Italy-Peru relations are foreign relations between Italy and Peru. Both countries are members of the United Nations and the Latin Union.
History
History until 1821
The earliest Italians recorded in Peru were Simón Genovés and Pedro Milanés, who accompanied Francisco Pizarro in his Conquest of Peru, as well as Milanese Francisco Bosso, one of the founders of the city of Arequipa. Other Italians chronicled the events in early Peruvian history, such as Pizarro's assassination and early revolts. During the reign of Charles I, Italian immigration increased in order to differentiate them as desirable subjects in contrast to northern Europeans. The Italians ultimately consolidated their presence in the Viceroyalty of Peru during the 18th century.
The arrival of the House of Bourbon to the throne of Spain in the early 18th century meant the integration of Italian families into Spanish nobility, both in the peninsula and in its overseas territories, including the Americas, i.e. Spanish Peru.
History from 1821 to 1870
After the independence of Peru, the new Peruvian state sought to establish a national identity and to attain international recognition, specifically from the United States and the states of the Italian peninsula. News of the revolts in the Americas reached the latter starting in 1806, with the State of the Church condemning the events but doing little to support Spain in practice.
Before the unification of Italy, Peru formally established relations with the Holy See in 1852, with prior contacts taking place three decades prior due to a mission sent from Rome to South America. The establishment of relations with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Kingdom of Sardinia was also unsuccessfully attempted by Simón Bolívar, as these states initially showed no interest in challenging the status quo in Europe. However, due to Sardinian interests in overseas commercial contacts established by the former Republic of Genoa, annexed by the Kingdom in 1815 and homeland of most Italian Peruvians at the time, the latter's opinion changed in favour of Peru, leading to the signing of a treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation on June 14, 1853. From 1841 to 1846, Luis Baratta acted as the first consul of Sardinia and the Papal States in Peru. He was then replaced in the Sardinian consulate by José Canevaro in 1846.
History from 1870 to 1906
Peru recognised the Kingdom of Italy on April 7, 1862. On May 3, 1863, both states signed a 10-year consular agreement and in 1864 the Italian legation opened in Lima, replacing the Sardinian one. A treaty of commerce and navigation was signed on July 27, 1869 and an extradition agreement was signed on May 21, 1870. The former was modified and approved in 1874. Relations were formally established on December 23, 1874, with the signing of a Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation, although it was only approved by both parliaments in 1878.
During the Spanish–South American War (1865–1879), the Italian consul, Juan Antonio Migliorati, acted with the French consul, M. Lesseps, in order to prevent combat between both states, organising (under the auspices of then Foreign Minister, Toribio Pacheco), a confidential meeting on May 1866 with representatives from Peru, Bolivia and Chile where a peace proposal was presented to them, abeit unsuccessfully. This was done despite the consul's official position of neutrality, and in contrast to the Italian colony's support of the Peruvian cause and dislike of the consulate's position.
The capture of Rome in 1870 was strongly opposed by Peruvian society, who considered that Pope Pius IX had been kidnapped by the occupying troops. Despite the official neutrality of the Peruvian government, the Italian legation, headed by chargé d'affaires and consul general Hipólito Garrou, complained to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs due to the publication of a protest by prominent Peruvian Catholics in the newspaper La Sociedad, which included members of the government such as Minister of Finance Nicolás de Piérola, Minister of Government Manuel Santa María, and Foreign Minister José Jorge Loayza. The complaint was solved after the Foreign Ministry notified the president of the Catholic Society, who authored the protest, of "its conformity with the principles of the document, but its disagreement with the language used against the Italian government and people".