10.2/ 10.3 History, Culture
& the Countries of Pacific
South America
Early History
 Advanced
civilizations lived in places like
Peru as early as 900 BC.
 The raised crops in the mountains of the
Andes and made huge stone carvings.
 The Inca controlled an area that stretched
from northern Ecuador to central Chile in
the early 1500s.
 The Inca Empire was home to as many
as 12 million people.
The Inca city of Machu Picchu
Spanish Rule
Pizarro conquered the Inca’s with
his army of conquistadors by 1535.
 The Spanish treated the South American
Indians harshly and made them work in
gold or silver mines, or on the Spaniards’
plantations.
 A Spanish viceroy (governor) was
appointed by the king of Spain to make
sure the Indians followed Spanish laws and
customs that had replaced native traditions.
 Francisco
Pizarro & Atahualpa …remember them?
Independence
 Creoles
(American-born descendants of
Europeans) were the main leaders of
revolts for independence in this region.
 All four Pacific South American
countries were independent by 1825.
Culture
 Spanish
is the official language of all four
countries in this region.
 Many South Americans also speak the
language of their native culture.
 Most people of the region practice Roman
Catholicism.
 Some people in the Andes still practices
ancient religious customs.
• For example, every June, people
participate in the festival that was
celebrated by the Incas to worship the sun.
Ecuador Today
 Ecuador

is a democracy.
However, the country has had 9 different
presidents in 10 years which has made
the country unstable.
 Ecuador
has three different economic
regions:
 The coastal lowlands region relies
heavily on agriculture and industry.
• The country’s largest city, Guayaquil
is located here.
 The Andean region is very poor.
• Quito, the capital of Ecuador, is
located here.
 The Amazon basin has valuable oil
deposits which is Ecuador’s main
export.
Bolivia Today
 After
years of military rule, Bolivia is a
democracy.
 Bolivia’s government is divided between
two capital cities – Sucre and La Paz.
• The Supreme Court meets in Sucre
and the congress meets in La Paz.
• La Paz is the highest capital city in the
world at 12,000 feet.
 Bolivia
is the poorest country in South
America.
 There are few roads and little money in
the country to help the problems it is
facing.
Peru Today
 Peru
is the largest and most populous
country in Pacific South America.
 Its capital is Lima – it’s the largest city in
the region.
• Lima was the colonial capital of Peru
so the city still contains many beautiful
old buildings from the colonial era.
Lima
 During
the 1980s and 1990s a terrorist
group known as the Shining Path was
active in Peru.
 They waged deadly attacks because
they opposed the government.
 70,000 people died in the violence
between the Shining Path and Peru’s
military.
 Today, the violence has ended and Peru
has an elected president and congress.
Chile Today
 In
1970 Chileans elected a president who had
some ideas influenced by communism.
 A few years later he was overthrown and died
in a U.S.-backed military coup (a sudden
overthrow of a government by a small group
of people).
 After the coup, Chile’s military government
was harsh and violent as it imprisoned or
killed thousands of people.
 After years of unrest, Chile is one of the most
stable countries today with a democratic
government.

About one-third of all Chileans live in
central Chile which includes the country’s
capital of Santiago and nearby seaport,
Valparaiso.
Santiago