Ecuador is an independent nation in South America. With the capital city of Quito, Ecuador 2020 population is estimated at 17,643,065 according to countryaah. Today’s Ecuador has been populated for many thousands of years. In the 15th century, the Incaricum submerged the area, but in the middle of the 16th century Spanish conquerors incorporated it into their colonial rule. During the 18th century, a freedom movement arose in Latin America and in 1830 Ecuador was able to proclaim itself an independent republic. The struggle for power then came for a long time to stand between conservative landowners and liberal traders. Much of the first half of the 20th century was characterized by political and social concerns.
- AbbreviationFinder.org: Comprehensive guide to and popular abbreviations of Ecuador, covering history, economy, and social conditions.
The area that is today Ecuador is believed to have been populated about 10,000 years ago. The first residents were hunters who lived on the high plateau, but already around 5000 BC corn and the root fruit were grown maniac. Eventually the people became settled, and in the 500s AD the different peoples began to approach each other. Work and social life were organized via ayllu, a collective system based on family ties. For Ecuador political system, please check diseaseslearning.
In 1478, Incan Túpac Yupanqui incorporated the area of the Inca empire with base in Peru. Native languages were suppressed by quechua and local cultures were eliminated. The northern part of the kingdom, where Quito was the capital, soon gained great economic and cultural significance. Succession battles between Incan’s sons Atahualpa from Quito and Huáscar from Cuzco in today’s Peru weakened the empire after Túpac Yupanquis’s death. It was Atahualpa who succeeded his father.
Spanish conquerors, conquistadors, reached Ecuador in the 1520s. At a meeting between the conqueror Pizarro and Atahualpa 1532, no one was captured. Although the conquistadors got a huge ransom in silver and gold, Atahualpa was killed. Two years later, Quito was conquered, and the local social order was broken. The indigenous people were forced to pay taxes and work for the conquerors. Diseases and forced labor on large goods and in mines reduced the domestic population by half in just 100 years. In the 17th century there was a shortage of labor and African slaves were shipped.
Ecuador was incorporated into the Spanish colonial empire in 1544. The colonial economy was based on textile and agricultural production for export. The important trade laid the foundation for the port city of Guayaquil.
The Republic of Ecuador is proclaimed
During the 18th century the ruling class in the colonies began to demand independence from Spain. The liberation wars spread across South America in the early 1800s. In 1822, Ecuador became part of Greater Colombia, founded by the freedom hero Simón Bolívar. When his state collapsed, the Republic of Ecuador was proclaimed in 1830.
For a long time, the young republic was characterized by a power struggle between liberal traders in Guayaquil and conservative landowners in the Quito mountain regions, which led to constant change of president and military coups. The political chaos was interrupted by the conservative president Gabriel García Moreno, who modernized society to some extent between 1860 and 1875. With hard methods and the help of the church, he paved the way for a national consciousness. The church was given responsibility for education and social protection networks.
Just before the turn of the century, the merchants in Guayaquil came to power represented by General Eloy Alfaro and the landowners’ dominance was broken. The church was separated from the state, freedom of religion and expression was introduced, literate men were given the right to vote and certain laws on forced labor were abolished. The economy was based on cocoa exports, which allowed some industrialization and the construction of a modern infrastructure.
In the 1920s the price of cocoa fell and the country plunged into an economic and social crisis. Strikes were defeated by military – in a massacre 1,500 workers were killed – and in 1925 the military reappeared in the political arena, and landowners in Quito regained power.
The 1930s economic world depression became very noticeable in Ecuador. Unemployment and inflation rose as a result of social and political unrest. Between 1931 and 1948 the country had 21 governments.
In 1941, war broke out against Peru if part of the Amazon and Ecuador lost a large tract of land through the 1942 Rio Agreement.
2012
December
The governor leaves
Central Bank Governor Pedro Delgado leaves his job after admitting he cheated in connection with applying to a business college just over 20 years earlier. President Correa, who is related to Delgado, calls it a severe blow to the revolution.
November
Correa candidate in the election
President Correa officially announces that he is running for president for a third term. The statute’s rule of just one re-election does not apply, with the justification that Correa was elected for the first time before the constitution came into force. Tens of thousands of supporters gathered at a sports stadium cheer as he gives the message, as expected.
September
Left alliance ahead of the presidential election
A left-wing alliance, the Unidad Plurinacional de las Izquierdas (approximately the left-wing unit), appoints Alberto Acosta as its candidate in the February 2013 presidential election.
June
Assange is seeking asylum in London
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange seeks asylum at Ecuador’s London Embassy to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where he is suspected of sex crimes, and from where he fears he will be sent to the United States. The government says it is prepared to make a swift decision. The issue falls on the government’s table just as diplomatic relations with the United States are about to be normalized (see April 2011). Correa had previously praised and been in contact with Assange, which many regarded as ironic. Through Wikileaks, Assange has struggled for freedom of information, while Correa has made himself known as bitter opponents of all the media critical of him. In June alone, a regulator in Ecuador has shut down six radio stations and two TV stations, formally because they have not paid licensing fees. All stations operate in provinces that opposed Correa’s proposal in the referendum (see May 2011).
March
Indigenous people protest against huge mining project
March 22
Ecuador’s largest Native American organization, Conaie, completes an approximately two-week protest march from El Pangui to Quito, conducted in protest of the government’s presentation of the country’s first large-scale mining project. A $ 1.4 billion deal has been signed with a Chinese company to extract copper in a huge mine near El Pangui in the Amazon. That means a huge addition to the Treasury, which President Correa says will go to roads, schools and hospitals. Ecuador has just secured a loan of the same size from China. But Conaie fears the project will harm the environment and force people from their homes. Several opposition parties support the protest, which President Correa himself calls his biggest trial before the February 2013 presidential election.
