Independence I Republic I Contemporary

 

The Inca Empire & Spanish Colonialism

Although we know that Asian Bedouins traversed the Bering straight some 25,000 years ago and began populating the continent of South America around 12,000 BC, the more advanced known cultures sprung up between 10,000 BC and 1,500 AD. These include the Bahía, Tolita, Jama Coaque, Chorrera, Machalilla and the oldest recorded culture of the Americas, the Valdivia.

The Inca empire whose roots and origins stem from central Peru was developed further in Ecuador through Huayna Capac. Huayna Capac was the son of a Cañari Princess while his father Inca Tupac Yupanqui a descendant of the Duchicela had previously fought the Cañari over a fierce battle before intermarrying within these two rich and proud cultures.

The Incas had the monopoly of control from 1450 to the first quarter of the 16th Century stewarded by Huayna Capac until his death in 1526 when he left the empire to two sons. He divided the empire into two main areas of control. One son, Huascar was given Cuzco while the other Atahualpa ruled Quito.

The division however for the first time in Inca history weakened their infrastructure and imperial stronghold causing them to go to war with one another which also contributed to their downfall against the Spanish invasion.

The battle between the two fractions of many years finally ended near Ambato with the Quito ruler defeating his brother and became the sole ruler however the division had taken the strength away from this great race and became quickly known by the advancing Spaniards ruled by Francisco Pizarro who came to South America in 1532 with the objective of conquering the Incas.

With the arrival of Pizarro who spread fear into the Indians hearts with their cannons, metal armor and powerful horses, the Spanish advanced rapidly their agenda of the Inca surrender. On November 16th, 1532. Pizarro set up a meeting with Atahualpa to discuss a meeting for mutual interests and negotiation but once the Incas had arrived Pizarro went back on his word and quickly killed off all of Atahualpa's guards forcing him to surrender and be taken as a ransom in return for gold, silver and other Inca wealth.

The ransom tactic proved to be another scam by the Spaniards who instead of releasing Atahualpa put him in a rigged trial which found him guilty of polygamy according to Spanish law even though this practice of marrying ones sister was considered normal Inca custom. He was sentenced to death on August 29, 1533; and his subsequent execution essentially ended the Inca Empire.

One further historical archive of note occurred in 1534 when General Rumiñahui faced with a further Spanish invasion by Pizarro's lieutenant Sebastián de Benalcazar entered Quito only to find the city had been burned completely to the ground leaving just ruins out of the ashes. Such action demonstrated the high levels of proudness from the Incas who preferred the destruction of their city by their own hand rather than leaving it to the Spanish Infidel.

Rumiñahui was subsequently executed in January 1535 while the city was refounded the previous year on December 6th. The Spaniards took colonial rule for around 300 years and by 1600 had taken over as the ruling power nearly all of Central and South America. Ecuador also became an artistic center and also housed the seat of a Royal Audiencia in Quito 1563 which was an important political division that had been transferred from Lima, Peru.

Independence

The city of Guayaquil liberated itself from the Spanish and achieved independence on October 9th, 1820 through the Venezuelan liberator Simón Bolivar under the auspices of one of Bolivar's Generals Antonio José de Sucre who used the city as his main base. However, it took a further 2 years for the complete liberation of the country through a battle in the hills of Pichincha volcano in May 24th, 1822 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.

Republic

Between 1861 and 1895, Ecuador enjoyed a period of authoritarian Conservatism under Gabriel García Moreno who added several useful public projects as well as being a catalyst in various artistic movements.

A liberal take over towards the end of the 19th Century under the guidance of Eloy Alfaro mainly through cocoa exports which gave the country a large economic boost and movement into a more capitalistic approach and away from the more conservative rule of the church. Alfaro also boosted further capital infrastructure and industrialization of the country by constructing a railway from Guayaquil to Quito.

Traditionally most Latin country's are politically split between the Liberal and Conservative parties and Ecuador political rulers are no different, for example, Quito is more Church run in its conservative approach while the Guayaquil area is run in a far more socialistic and liberal manner that has led to some regionalism amongst the two major capitals (administratively and commercially).

The two factions came to a head in 1912 when Eloy Alfaro was killed and tortured through fire by an angry political mob. The military then entered the scene and during the 20th Century the country went through intermittent exchanges of military and civilian control.

An example of Military takeover occurred in 1925 when Isidro Ayora brought in various reforms of economic policy as well as introducing various institutions to monitor the economy. This period also saw the creation of the Central Bank but Ayora was evicted from power in 1931 as a result of world economic difficulties that began in 1929.

The 1930s saw a decade of political chaos through a series of interchanging rulers with José Maria Velasco Ibarra by way of example being elected as Ecuador's President on no fewer than five occasions illustrating the volatility of the time.

1941 was the year of a territorial war between Ecuador and Peru began when Peruvians occupied land inside the Ecuadorian frontier which forced the country to sign the Protocol of Río de Janeiro but the agreement was not formally accepted by the authorities till the 1998 peace agreement with Peru.

After the second world war around 1948-60, the country enjoyed a relatively stable period as well increasing export levels through the banana industry. 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.

Apart from overseas development and infrastructure expansion in the Amazon regions of the Oriente the 1960s produced much political volatility with the Military Juntas ruling the whole country from 1963-66 and did not reach a political equilibrium again till 1972.

The 1970's was another major epoch for Ecuador's economic wealth which again prospered through the oil boom and led to increases in the country's public expenditures that in turn boosted the public sector infrastructure giving additional jobs to 1000s.

Contemporary

The most recent return to democratic rule for Ecuador came in 1979 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 next President León Febres Cordero (Partido Social Cristiano) right wing, came into power in August 1984 amidst a crisis of external debt and the El Niño effect that flooded many coastal areas as well as destroying food crops. Cordero exercised free market strategy's with some success but was affected by collapsing world oil prices that reduced oil profits by 50% losses were further compounded as a result of a major earth quake that struck and destroyed the country's only petroleum line.

1988, saw the election of Social democrat Rodrigo Borja. During his term in power oil prices went repeatedly up with public cuts in expenditure and inflation rising to 60% annually making the country fall into a 4 year rut and hard times as the leaders tried to introduce more stable measures.

1992, saw the election of a new President Sixto Durán Ballén, who was formally a Social-Christian who also tried to further stabilize the economy through various macro-economic fiscal policies. During 1996 Ballén encountered energy problems on several fronts through seasonal troughs and also had much conflict with Peru to endure which affected the country's economy also.

In 1996 Abdalá Bucarám (Partido Roldosista Ecuatoriano, populist party), came to power and he rapidly inflicted on the country a series of unsuccessful and unpopular measures to cut inflation and counter balance macroeconomic deficits. After devaluing the Sucre (pre-dollarization currency) that made him equally unpopular.

After crippling the economy the people of Ecuador formed a general strike on February 5-6, 1997 and quickly won favor with more organized labor forces and professional bodies along with CONAIE (Confederation of Indigenous Nations of Ecuador ) and Bucarám was ousted from office.

The next President of Ecuador was Jamil Mahuad in 1998 who picked up the territorial disputes and on going battle with Peru and ended up turning the long battle over frontiers into a peaceful resolution with the Peruvian President Fujimori in October 1998.

During 1999 the country's economy plummeted to an all time low forcing the nation to default on international loans as well as failing to reach agreements with the I.M.F (International Monetary Fund). The country was also bombarded by El Niño affecting harvests as well as oil prices dropping through the floor.

Mahuad's popularity dwindled further as he announced that all accounts over a certain level in deposits were to be frozen and paid back over 5 years in forms of C/Ds in order to stop people taking all their funds out and crippling the banking infrastructure.

In order to prevent further downward spirals on January 9th, 2000 Mahuad announced that the national currency, the Sucre would be superseded by dollarization with the current value of 25,000 Sucres per US Dollar to put an end to the currency devaluation levels that had seen the Sucre plummet against the Dollar.

Events came to a head on January 21, 2000; when various organizations including a collective group of indigenous party's ousted Jamil Mahuad from office and fled to the United States to take up a teaching position. The Vice President Gustavo Noboa then took over Presidency and was duly Sworn in to power.

The current Government has to this day maintained the course of dollarization program and although inflation has doubled over the past couple of years since its conception it is fair to say the economy has maintained an equilibrium in comparison to some of the previous decades.

In addition the Current Government has successfully negotiated a US $2B loan from IMF, financial sources while Noboa also in August 2000 successfully negotiated a bond exchange program against its international creditors.

Independence I Republic I Contemporary

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