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Peru

Pronunciation: /pəˈruː/

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Definition of Peru

a country in South America on the Pacific coast, traversed throughout its length by the Andes; population 29,547,000 (est. 2009); official languages, Spanish and Quechua; capital, Lima.

The centre of the Inca empire, Peru was conquered by the Spanish conquistador Pizarro in 1532. Peru was liberated by Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín in 1820-4, and a republic established. It lost territory in the south in a war with Chile (1879–83) and also had border disputes with Colombia and Ecuador in the 1930s and 1940s