Asdgsd

A SHORT HISTORY OF ECUADOR

By Tim Lambert

EARLY ECUADOR

The native people of Ecuador grew crops of maize, beans, potatoes and squash. They kept dogs and guinea pigs for meat. many of them were skilled potters and metalworkers in gold, silver and copper.

However in the late 15th century they were conquered by the Incas.

The Spaniards first sighted the coast of Ecuador in 1526 and they soon turned to conquest. The Spaniards conquered what is now Ecuador in 1534. The Spaniards had already conquered the Incas in what is now Peru. However Inca resistance continued further north. Francisco Pizzaro's follower, Sebastian de Banalcazar led another army into Ecuador from the south and he gradually crushed the remaining Incas resistance in the region.

In 1534 the Spaniards founded the city of Quito on the remains of a captured Inca city. Guayaquil was founded in 1535. Cuenca was founded in 1557.

However the diseases brought by the Spaniards, especially smallpox killed many more of the native people than the soldiers. With no resistance to European diseases the people of Ecuador were decimated.

Meanwhile much of the land, and people of Ecuador were shared out among the Spaniards. They owned large estates, which were worked by the native people, who were serfs.

The Spanish also brought slaves from Africa to Ecuador to work on sugar plantations. (Today many Ecuadorians are of mixed race, part Spanish, part Native South American and part African).

In the 16th and 17th centuries Ecuador was part of the viceroyalty of Peru but, after 1563, it was allowed some autonomy. Quito became the capital and it prospered partly because it was on the road between Lima and Cartagena. The bishopric of Quito was founded in 1545.

However in the 1690s Ecuador suffered more epidemics which decimated the population.

Then in 1717 Ecuador was made part of the viceroyalty of Nueva Granada. It was returned to Peru in 1723 but became part of Nueva Granada again in 1740.

INDEPENDENT ECUADOR...