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city of Peru, capital of Loreto region
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Iquitos (; Spanish pronunciation: [iˈkitos]) is the capital city of Peru's Maynas Province and Loreto Region. It is the largest metropolis in the Peruvian Amazon, east of the Andes, as well as the ninth-most populous city in Peru. Iquitos is the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road that is not on an island; it is only accessible by river and air.
It is known as the "capital of the Peruvian Amazon". The city is located in the Great Plains of the Amazon Basin, fed by the Amazon, Nanay, and Itaya rivers. Overall, it constitutes the Iquitos metropolitan area, a conurbation of 471,993 inhabitants consisting of four districts: Iquitos, Punchana, Belén, and San Juan Bautista.
The area has long been inhabited by indigenous peoples. According to Spanish historical documents, Iquitos was established around 1757 as a Spanish Jesuit reduction on the banks of the Nanay River. The Jesuits gathered local Napeano (Yameo) and Iquito natives to live here, and they named it San Pablo de Napeanos.
In the late 19th century, during the Amazon rubber boom, the city became the center of export of rubber production from the Amazon Basin and was the headquarters of the Peruvian Amazon Company (PAC). The city's economy was highly dependent on the PAC, controlled by Peruvian businessman Julio César Arana. The PAC kept indigenous workers in near slavery conditions through use of force and harsh treatment, until an investigation caused a reaction against the company. In addition, rubber seedlings had been smuggled out of the country and cultivated on plantations in Southeast Asia, undercutting prices of the Peruvian product. With the decline of the rubber industry, many workers and merchants left Iquitos.
As one of the leading cities, along with Manaus, during the Amazon rubber boom (1880–1914), Iquitos was influenced by the numerous Europeans who flocked to it. Architecture and cultural institutions established during this period expressed their own traditions. An opera house and Jewish cemetery were among the institutions established.
Later in the 20th century, the city and region diversified its economy. The region exported timber, fish and its by-products, oil, minerals, and agricultural crops. It also derives revenue from tourism and related crafts. In 1999, the city consolidated its four municipalities.
The area was inhabited for thousands of years by Amerindians. At the time of European encounter, the Napeano and Iquito peoples occupied the area. They had small seasonal settlements and were nomadic hunter-gatherers, living in close association with the rivers. The city name of Iquitos is derived from a group of native people called Iquitos by the Spaniards. They had previously inhabited areas along the rivers Pastaza, Arabela, Tigre, Nanay, and Curaray. Eventually, the native Iquito migrated to the area around the rivers Nanay, Amazonas, Itaya, and the Lake Moronacocha.
Between 1638 and 1769, the Iquitos and other native tribes of the Marañon rivers were obliged to settle down in various Missions (known as reducciones or reductions) founded and run by Jesuit missionaries from the Audiencia of Quito. The Jesuits settled in the major cities of the Audiencia of Quito, which was part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada at the time. During this period of nearly 130 years, 161 Jesuit missionaries worked to convert and educate the natives of the Amazon region. Among them were 63 criollos (white ethnic Spanish colonists born in the Audencia), 43 Spaniards, 32 Germans and Dutch, 20 Italians, 2 Portuguese, and 1 Frenchman. Their role in South America was to convert the natives of the Amazon Basin to Christianity. The Jesuits successfully gathered the natives living along the Marañon river into various Jesuit missions, where they were set to work at farming and other pursuits.
Commencing in 1730, the Jesuits took 37 years to found the Iquitos missions along the Marañon River, close to the mouth of the Napo and Amazon rivers. These were collectively known as Iquitos Missions, since all these settlements were mainly populated chiefly by the Iquitos natives of the region. The naming and foundation of all the Iquitos Missions were done by Jesuit Father José Bahamonde. He was born in Quito on 1 January 1710, accepted into the Jesuit order, and served as a missionary for decades. After Charles III of Spain suppressed and expelled the Society of Jesus from South America in 1767, Bahamonde was exiled to Italy, where he died in Ravenna, Italy on 11 May 1786.
The following is a chronological list of noted Iquitos Missions founded by Bahamonde and other Jesuits:
During the Spanish Colonial era, most of the Jesuit missions were under the jurisdiction of the Royal Audiencia of Quito. Created in 1563, it was a part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, and was transferred briefly to the Viceroyalty of New Granada on 27 May 1717 known as the Cedula Real of 1717 (Royal Decree of 1717). Six and a half years later, on 5 November 1723, Philip V of Spain dissolved the Viceroyalty of New Granada and reincorporated the Audiencia of Quito into the Viceroyalty of Peru. Sixteen years later Philip V of Spain decided to re-create the Viceroyalty of New Granada and to re incorporate the Audiencia of Quito through the Cedula Real (Royal Decree) dated 20 August 1739. Charles III of Spain suppressed the Society of Jesus, believing them too powerful, and expelled them from South America by order dated 20 August 1767. Given the distance from Quito and the lack of roads connecting to that city, a political vacuum was developed in the area. The undefended Jesuit missions were attacked by the Brazilian Bandeirantes. In response the King of Spain on recommendation of Francisco Raquena created the Government and Commandancy General of Maynas in 1802 to halt the invasion into the Spanish Amazon of land-hungry mestizo Portuguese Bandeirantes. In general, this amounted to the religious administration and military command of all tributaries of the Amazon river in the Amazon Basin that belonged to the Royal Audiencia of Quito in the Viceroyalty of New Granada being transferred again to the Viceroyalty of Peru. The Portuguese advance was halted at Tabatinga.
In the early 19th century, following independence, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil had overlapping claims to the Northwestern Amazon Basin, based on each country's interpretation of their colonial de jure titles. The disputed area was populated mostly by groups of nomadic Amerindian natives living in the Amazon jungle. In addition there were semi-assimilated sedentary Amerindians living with a handful of whites and mestizos, dedicated to trading in sparsely populated trading port villages that were found scattered along the river banks of the Amazon Basin. During the colonial era the disputed area known as Maynas had numerous missions administered by the Jesuits of Quito. After the Jesuits were expelled from South America, only a handful of missions survived in the 19th century as isolated trading villages. The Brazilians, by contrast, had a chain of villages along the Amazon River that stretched to its ports along the Atlantic Ocean.
Because Peru discovered that Ecuador and Colombia neglected to effectively control their Amazonian territories during their colonial era, Peru decided to back its de jure titles with de facto possession by setting up military posts in the relatively isolated trading villages and then flooding the disputed area with Peruvian colonists. The only problem lay with the expanding ambitions of Brazil, since it had slowly settled its part of the disputed area with colonists throughout its colonial era; it had a trading relationship with the Spanish-speaking trading posts and villages along the Marañon River. To neutralize Brazil from impeding Peru's planned colonization project, on 23 October 1851, Peru peacefully settled its disputes with Brazil and both countries agreed to a bilateral free navigation and friendly trade along the Amazon River.
As a result of the Peruvian-Brazilian treaty, the Peruvian President Ramon Castilla created the Military and Political Department of Loreto on 7 January 1861 from the former Maynas territory. Castilla ordered that a fluvial port be constructed in a strategic spot on the Amazon River. After some debate, his staff chose the trading port Village of Iquitos. On 5 January 1864, three steamships of the Peruvian Navy: Pastaza, Próspero y Morona, arrived in the Village of Iquitos.
This date is marked as the founding of the first fluvial Peruvian port of Iquitos by the government of Peru. A dockyard and navy factorage imported from England was immediately constructed. In time Iquitos grew so much that it was designated as the capital of the Department of Loreto on 9 November 1897. Iquitos also became the seat of a Roman Catholic Apostolic vicariate. Peru was able to map out and assume de facto control of the majority of the area of the Amazon region under dispute with Ecuador and Colombia. After many skirmishes with Ecuadorian and Colombian outposts, that at times led to war, Peru settled its border with Colombia in 1922 and with Ecuador in 1942.
Beginning in the 1900s, Iquitos became wealthy through its rubber industry throughout the rubber boom; it attracted thousands of immigrants from around the world, mostly young single men who hoped to make their fortunes in rubber. The rise of the automobile and related industries had dramatically increased the worldwide demand for rubber. Some men became merchants and bankers, and made their fortunes that way. Many of the European men married indigenous women and stayed in Iquitos the rest of their lives, founding ethnically mixed families. The immigrants brought European clothing styles, music, architecture and other cultural elements to Iquitos. They established an opera house that featured European classical music.
There were twenty-five different commercial houses dealing with rubber at Iquitos in the year 1900. These enterprises were founded by influential citizens of the city, some of the most prominent of these people include Julio César Arana, Cecilio Hernández, as well as Luis and Adolfo Morey. The rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald was also active in the city of Iquitos until he drowned in a steamship accident on the Urubamba River in 1897. Rubber entrepreneurs participated in regional politics, and directly as well as indirectly funded the development of the city. A number of successful rubber entrepreneurs held political offices, or had influence over politics in the city during this era. In 1901, Luis F. Morey became a senator for the department of Loreto, which Iquitos was the capital of. Enrique A. Llosa, who had a business relationship with Arana and Luis Morey, became the mayor of Iquitos in 1901. The following year, Arana became the city's mayor, and in 1903 he assumed the office of President for Loreto's chamber of commerce. Cecilio Hernández was also elected as the mayor, later in 1906. A census conducted in 1903 by Bentio Lores, the subprefect of the Bajo Amazonas at the time, documented that there were 9,438 inhabitants in Iquitos.
In 1908, Hildebrando Fuentes, Prefect of Loreto between 1904–1906, published Loreto: Apuntes geográficos, históricos, esdisticos, politicos y sociales which was based on information he collected while in Iquitos. According to Cristóbal Cardemil-Krause, Fuentes writings "make clear the existence of significant tensions between national and private interests. Entrepreneurs in Loreto controlled the area and appeared to create a state within the state, limiting the effects of Fuentes's decisions." Fuentes also described the practice of Correrias which were slave raids carried out by rubber tappers that resulted in the killing of many indigenous people. Men and older indigenous women were typically killed by the rubber tappers, while children and young females were brought to rubber camps or nearby cities, including Iquitos. The captive children and young females were typically sold at these cities. Fuentes referred to these correrias as "the great crime of the mountain" and in regards to his inability to act against the rubber tappers, he claimed that "[t]hey do all this significantly beyond the reach of authority.". Fuentes wrote that the majority of the indigenous servants at Iquitos consisted of indigenous people captured during correrias, and at times these people were sold in Iquitos for a price ranging between £30 and £50. Walter Ernest Hardenburg, an American engineer that had a prominent role in exposing the Putumayo genocide, also claimed that indigenous people were trafficked in Iquitos and sold in that city for prices ranging between £20 and £40.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Iquitos”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.