History of Lima, Peru Trivia Quiz

Answer: Francisco Pizarro

Pizarro has defeated the Incan emperor Atahualpa in 1532 for Spain. Pizarro initially attempted to transform several Incan cities into a Spanish capital, but they were all too mountainous and too far away from the ocean. Instead, Lima was established as Ciudad de los Reyes, which means City of Kings.

Answer: Spanish win but many casualties on both sides.

The Spanish managed to defend Lima but the casualties were high on both sides and many Spanish soldiers were captured and sent to Ollantaytambo, an Incan fortress near Cusco.

Manco II was appointed emperor of the Neo-Inca State. He was considered to be a Spanish ally. However Spanish mistreatment of the Incas in Peru caused him to rebel. Cusco, not Lima, was the most important city to Manco II and he led several successful attacks there.

Answer: Silver

Silver was mined in the Andes Mountains and transported out of the country via the city of Callao. Callao was close to Lima and many wealthy silver merchants and prospectors relocated to Lima. The city's population more than tripled between 1619 and 1687.

Answer: Pirates from Europe trying to infiltrate the city

Pirates and privateers, particularly those from England and the Netherlands, were hostile to the Spanish in Latin America. The riches Spain was unearthing in Peru were wanted in Europe and Spain had a near monopoly on South America. Privateers were hired by European countries to steal the loot, while pirates would take it for themselves. If a ship's cargo could not be stolen, it was often sunk so Spain could not have it either.

Since Lima was a coastal city where much of the treasure passed through, the city was often attacked by other nations. Walls were built around Lima beginning in 1684 but they did little to repel attacks on a large scale.

Answer: Jose de la Serna e Hinojosa

Peru and Lima became severely impoverished during the 18th century and were entirely reliant on the Spanish Crown for almost anything. This is why Peruvians were not supportive of independence when everywhere else in South America was beginning in the 1810s.

Pro-independence forces, including famed liberator Simon Bolivar, saw Lima's loyalty to Spain as threat to independence movements elsewhere. General Jose de San Martin invaded Peru and eventually forced Jose de la Serna e Hinojosa to resign his post as viceroy. He was replaced by another viceroy for short time who did not hold any power.

Answer: Guano

Guano was first experimented with as a fertilizer in Callao in 1802 and its success made it in demand in Europe. Peru had a treasure trove of guano in its southern provinces. Peru brought in Chinese indentured servants to harvest the guano.

Guano claims became scarcer in the 1850s when the United States passed the Guano Islands Act in 1856. The allowed U.S. citizens to declare an island for the U.S. if it had guano deposits on it. As a result, the United States was gaining guano deposits and there was less to go around. Spain attacked the Peruvian Chincha Islands, which had a lot of guano.

Spain gave up claims to the islands when the South American countries banded together. They saw Spain's seizure of the islands as an attempt by the Spanish to reclaim its lost territories. However, Spain was severely under armed to take back the islands, never mind all of South America.

Answer: Chile

Chile had been a key ally of Peru's against Spain in the Chincha Islands War. But by 1879, Peru had aligned itself with Bolivia against Chile for mining rights in the Atacama Desert and other disputed territories along the Pacific. Lima suffered economically after Peruvian independence and it was thought the mining would revitalize its economy by creating new industries in Lima.

However, Peru and Bolivia lost badly and not Peru not only failed to gain valuable territory, it was forced to give a few guano prosperous territories in the south to Chile. During the occupation, Chile freed thousands of Chinese slaves an looted Peruvian national treasures. Some of these treasures, such as historic books, were returned to Lima in 2007.

Answer: Lima's metro stations

The first metro stations opened in 1990. However, the metro was not actually completed and useable on a large scale until 2011, when it began collecting revenue. Prior to 2011, many of the lines led to nowhere and there was not a need for the people of Lima to use it for travelling. The metro was constantly used as a political tool with candidates promising to finish building it but never coming through.

The Museum of Natural History opened in 1918 and is part of the National University of San Marcos. The Archbishop's Palace was built in 1924 and is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church in Lima. It is located in Plaza Mayor. The Hotel Bolivar was also built in 1924 and was the first big hotel in Lima. It is said the drink Pisco sour was popularized at the Hotel Bolivar when Hollywood stars visited and drank them.

Answer: Argentina

The Peru-Argentina match was part of the qualifying tournament for the 1964 Olympic Games. Argentina was winning 1-0 when Peru scored a goal. However, the goal was taken away and riot followed. Police entered the stadium and started using tear gas. The official casualty total is 328 but it is commonly believed to be much higher.

The main cause of death was trauma caused by people being slammed into the steel shutters that lead the way out of the stadium when people tried to escape. Other people were suffocated or trampled.

As a result, the seat capacity of Estadio Nacional was reduced by 10,000.

Answer: It was perpetrated by MRTA insurgents

The MRTA, or Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, took hundreds of people hostage at a birthday party for Emperor Akihito taking place at the home of the Japanese ambassador to Peru. Peru and Japan had a close relationship because of Alberto Fujimori, the Peruvian President of Japanese descent. Some of the hostage's included Alberto Fujimori's mother and Alejandro Toledo who would later become president himself.

One of the MRTA's motives in doing this was to end what they saw as poor conditions in Peru's jails and to free political prisoners. They also wanted to stop Japan's influence on Peru and Fujimori. Fujimori himself was once popular but by the time of this incident, his popularity had faded. The MRTA routinely freed dozens of hostages at a time.

Fujimori called in a special forces raid on the house on April 22, 1997, which ended the hostage situation. Afterward, controversy surrounded the deaths the MRTA members. None of the hostage takers survived the raid and there were allegations that they had surrendered then been executed instead of government claims they were killed in the raid.

The media referred to this event as the Japanese Embassy hostage crisis, despite the fact that it took place at the ambassador's home in Lima and not at the embassy.