observers
continued to see Peruvians as culturally backward and inferior. Similarly, the railroads
did not substantially benefit the indigenous population, which generally rejected the
railroads as a new form of transportation. In fact, the railways only served to greater
highlight the divide between the small upper class, focused on European ideals, and the
218
Los Ferrocarriles del Perú, 157. Translated from Spanish.
87
larger indigenous population. In short, many of the hopes that prompted the Peruvian
elite push for railroad building failed to materialize.
88
Conclusion
In 1932, visiting French author Paul Morand described South America: “wood
bungalows, roofs of corrugated iron; speedboats that traverse the Amazon full of nurses
armed with syringes against the mosquitoes…the Indians work, and with sleeves pushed
up to their elbows, engineers of the white race transform the country.”219 Though Morand
wrote almost sixty years after Peru’s initial push for railroad building, his observations
recalled the earlier period. Morand, a European visitor, viewed white foreigners as the
primary actors creating change in Peru, just as white engineers had been the first to
successfully construct the country’s railroads. The earlier period of railroad building
reflected what was to become a continuing trend in Peru—seeing the country as ripe for
development, British and American investors heavily involved themselves to the point
that non-Peruvians controlled the country’s most valuable resources. Focused on their
own profit, foreigners did not consider the railroads as actually transforming the country
into a truly “civilized” nation. At the same time, Peruvian elites were so determined to
build the railroads that they charged forward with expensive construction plans, forcing
themselves into such great debt that they had to cede complete control of the rail lines to
the British. In short, railroads neither raised Peru’s global status nor provided the
opportunities for economic growth and social change that had initially prompted their
construction.
Over the years, a continued foreign presence in the rail industry reflected the
pervasiveness of British influence. Rail transportation, of course, did not last forever. In
219
Paul Morand, Aire Indio: Visiones Americanas (Santiago, Chile: Imp. Zig-Zag, 1932):
30. Translated from Spanish.
89
1925, Peru saw “a steep decrease in the movement of passengers, owing to the increase in
transportation in omnibuses and automobiles.”220 Despite this emergence of new
technologies and a subsequent downturn in rail traffic, control of Peru’s railroads
remained in British hands until 1956. That the British continued controlling the railways
for years after they ceased functioning as a primary mode of transportation points to how
extensively this Peruvian industry had become a foreign enterprise, at least at the top
management levels. Though elite Peruvians had initially presented railroad construction
as a kind of nationalistic project to improve Peru, it ultimately fell to long-term foreign
control.
At the same time, elite Peruvian hopes to become a “civilized” country in the eyes
of the world also failed to materialize. This pattern was not unique in Latin America, as
many countries in the region built railroads during the nineteenth century for reasons
similar to Peru’s. Europeans generally reacted to each of their railroads in much the same
way, continuing to describe the countries as inferior in some way, despite the fact that
they had embraced “modern” institutions like the railroad. In Argentina, for example, a
British visitor warned of poor service from native Argentineans: “where an English
manager would employ ten clerks and get through the work with efficiency and success,
the native employs fifty, is always getting into arrears, and is never out of a muddle.”221
Similarly, an American woman visiting Brazil in the 1890s described a rail journey in her
travel account, but then immediately disparaged the Brazilian population, arguing that in
220
Ferrocarriles del Perú: Economía y Reseña Histórica, 62.
221
Thomas A. Turner, Argentina and the Argentines: Notes and Impressions of a Five
Years Sojourn in the Argentine Republic, 1885-1890 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1892):
173.
90
Brazil there “has been no education of the common people, and they have not been
accustomed to self-control.” 222 The introduction of railroads did not seem to alter
perceptions of Latin American countries as more primitive, despite countries’ best efforts
to present themselves as modern. Though each country was unique, Peru’s experience
seemed to afflict much of Latin America.
A goal perhaps more specific to Peru was the hope to more fully integrate the
indigenous population into the country, reflecting elite hopes to bring Indians into what
they perceived as the bounds of the nation, but this too never came to fruition.
Conflicting ideas about how to address the “Indian problem” made it difficult to achieve
any change on this front. While some politicians advocated making railroads easily
accessible and affordable to rural indigenous communities, others focused on using
railroads to move troops into outlying communities in order to exert greater control. For
their part, much of the indigenous population did not embrace the railroads as a new form
of transportation, preferring more traditional paths. Divisions along socio-economic and
ethnic lines remained strong, and no cohesive idea of what it meant to be Peruvian
emerged.
Despite all of these seeming failures in achieving politicians’ goals for railroad
construction, reviewing the evidence from another perspective hints at some positive
results. Most of the European and American visitors who wrote travel accounts of Peru,
for example, made their journeys by train, suggesting that the railways did open up the
country to greater tourism and perhaps greater global recognition. Also, railroads
certainly functioned to transport both people and goods over the Andes, making formerly
222
Alice R. Humphrey, A Summer Journey to Brazil (New York: Bonnell, Silver, and Co.,
1900): 72.
91
difficult travel much more feasible. The failure of railroads, then, lies not in any notably
negative effects, but simply in the fact that they never achieved what Peruvian elites
hoped they would in the political discourse of the mid nineteenth century. This failure to
live up to elite hopes is perhaps unsurprising, given the incredible hope politicians put in
the potential for railways to change the country.
In 1925, pilot Alejandro Velasco Astete flew from Lima to Cusco, his home city
in the Andean highlands. Like railroads fifty years earlier, “flight in the indigenous
carried symbolic capital for intellectuals and public officials who bristled at their
perceived racial inferiority and resented political, economic, and cultural
marginalization.”223 In other words, many of the problems Peruvian politicians had tried
to confront with railroad construction in the mid nineteenth century remained well into
the twentieth century. Velasco Astete, known as the “Flying Cholo,” was venerated
among the indigenous population and his death greatly mourned. In fact, Velasco Astete
symbolized a new conception of modernity embraced by the largely indigenous Cusco,
one that drew on Peru’s Inca past and distanced itself from the ideas of progress the
intellectual Lima elite espoused.224 While a certain segment of Peru’s population may
have continued looking to Europe and the United States for standards of progress, a part
of the indigenous population that had begun appropriating its own cultural symbols that
reflected a different type of modernity. While questions of what progress and modernity
meant therefore remained into the twentieth century, it was no longer only the
concentrated Lima elite that had a chance to define what these terms meant.
223
Willie Hiatt, “Flying ‘Cholo’: Incas, Airplanes, and the Construction of Modernity in
1920s Cuzco, Peru,” The Americas 63 (January 2007): 327.
224
Hiatt, 328.
92
The discourse surrounding railroads, then, reflects a more narrow idea of what
“civilization” meant. The Peruvian upper class believed that following British and
American ideals, as well as attaining the social acceptance of these countries, was
essential to achieving true progress. This elite focused on changing or eliminating
indigenous culture in order to bring the Indian population into the bounds of a nation that
embraced these contemporary European notions of progress. In their fast pursuit of
civilization, however, the Peruvian elite really only pushed the country further under
foreign control and failed to impress any true changes upon the indigenous population.
Though railroads remained a symbol of technological progress, they did not fulfill all
many of the hopes their backers had originally championed.
93
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