Ecuador History

Incas

Although evidence of human settlement of the region dates back thousands of years, the first well-recorded history of Ecuador begins with the arrival of the Incas in the 15th century.  Incan emperors Pachacuti and Topa Yupanqui started their conquest of the region in 1463 as part of a larger policy of expansion that would encompass parts of Chile and Argentina as well.  In Ecuador, the Incan invaders were fiercely resisted by the local tribes who eventually succumbed after a bloody struggle.  Emperor Huayna Capac oversaw this final epoch of Incan expansionism, passing on a huge empire to his two sons, Atahualpa and Huascar.  The sons divided their inheritance, with Atahualpa making Quito his capital.  However, this division was not destined to last long as both coveted the entirety of their father’s domains.  In the ensuing civil war, Atahualpa emerged on top to reunite the empire in 1530.

Spanish

Francisco Pizzaro’s timing could not have been better as he set out for the region with 168 fellow Spaniards in 1531.  Arriving on the heels of this long civil war he managed to defeat the Inca Army of 80,000 at the battle of Cajamarca in 1532 using superior steel weapons and primitive firearms.  During the battle Atahualpa was captured and the Spanish proceeded to collect the tremendous gold ransom offered by the Incas for his release and then kill him anyways.  Atahualpa’s death left the Incas leaderless and combined with the outbreak of smallpox, typhoid and other European diseases which caused the death of 95% of the native population, confusion reigned. 

The Spanish took advantage of this situation to establish colonial rule.  African slaves were imported to work the land left empty in the wake of the diseases.  Natives who survived were also forced into the Spanish encomienda system in which they basically worked alongside the Africans as slaves of newly-arrived Spanish settlers.  Quito, as modern-day Ecuador was called, was made part of the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru.  However, the city of Quito itself became an audiencia real in 1563 giving it direct contact with the Spanish crown and setting the stage for the region’s future development as a separate country with Quito as its capital.  Under Spanish rule a strict racial hierarchy gave the positions of highest authority to peninsulares (native-born Spaniards) with criollos (people of Spanish descent born in the New World) directly beneath them, and mestizos (people of mixed Spanish and native descent) at the bottom. 

Revolution

After nearly 300 years of Spanish rule, much of the population of this region was mestizo by the early 19th century.  However, mestizos remained subjugated by the minority European population.  For years there had been tensions among these Europeans, as the native-born criollos resented their inferior status with regards to the Spanish peninsulares.  This resentment boiled over in 1820 as the whole continent was aflame with revolution from Colombia to Argentina.  Drawing inspiration from South American leaders like Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin, a criollo junta led by Jose Joaquin Olmedo declared Quito independent from Spain.  With help from Bolivar, these rebels defeated the Spanish army at Pichincha in 1822, ending Spanish domination.  Ecuador originally joined Bolivar’s new Republic of Greater Colombia only to leave it in 1830 and set out on its own.

Independence to Present

Soon after becoming a sovereign country, Ecuador annexed the largely uninhabited Galapagos Islands in 1832.  These islands were 600 miles off the coast and while they famously provided visitor Charles Darwin with some important observations in his theory of evolution during his 1835 visit, the small population of farmers did not contribute much to the history of the mainland.  Ecuador’s subsequent political history was largely defined by the struggles between the two major parties, the Liberals with their support along the coast and the Conservatives with their support in the interior.

After a series of short-lived rulers, Conservative Gabriel Garcia Moreno emerged as Ecuador’s first dominant leader in the 1860’s focusing heavily on expanding literacy and strengthening ties to the Catholic Church.  The global demand for cocoa drove economic growth throughout this period. 

In 1895 a Liberal revolution led by Eloy Alfaro ended with a Liberal victory and Alfaro took power, weakening the influence of the church and pushing through secular, modernizing reforms.  Liberals fell from power in 1925 when a drop in global cocoa prices devastated the cocoa-dependent economy.  The 30’s and 40’s saw a revolving door of leaders rise and fall while trying to cope with the economic effects of the worldwide depression. 

In 1941 a war with Peru briefly cost Ecuador 2/3 of its territory, which, while returned following the signing of the Rio Janeiro protocol in 1942, has led to intermittent wars between the two countries ever since.  The most recent conflict was the Cenepa War in 1995.

Following World War II, Ecuador’s economy regained some traction, taking advantage of the global demand for bananas, but when this boom also faded in the late 1950’s, political upheaval soon returned.  A series of military juntas, dictatorships and democratically elected leaders have been in and out of the halls of power ever since.  No one has been able to stay in power for any long period of time.  The election of Raphael Correa in 2006 marked the eighth Ecuadorian president in 11 years.  A personal friend of Hugo Chavez, Correa is part of a larger recent swing to the left across South America.

Since the 70’s Ecuador’s economy has benefited from the discovery of oil in the northeastern part of the country.  The completion of an oil pipeline and other industrialization efforts have helped bring in important foreign revenue.  Growing awareness of Ecuador’s stunning natural beauty has put it on the map with eco-tourists only just beginning to explore the treasures of the Galapagos Islands and Andean highlands.