HISTORY

Inca Empire

Advanced indigenous cultures such as the Chorrera, Jama Coaque, Bahia, Tolita, Machalilla and Valdivia (the oldest known culture in the Americas), flourished in Ecuador long before the area was conquered by the Inca empire in the 15th century. The earliest historical details date back only as far as the 11th century AD. It is commonly believed that Asian nomads reached the South American continent by about 12,000 BC and were later joined by Polynesian colonizers. Centuries of tribal expansion, warfare and alliances resulted in the relatively stable Duchicela lineage, which ruled more or less peacefully for about 150 years until the arrival of the Incas around 1450 AD.

The Incas, the largest culture, originally from the central regions of what today is Peru, assimilated the rest in the north. The Incas were made up of a vast population of dozens of different ethnic groups with their own languages, customs and economies based on cultivation of the land.

The Incan Empire, consolidated by Huayna Capac, dominated most of western South America between the later half of the 15th century and 1520. He died in 1526, after dividing the empire between his two sons. Cuzco was assigned to Huáscar and Quito to Atahualpa. Shortly thereafter, a fratricidal struggle took place weakening imperial power and inadvertently facilitating the Spanish conquest.

Spanish Domination

The first Spaniards landed in northern Ecuador in 1526. Pizarro reached the country in 1532 and spread terror among the Indians thanks to his conquistadors' horses, armour and weaponry. Atahualpa was ambushed, held for ransom, 'tried' and executed, and the Inca empire was effectively demolished. Quito held out for two years but was eventually razed by Atahualpa's general, Rumiñahui, rather than be lost intact to the invading Spaniards. Quito was refounded in December 1534.

The indigenous population was decimated by disease in the first decades of Spanish rule, a time when the natives also were forced into the "encomienda" labor system for Spanish landlords. The Real Audiencia de Quito was established in 1563, as an administrative area dependent on the Spanish Crown. From its beginning until the XVIII century, it was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

The Spanish maintained strict control and had authority over Ecuador for 250 years. The Spanish laws, customs and ideas were introduced to the locals who began to mix the old traditions with the new. The Quitenian School of Art was born reflecting the fusion between cultures. The Christian art shows the religious figures emerged in pre-colonial traditions including a picture of the last supper with Cuy (Guinea Pig) served as the main dish. This artwork is present today and can be viewed in the religious architecture, sculptures, and paintings created during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries around the country.

Independence

Independence came about between the end of the XVIII century and the early decades of the XIX century. Various factors are attributed to the fall of the colonial system. First, social decadence sped up in the second half of the XVIII century. Second, the influence of the French Revolution in the region. Finally, the power of the private elite was also limited by reforms which were introduced. The people were no longer happy being a colony working for Spain. They wanted freedom.

Simon Bolivar emerged as a leader guiding them down the path to independence. He dreamed of creating an independent and United Spanish America. On August 10th, 1809 Quito became "The Luz de America" the first place to declare independence from Spain. One of Bolivar's generals and statesmen Antonio Jose de Sucre led the country's fight. For 13 long years the war continued as Sucre led the troops into battle against the Spanish Royalist Army.

Bolivar's vision was to unite Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador to form a federation called Gran Colombia but this independent nation of unity lasted only for 8 years until Ecuador took full independence on its own in 1830.

The republic of Ecuador

Since full constitutional sovereignty was gained in 1830, the country's internal history has since been marked by fierce rivalry and occasional open warfare between the church-backed conservatives, based in Quito, and the liberals and socialists of Guayaquil. Political turmoil and the desire for a global economy have portrayed Ecuador's history. There have been 86 changes in government since becoming a republic, each regime averaging a 1.75 years.

The 19th century was marked by instability, with a rapid succession of rulers. The conservative Gabriel Garcia Moreno unified the country in the 1860s with the support of the Catholic Church. In the late 1800s, world demand for cocoa tied the economy to commodity exports and led to migrations from the highlands to the agricultural frontier on the coast.

A coastal-based liberal revolution in 1895 under Eloy Alfaro reduced the power of the clergy and opened the way for capitalist development. The end of the cocoa boom produced renewed political instability and a military coup in 1925. The 1930s and 1940s were marked by populist politicians such as five-time president Jose Velasco Ibarra.

In 1941, neighboring Peru invaded Ecuador and seized much of the country's Amazonian area. The 'new' border between the two countries - initially agreed upon and ratified by the 1942 Rio de Janeiro treaty - was finally recognized by both counties in a 1998 treaty.

After the second world war around 1948-60, a recovery in the market for agricultural commodities and the growth of the banana industry helped restore prosperity and political peace. The country also had three successive President whom all ran their full terms of office giving stability to the political system through the respected democracies.

Recession and popular unrest led to a return to populist politics and domestic military interventions in the 1960s, while foreign companies developed oil resources in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In 1972, a nationalist military regime seized power and used the new oil wealth and foreign borrowing to pay for a program of industrialization, land reform, and subsidies for urban consumers. With the oil boom fading, Ecuador returned to democracy in 1979.

Recent years

In 1978 a new constitution was passed and the following year Ecuador returned to democracy with the election of Jaime Roldós (Concentración de Fuerzas Populares, populist party) although this particular president met his death in an a plane crash in 1981 but the party completed its term in office till 1984 under Oswaldo Hurtado (Democracia Popular, social democrat).

The 1984 presidential elections were narrowly won by Leon Febres-Cordero of the Social Christian Party (PSC). During the first years of his administration, Febres-Cordero introduced free-market economic policies, took strong stands against drug trafficking and terrorism, and pursued close relations with the United States. His tenure was marred by bitter wrangling with other branches of government and his own brief kidnapping by elements of the military. A devastating earthquake in March 1987 interrupted oil exports and worsened the country's economic problems.

Rodrigo Borja of the Democratic Left (ID) party won the presidency in 1988. His government was committed to improving human rights protection and carried out some reforms, notably an opening of Ecuador to foreign trade. The Borja government concluded an accord leading to the disbanding of the small terrorist group, "Alfaro Lives." However, continuing economic problems undermined the popularity of the ID, and opposition parties gained control of congress in 1990.

In 1992, Sixto Duran-Ballen won in his third run for the presidency. His government succeeded in pushing a limited number of modernization initiatives through Congress. Duran-Ballen's vice president, Alberto Dahik, was the architect of the administration's economic policies, but in 1995, Dahik fled the country to avoid prosecution on corruption charges following a heated political battle with the opposition. A war with Peru erupted in January-February 1995 in a small, remote region where the boundary prescribed by the 1942 Rio Protocol was in dispute.

Abdala Bucaram, from the Guayaquil-based Ecuadorian Roldosista Party (PRE), won the presidency in 1996 on a platform that promised populist economic and social policies and the breaking of what Bucaram termed as the power of the nation's oligarchy. During his short term of office, Bucaram's administration drew criticism for corruption. Bucaram was deposed by the Congress in February 1997 on grounds of alleged mental incompetence. In his place, Congress named interim President Fabian Alarcon, who had been president of Congress and head of the small Radical Alfarist Front party. Alarcon's interim presidency was endorsed by a May 1997 popular referendum.

Quito Mayor Jamil Mahuad of the Popular Democracy party won presidential elections on August 10, 1998. On the same day, Ecuador's new constitution came into effect. Mahuad concluded a well-received peace with Peru on October 26, 1998, but increasing economic, fiscal, and financial difficulties drove his popularity steadily lower.

In an attempt to stop the decline of Ecuador's currency, the sucre, which lost 75% of its value in less than a year, soon-to-be deposed president Jamil Mahuad made an unpopular announcement on January 10th that he would 'dollarize' the economy, replacing sucres with US dollars at a rate of 25,000 sucres per dollar. Thousands of non-violent protestors, including many indigenous leaders denouncing neoliberal economic policies, subsequently occupied government buildings in Quito and forced Mahuad's resignation.

Mahuad's vice-president, Guastavo Noboa, took office on January 22, 2000. Noboa was presented as one of the few honest politicians in a country where political corruption is the norm, although his political experience was minimal. His first comments were that he would eliminate political corruption and that he agreed with dollarization. Noboa has continued apace with implementation of dubious International Monetary Fund (IMF) economic 'structural adjustment' policies, in the face of increasing indigenous and working class opposition.

On January 21, 2000, during demonstrations in Quito by indigenous groups, the military and police refused to enforce public order. Demonstrators entered the National Assembly building and declared a three-person "junta" in charge of the country. Field-grade military officers declared their support for the concept. During a night of confusion and negotiations, President Mahuad was obliged to flee the presidential palace. Vice President Gustavo Noboa took charge; Mahuad went on national television in the morning to endorse Noboa as his successor. Congress met in emergency session in Guayaquil the same day, January 22, and ratified Noboa as President of the Republic in constitutional succession to Mahuad.

The new president, Coronel Lucio Gutierrez, took office on January 15th 2003. Soon later an agreement with the IMF was signed. The minority of congressmen whose parties backed Mr Gutierrez's successful presidential bid are outnumbered by representatives of the largest party in the legislature, the Partido Social Cristiano (PSC), and other traditional political parties.