Electric Polarizations: Geography, Politics, and Hydroelectricity in Peru, 1895–1948

This presentation explores the linkages between geographic discourses, politics, and hydroelectric infrastructures in Peru during the first half of the twentieth century. Since independence, Peru’s geography had become the subject of debates as an obstacle for achieving a cohesive nation state. The Andes, the country’s dominant geographic feature, had long been portrayed by elites as an obstacle which “fragmented” Peru into three main geographic zones. Despite this pessimistic depiction of the Andes, the arrival of hydroelectricity during the country’s Aristocratic Republic (1895-1919) allowed intellectuals to attempt to decipher the mountain chain’s opportunities and challenges, ultimately considering that the country had an “exceptional” geographic setting for hydraulic generation of power thanks to the verticality of the Andes, As intellectuals debated back and forth, the paradox of Peruvian geography became increasingly clear, as this hydroelectric potential depended on the very geographic configuration that made Peru a fragmented nation in the eyes of Lima elites.

The arrival of hydroelectricity also symbolized the arrival of infrastructural politics, as imaginaries were quickly politicized by Peruvian elites, particularly during the governments of Augusto Leguía (1919-1930), Oscar Benavides (1933-1939) and Manuel Prado (1939-1945). Hydroelectricity, hence, would not only power Peru’s potential development, but also energize political battles. Such developments were enhanced by global political imaginaries of electricity, as the modern infrastructure could be associated with the importance of public works in fascist Italy, Marxist ideas regarding industrialization and revolution in the Soviet Union, or the liberal experience of New Deal America. Thus, while vertical in geographical terms, hydroelectricity worked horizontally across the political spectrum. In time, hydroelectricity would physically connect large parts of the country, but it simultaneously highlighted critical divisions in Peru’s political class, divisions which would intensify in the coming years, especially with the onset of the Cold War.