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THE MODERN PERU: WESTERN, INDIGENOUS OR MESTIZO become part of Peruvian civilization in the context of the Western modern world. This binding element is what he called the “Inca theocratic socialism” and consisted of the despotism of the Inca rulers that made everything work properly in their empire. The construction of a nation-State according to Lorente should consider the ascendancy of indigenous leaders to ensure the solidarity and social harmony that should be applied in contemporary Peru for the creation of a modern society." On his side, Mariano Felipe Paz Soldan stated that the independence of 1820-1826 was the founding milestone of modern Peru. Considering the preHispanic and the colonial periods as not fundamental historical moments, Paz Soldan traced the lines of development of Peru based on its incorporation into the contemporary Western world after independence. Paz Soldan was clear in identifying Peru with the Creole culture that created a modern state during the guano export boom (1840-1880). Moreover, Paz Soldan identified the nation with the state.!” Lima high society (and subsequent historians) considered Paz Soldän’s version of Peruvian national history to be the most appropriate to understand the country as a nation. The great difficulty of nineteenth-century Peru in generating an inclusive and egalitarian idea of its nation consisted in the intention of the hegemonic social and political sectors to impose a Western model on a non-Western society such as the nineteenth-century Peruvian society. Ihe republic in the guano export boom period presented itselfasa modern and civilized country in Western terms. In this project, Indians, Amazonians, and Afro-Peruvians had no place. In a time when the country was seen as rich and modern, historians showed the Indians as a hindrance on the road to progress. Sebastiän Lorente did include native cultures in the history of the country, but his intention was only to establish that Indians were capable of adapting to the requirements ofa modern and Western civilization through education and through their social subjection as it was supposed to have happened in Inca times. Finally, the accepted version was that of Mariano Felipe Paz Soldan, who showed that the real country was the one created by independence thanks to the effort of the Creole elites from 1820 on. According to hegemonic nineteenth-century historiography, the Peruvian identity had a Western image in a country that was geographically and culturally diverse. Sebastian Lorente: Historia de la civilizacién peruana, Lima, Imprenta Liberal, 1879, 5; Sebastian Lorente: Escritos fundacionales de historia peruana, Lima, Fondo Editorial de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2005, 55-56. Mariano Felipe Paz Soldän: Historia del Peru independiente, Lima, Imprenta de El Nacional; Le Havre, Imprenta de Alfonso Lemale, 1868-1870. 2 tomos. + Al +
