The name of National Reconstruction () is given to the period following the War of the Pacific, which ended through the signing of the Treaty of Ancón on October 20, 1883. It takes place between the civil wars of 1884–1885 and 1894–1895, when an economic, political and social resurgence took place (although some historians extend it to 1919, when the presidency of Augusto B. Leguía begins). During this period, what was known as the Second Militarism () took place, also known as the Militarism of the defeat () in contrast to that which followed Peruvian Independence.
Background The War of the Pacific ended up completing the destruction that had begun with the economic crisis of the 1870s. By 1879, the Peruvian banking system was bankrupt and agriculture, mining and commerce were barely surviving. At the end of the war and military occupation, life barely continued. The economic situation of the country after the war was quite precarious: the country felt the need to face a future of reconstruction in all its aspects.
Peru had lost its main natural resources, its main productive industries, trade had contracted, the main communication routes collapsed or destroyed, uncontrollable inflation and, above all, an enormous external debt with English creditors, which exceeded £ fifty million, which made it impossible for Peru to receive new international credits.
However, in these years new economic resources would appear to accelerate the country's economic recovery. The exploitation of rubber in the jungle and oil on the north coast began. The exploitation of both natural resources is linked to the phenomenon of the Second Industrial Revolution, which had its greatest exponent in the automobile boom. Likewise, in these years the slow resurgence of sugar and cotton agroindustrial activity began on the northern coast of the country.
Second Militarism Historian Jorge Basadre maintains that militarism (the predominance of the military in power) arose in Peru due to the weakness of the civilian ruling class after a time of war, whether internal or external. He also points out three types of militarism that occurred in republican history: after a victory; after a defeat; and in times of crisis or social chaos.
The "First Militarism" occurred after the victory in the war of independence, to which were added the civil and international wars of the first decades of the Republic.
The "Second Militarism" occurs after the defeat in the war against Chile and is divided into two moments: the first (1883–1885), which corresponds to the predominance of the "blue" military led by Miguel Iglesias, who signed peace with Chile; and the second (1886–1895) that corresponds to the predominance of the "reds" led by General Andrés Avelino Cáceres, the same ones who had resisted the invaders until the end. This new militarism has the difficult task of recomposing the administrative and governmental apparatus of the State and of exercising its authority in order to achieve the participation of citizens to guide the nation towards its recovery.However, Schenoni (2024) argues this reorganization was primarily fiscal rather than administrative: Cáceres's 1886 decentralization law strengthened local strongmen (the breñeros) rather than the central bureaucracy, and — unlike Chile after its own war — Peruvian elites remained fragmented along regional lines in its aftermath.
Political aspect After the catastrophic defeat against Chile, the person who had sufficient prestige and authority to restore social and political order in Peru was General Andrés Avelino Cáceres, known as the hero of the Breña resistance.
Cáceres faced the then president Miguel Iglesias, who had signed the peace treaty with Chile by ceding territory and had asserted himself in power with the support of the Chilean Army. Thus, a civil war broke out. Cáceres demonstrated his military strategy by putting Iglesias' main army out of action in the town of Huaripampa (central Peruvian mountains), an action known as the "huaripampeada" (1884). He then attacked Lima, where his forces surrounded Iglesias in the Government Palace. He resigned from the presidency in 1885, being succeeded by the provisional government of the Council of Ministers (headed by Antonio Arenas), which called elections in which Cáceres won overwhelmingly.
During his first constitutional government (1886–1890), Cáceres undertook National Reconstruction. He founded his own party, the Constitutional (or Cacerista) Party. But his access to State control implied the establishment of a political pact with civilism. It was this consensus that allowed Cáceres and his successor, then Colonel Remigio Morales Bermúdez (1890–1894), to retain political control for almost a decade, in the midst of public peace. With the death of Morales Bermúdez, as a result of a sudden illness in April 1894, the political crisis began again.
After a brief period under Justiniano Borgoño, Cáceres returned to the presidency in 1894, in disputed elections, which led to the formation of the National Coalition against him, made up of democrats and civilists, led by the leader Nicolás de Piérola; A bloody civil war broke out that culminated in the coalition's assault on Lima, before which Cáceres resigned and went into exile in 1895.
The government of a National Junta chaired by Manuel Candamo was established, who called elections in which Nicolás de Piérola was elected. He carried out important economic reforms and achieved political stability in the country, consolidating the presidential system. Piérola was the one who consolidated the National Reconstruction, inaugurating a new stage called the Aristocratic Republic (both terms coined by Basadre), which would last during the first two decades of the 20th century.
Economic aspect
Years before the outbreak of the War of the Pacific, the Peruvian economy was severely hit as Guano had ceased to be the main source of resources. Peru had declared bankruptcy in 1876 and, unable to pay its large external debt, decreed a moratorium. It was for this reason that the country's national defense was neglected and its squad could not modernised. Chile was also going through economic difficulties, but, after the Spanish–South American War (1865–1866), the government of Federico Errázuriz Zañartu had approved the acquisition in 1871 of two armored frigates with which it obtained naval supremacy in the Pacific. If already in the years prior to the conflict, the Peruvian economy was in a critical situation, with the development of the war it was practically destroyed.
After the war ended, Peru had to face a series of problems that existed before the outbreak of the conflict. The main one was precisely the external debt with British creditors. These, once peace was signed, demanded that the Peruvian government cancel the debt. Peru was at a crossroads: it did not have the necessary resources to make that payment; and at the same time, it urgently required capital to reactivate its export economy, without which it was impossible to pay its debt. This amounted to about £ 37 million, the annual amortisation of which required a payment of about £ two and a half million, a sum that was then impossible for the country to raise.
So the settlement of the debt was of utmost urgency. This was understood by the first government of Andrés A. Cáceres, which devoted itself fully to the matter, until signing the Grace Contract, by virtue of which the Peruvian State ceded control and administration of its main productive resources to its English creditors (railroads and guano), in exchange for the complete extinction of their debt. Cáceres had to convene three extraordinary Congresses and expel the opposition deputies so that Congress could ratify the contract in July 1889. For better administration of the resources they received, the English creditors converted their foreign debt bonds into shares of the Peruvian Corporation, the most important British company that was created to implement the agreements of said contract.
With the issue of foreign debt thus settled, the Peruvian ruling class understood that the country's future depended on the development of natural resources for export. Thus, the first foundations of a system of exploitation of resources and the native labor force began to be laid, which would reach its most complete consolidation during the First World War.
In its essence, the new organisation of the economy combined the monopolisation of resources, a massive injection of foreign capital, an ability to subject traditional economies to its service, and a deep and complete subordination to the external market. From 1885 to 1895, silver, sugar and rubber, in this order, were the main Peruvian export products. At the same time, significant industrial development took place under the impulse of national capital, initially reflected in the textile sector.
In this new stage of the Peruvian economy, which would last until the Wall Street Crash of 1929, exports were more diversified. The mountains supplied wool (from sheep and camelids) and metals (silver, gold and copper), among others. The Amazon contributed coffee, coca and rubber. And the coast with sugar and cotton.
Social aspect Literature
After the war, a reaction against romanticism emerged in the literary field. The leader of this reaction is Manuel González Prada (1844–1918), who cultivated a poetry that, due to its aestheticising themes and the introduction of new metric forms, was a clear precursor of modernism. Among his works in prose are: and Horas de lucha, books in which he makes a furious criticism of the political class, responsible, according to him, for the war. The religious institutions and writers of his time were not spared from his attacks either. His extremely critical stance in the field of ideas and literature made him win many enemies and got him into various journalistic controversies. Literary realism was also developed, in a rather tenuous way, in the novel, which became popular from then on in Peru.
A notable characteristic of this period is the emergence of a group of female writers. Many of them—having lost their spouses and older children in the war with Chile—had to earn a living for themselves, and cultivated their literary vocation through gatherings. The main one was that of the Argentine Juana Manuela Gorriti, in which social problems and the influence of European forms were discussed. They wrote novels that in some ways can be classified as realistic. Such is the case of: Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera (1845–1909), born in Moquegua, was the initiator of the Peruvian realist novel. She wrote six novels of social content and critical intention, the most successful being Blanca Sol (1888), Las consecuencias (1890) and El conspirador (1892). She also wrote numerous articles and essays published in the press, on literary and social topics; She especially advocated for the emancipation of women, which is why she is among the first feminists in Peru. She was misunderstood at her time, being the target of criticism from male authors such as and Ricardo Palma. This pushed her to isolate herself. In addition, she began to suffer the consequences of syphilis that her own husband gave her, and she was confined in an asylum, where she died. Clorinda Matto de Turner (1852–1909), born in Cuzco, was a traditionist and journalist, precursor or founder of literary indigenism. She is the author of Tradiciones cuzqueñas and the novels (1899), Índole (1891) and Herencia (1893). The most notable and controversial of her works is Aves sin nido, where she exposes the situation of the Indians who suffered abuse from religious and political authorities. Although its technique and style were deficient, the work aroused interest not only in Peru, but in America and Europe.