Perez's wonderfully condensed book, _Geografia Politica_, has been the main reliance for Colombia, but Mitre's _San Martin_, Torrente's _Revolucion_, Holton's _New Granada_, and Scruggs's _Republics_, have supplied much information on points not covered by Senor Perez's work. Intelligible details about comparatively recent times are proverbially the hardest to obtain, and the author feels that whatever of accuracy these pages may boast is due principally to his friends among present South American diplomats--men who understand South American history because they have been a part of it. Salvador de Mendonca, Joaquin Godoy, Oliviera Lima, Claudio Pinilla, Estanislao Zeballos, Manoel Gorostiaga, and Carlos Tobar have kindly tried to help him thread his way through the tangled mazes of Latin-American politics, and his principal reluctance at giving these pages to the public now is that he has not had the good fortune as yet to know and converse with men of like ability from Colombia and Venezuela. T. C. D. PETROPOLIS, BRAZIL, March 29, 1904. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE _PERU_ I. THE INCA EMPIRE 3 II. THE SPANISH CONQUEST 20 III. CIVIL WARS AMONG THE CONQUERORS 41 IV. THE COLONIAL PERIOD 58 V. THE WARS OF INDEPENDENCE 74 VI. FROM INDEPENDENCE TO CHILEAN WAR 98 VII. THE CHILEAN WAR AND LATTER-DAY PERU 117 _CHILE_ I. THE SPANISH CONQUEST 135 II. THE COLONIAL PERIOD 148 III. THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 156 IV. THE FORMATIVE PERIOD 189 V. CHILE'S GREATNESS AND THE CIVIL WAR 211 _BOLIVIA_ I. THE CONQUEST AND THE MINES 235 II. THE COLONIAL SYSTEM AND TUPAC'S REVOLT 248 III. THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 255 IV. BOLIVIA INDEPENDENT 266 _ECUADOR_ I. THE CARAS 285 II. THE SPANISH CONQUEST 297 III. THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 311 IV. THE FORMATION OF ECUADOR 320 V. MODERN ECUADOR 330 _VENEZUELA_ I. CONQUEST, SETTLEMENT, AND COLONIAL DAYS 347 II. THE REVOLT 357 III. MODERN VENEZUELA 384