Post-Independence

         In the year 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France, invaded Spain and deposed its king, Ferdinand VII.  Tired of two centuries of Spanish mercantilist colonial policy, many Latin American nations used this pretext of a “false” king on the Spanish throne to declare their independence.   This action touched-off a fourteen-year war for independence by the many former viceroyalties of Spanish America.  On August 10, 1809 a group of patriots led by Juan Pío Montúfar announced Quito’s independence from Spain.  In 1811 an assembled congress established the state of Quito and by February 1812 a constitution was drafted and approved.  The Spanish reprisal came quickly, however, once Napoleon was defeated, and Ecuador was reincorporated into the empire.  For the Quichua, this was a period of uncertainty.   Should they support the Spanish, their original oppressors, the American-born Creoles that owned the haciendas they toiled on, or should they do nothing and stay aloof of this conflict?

        For Ecuador, the campaigns of Simón Bolívar liberated them from the Spanish Empire.  Specifically, Bolívar’s lieutenant, Antonio de José Sucre, led an army into Ecuador and defeated the Spanish viceroy at Pichincha in 1822.  Bolívar united the provinces of Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador into the Federation of Gran Colombia.  Bolívar hoped the federation would be the starting point for a united Spanish-American nation.   In 1830 Gran Colombia was dissolved and Ecuador became a separate nation.

         In republican Ecuador the criollos, pure Spanish or mestizo wealthy landowners held the vast majority of political power.  Indigenous peoples continued to be exploited for their labor on haciendas and in mines.   Politically, the country ebbed and flowed between democracy and dictatorship over its 170-year existence.  The dictators and presidents were called caudillos, strongmen or military leaders that assumed complete power in the nation.  The first caudillo was General Juan José Flores who held power until 1845.  The next caudillo was General Gabriel García Moreno, who reigned as president on two separate occasions and was assassinated in 1875.

         During the nineteenth century, much of the political chaos in Ecuador stemmed from the conflict between the city of Guayaquil on the coast, and the city of Quito in the highlands.  The people on the coast wanted to expand Ecuador’s trade and exports, they wanted to bring about a more capitalistic system to Ecuador.  Life in the highlands was still dominated by the large farm and the influence of the Church.  Like in many Latin American countries during this period, these two philosophies became enshrined as Liberalism and Conservatism.   In 1895, with General Eloy Alfaro won the presidency, the Liberals finally assumed power in Ecuador.  With the Liberals in power, the Quichuas way of life steadily worsened.  The Church, now protectors of Indian land, was stripped of its lands—which were quickly snatched-up by wealthy hacendados.  Special privileges under the law allowing Quichuas to maintain their traditional communities were thrown out.  Many Quichua found themselves now reduced to true peonage, a state they had not known since the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors.

Works Consulted

Fisher, Lillian Estelle.  Viceregal Administration in the Spanish-American Colonies.  New York: Russell & Russell, 1967.

Jackson, Robert H.  Race, Caste, and Status: Indians in Colonial Spanish America.  Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999.

Lepthien, Emilie U.  Ecuador.  Chicago: Regensteiner Publishing Enterprises, Inc., 1986.

Lucas, Eileen.  European Conquest.  Vero Beach, FL: Rourke Publications, Inc., 1995.