                          A Brief History of Ecuador

Regionalism in Ecuadorian history
      Geography has been a significant factor in determining the political
history of Ecuador. The country is divided into three geographic zones: The
Pacific Coast, the Sierra Highlands, and the eastern Upper Amazon Basin, often
called the Oriente. This regionalism has been a strong factor in Ecuadorian
politics, especially in the divisions between the liberal port city of
Guayaquil on the coast and the conservative administrative city of Quito in
the highlands. Ecuador's modern political history is characterized by divi-
sions between liberal leaders from Guayaquil and conservative leaders from
Quito. In contrast to these two "civilized" areas, the third region (the
Eastern Amazon, or Oriente) has stereotypically been viewed as a "savage"
area.
      The coastal plain of Ecuador is wider than the Peruvian coast, and
because the cold antarctic Humboldt Current turns out to sea just before it
reaches Ecuador, the coast is also much wetter and hotter than in Peru. The
coast, along with the surrounding low-lying hills which lie inland before
reaching the Andean mountains, has an export-oriented agricultural economy
which includes the production of cattle, bananas, rice, sugar, and coffee. The
coast contains forty-nine percent of the country's population including the
liberal, commercial coastal port of Guayaquil, the country's largest city with
a population of over two million people.
      Counterpoised against Guayaquil are the conservative, Catholic Sierra
Highlands with forty-eight percent of the population. The highlands are
dominated by two parallel mountain chains with over thirty volcanos, eight of
them active. Although wider and higher further south in Peru and Bolivia,
mountain peaks in Ecuador reach to twenty thousand feet; eight of them are
permanently snow capped. The equator is at its highest point in the world on
Ecuador's Mount Cayambe, and because of the equatorial bulge the peak of Mount
Chimborazo is the furthest point from center of earth and for a while was
thought to be the world's highest mountain. Nestled between the two mountain
chains is the fertile nine-thousand foot high Central Valley. Whereas the
coast is dominated by export-oriented agriculture, domestic agriculture such
as cattle grazing, potatoes, and corn are more important in the highlands.
Also located in the Central Valley is Quito, the nation's capital. Until the
last twenty or thirty years, Quito remained relatively isolated. With an oil
boom in the 1970s, Quito has changed from a quaint colonial city to a vibrant
administrative and economic center with an important banking sector.
      The third region, the Upper Amazon Basin which in Ecuador is commonly
called the Oriente, comprises nearly half of the national territory but only
three percent of its population. Political and economic power in Ecuador has
historically been concentrated in the liberal city of Guayaquil and its
conservative counterpart in Quito, whereas in the twentieth century outsiders,
as Norman Whitten has noted, still commonly view this region "as a mostly
uninhabited, flat, Amazonian jungle morass, sparsely populated by a few groups
of 'savages'" some of whom "were known worldwide for their shrunken heads" and
"for spearing some North American missionaries" (Whitten 1985:38). Since the
conclusion of the wars of independence from Spain in the 1820s, Ecuador has
been locked in territorial disputes with the neighboring countries of Colombia
and Peru over the location of the international borders in the Amazonian
region. Occasionally these disputes have led to open warfare, especially
between Ecuador and Peru. The last significant armed conflict over the region
occurred in 1941 when, during the beginning of the Second World War, the
United States forced Ecuador to sign the 1942 Rio Protocol, which effectively
seceded over half of its territory to Peru. The degree of Ecuador's loss is
represented by the fact that after independence, Ecuador claimed 714,860
square kilometers of territory, while currently it effectively controls
275,341 square kilometers, with a total loss of almost seventy-five percent of
its national territory (Corkill and Cubitt 1988:98). Though important as a
rhetorical device for politicians, until relatively recently this region had
remained marginal from Ecuadorian state formation. It was not until 1879 after
the conservative president Gabriel Garcia Moreno sought to modernize and inte-
grate the Oriente into national life that the region finally became organized
as a province. The steadily increasing political importance of the Oriente
during the twentieth century is reflected in the fact that in 1920 the region
was divided into four provinces, and in 1989 a fifth province was carved out
of the oil-rich northern part.

The formation of ethnic and group identity in Ecuador
      As in the rest of Latin America, Ecuador has been subjected to the myth
of mestizaje which holds that a new Latin American culture was forged from the
blending of three separate traditions (European, indigenous, and African).
Although this Latin version of the "melting pot" theory holds more true for
the mestizo segment of the Ecuadorian population, it threatens to subvert the
unique history and surviving cultural traditions of the indigenous groups
which continue to exist in that country.
      Much research has been carried out on the dominant white and mestizo
cultures and little of it needs to be repeated here. There has been less
scholarly interest in the African population, which is mostly concentrated in
the province of Esmeraldas in the northwestern part of the country. Many of
these people are descendants of escapees from a slave ship which was bound for
Peru but shipwrecked off of the Esmeraldas coast in 1535. Hispanicized slaves
leading the rest liberated themselves, forged inland, and formed the Zambo
Republic. They intermixed (and sometimes fought over limited land and resourc-
es) with the indigenous people whom they encountered. In addition to creating
a new life for themselves, they also provided a haven and home for fugitive
slaves and Spaniards who were fleeing the law. After one hundred and fifty
years of independence, they eventually allied with Quito and the Spanish crown
on their own terms. Today about half of the population of this region is of
African descent. They number about half a million people.
      Before the Inka and Spanish conquests many more indigenous groups
existed in Ecuador than today. In a recent survey of Ecuador's indigenous
groups, Jose Alcina Franch has examined this process of ethnocide in Ecuador
as the number of native ethnic groups dropped from twenty-four before the Inka
conquest to ten currently, including a drop from twelve to three on the coast
(Alcina 1986:94). At the present rate, Alcina predicted extinction for
Ecuador's indigenous groups, but also expressed hope for the future. Although
they comprise a large segment of the population, indigenous peoples have not
maintained political and economic power equal to their numbers. Since the time
of the Spanish conquest, power has resided in the hands of a small white
elite. Estimates of the number of surviving Indians vary greatly, from around
ten percent of the population or about one million people to estimates as high
as three and a half million people and forty percent of the population. Many
of the surviving groups, however, still retain their own culture, language,
dress, music, and traditions.
      The three indigenous ethnic groups which still exist in the coastal
region are the Awa, Chachi, and Tsachila. These groups are located in the
northwestern part of Ecuador and speak similar languages. On the rest of the
coast, indigenous ethnic groups have either become extinct or  have disap-
peared into the mestizo culture, frequently through the economic influence of
the export-oriented agricultural capitalist development which has resulted in
a rural proletariate. Each of these three remaining groups is rather small and
have struggled to preserve their ethnic identity. The Awa (which means
"people," but are often called Coaiquer after a small Colombian town) live on
both sides of the Ecuadorian-Colombian border. The Chachi often clash with
Blacks who occupy the same region over limited resources. According to Chachi
tradition, they are originally from the province of Imbabura in the highlands
but fled toward the coast in the face of the Inka and Spanish conquests.
      Better known than these two groups are the Tsachila, a word which means
the "true people" or the "true word" but who are often called Colorados be-
cause of their body paint. The Tsachila have become a tourist curiosity for
the dominant culture because of this body paint. Until the 1950s when a road
was built through their territory and the national government began to
colonize the zone, the Tsachila remained isolated from the national culture
and economy. Now, however, they more than the other coastal ethnic groups have
been integrated into export-oriented agricultural economy and are quickly
losing their traditional culture and dress.
      Many different indigenous ethnic groups live in the Sierra Highlands,
but these are often grouped under the singular category of "Quichua." They are
part of the larger ethno-linguistic Quechua group, the largest surviving
indigenous language in the Americas which stretches across the Andean high-
lands from Colombia to Chile and includes between eight and twelve million
speakers. (By comparison, the next largest indigenous language in the Americas
is Guaran with between two and three million speakers in Paraguay and Brazil.
Although parts of Mesoamerica (especially Guatemala) have a larger percentage
of indigenous inhabitants than the Andes, they are divided between many more
languages and hence the number of speakers of a particular language are
smaller than than of Quechua.) As a result of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-
century spread of the Inka Empire in the Ecuadorian highlands along with the
subsequent Spanish missionizing impulses, many of the Quichua-speaking peoples
in this region have lost much of their linguistic, religious, and cultural
distinctiveness. Economically, many of these people have become peasants or
campesinos. There remains, however, a strong sense of place and it would be a
mistake to lump the entire region into one category. Together, Gregory Knapp
estimates between 0.84 and 1.36 million Quichuas in the highlands in 1987,
although others put the number considerably higher (Knapp 1987:28).
      In the highlands, indigenous populations have become integrated into the
national culture through their economic roles. The Canar people in southern
Ecuador, for example, began manufacturing Panama hats in the 1950s as a way to
cope with the increasing poverty, as they slowly lost much of their land to
the white population. Niels Fock has expounded on the ironies of the Canaris'
adaptation to cultural imperialism and economic exploitation. The Inkas had
incorporated the Canaris' territory into their empire sixty years before the
Spanish conquest, but unlike most groups that the Inkas conquered the Canaris
never lost their separate ethnic identity. In 1532, the Canaris were one of
the groups that considered the Spanish invaders as their liberators from Inka
tyranny and entered into strategic alliances with the conquistadores (Moreno
1989:19). Ironically, although the Inkas were much more successful than the
Spanish colonists or their modern national counterparts in obliterating ethnic
identity, only now do the Canaris identify with their pre-Hispanic Inkan
oppressors against the Spanish culture which they joined in the conquest
against the Inka Empire (Fock 1981:417-18).
      The primary example of highland Indian integration into national history
through economic means, however, is the one of the Otavaleno weavers from the
northern province of Imbabura. The Otavalenos are often considered to be an
economic success story. They are the most famous of the various highland
groups, and are known around the world for their weavings and textiles which
pre-date the Spanish conquest. They market their products themselves in Colom-
bia, New York, Europe, and elsewhere. Although they have retained their indig-
enous customs, dress, and beliefs, the Ecuadorian elite respects them because
of their entrepreneurship and sees them as different than other "indios."
      Various other Quichua groups also inhabit the Ecuadorian highlands.
These groups include the Salasacas who live in the province of Tungurahua in
central Ecuador. According to ethno-historical accounts, the Salasacas are
descendents of a mitimae (colonist) group which the Inkas brought from Bolivia
to help subdue the Ecuadorian highlands.
      Chimborazo has the highest concentration of Indians in Ecuador. About
forty percent of the province's population is indigenous, and together they
number about a quarter of a million people. Historically, the indigenous
people from Chimborazo have gained a repuation as Ecuador's most rebellious
Indians.
      With increased interest in the world's remaining rainforests, recently
more attention has been paid to Ecuador's Upper Amazon Basin. It is from this
region (known as the Oriente) that many of Ecuador's dominant culture's
stereotypes of indigenous groups emerge. These stereotypes have often been
presented as an ethnic duality between Cristianos who are the civilized,
Spanish, educated, proper society and Aucas or Jivaros, barbaric, uncivilized,
pagan, backward, savage, headhunters from the Amazon. Naturally, many of these
stereotypes are inaccurate and the cultural reality is much more complex than
this. Although the richness and complexities of indigenous cultures have begun
to erode these simplistic stereotypes, it has not necessarily reduced the
tension between the Spanish and indigenous populations. For many Ecuadorians,
the myth of the Amazon is seen as the key to their national salvation.
      Six different ethnic groups survive today in the Amazon region, the
largest being various groups of Quichua speakers. In the ethnographic litera-
ture, these Quichua Indians are often divided into the Quijos Quichua (from
the Napo Province) and the Canelos Quichua (from the Pastaza Province).
Although this division reflects cultural differences, their identity is often
much more localized. In any case, although these Indians share a language
which is similar to that which the Quichuas speak in the highlands, their
forest culture is quite different from that found in the Sierra.
      The origins of these Quichua speakers in the Amazon is a controversial
matter, and scholars have forwarded several possible explanations for their
presence in this region. Some people believe them to be the result of migra-
tions of Inka-conquered people from the Andes who had acquired the Inka lingua
franca. Others point to the influence of missionizing friars who employed
Quichua as the language for converting indigenous people rather than learning
a myriad of existing languages. Still others, such as Norman Whitten, argue
that Quichua originated in the Amazon around 600-800 AD. Perhaps the Inkas re-
introduced the language, but it is native to the Ecuadorian jungle and not an
outside imposition (Whitten 1981:131). The Inkas' very limited success in
subduing the jungles east of the Andes would seem to logically limit their
influence in spreading this language to the area. Quite possibly Quichua
arrived in the Oriente as a trade language to facilitate commerical relations
between highland and lowland Indians, and that only later other factors (such
as Jesuit missionaries) subplanted a myraid of aboriginal languages with this
lingua franca.
      The second largest and one of the most studied Amazonian groups are the
Shuar who have a long history of survival and defense against outsiders and
who have long had a reputation as headhunters and savages. They are located in
the southeast part of Ecuador between the Pastaza and Maranon Rivers, east of
the present city of Cuenca along the contested border region with Peru. It is
a rocky region covering approximately 25,000 square miles along the lower
eastern slopes of the Andes. The Shuar's geographic locale with the escarpment
of the Andes to the west and unnavigable rapids in the rivers to the east has
protected them from outside interference and has helped them retain their
independence. The word Shuar simply means "people," and until relatively
recently outsiders (including ethnographers) have used the term Jivaro or
Jibaro to refer to them.  The word Jivaro has no meaning in the Shuar lan-
guage, and they have rejected it both because it is a term foreign to their
culture and because of its historic negative association with "savages" and
headhunting. Related to the Shuar are the Achuar (as well as other groups on
the Peruvian side of the border) who are in the same area and share many of
the same customs and traditions and speak a similar language.
      In the northeastern Amazon are the Siona-Secoya and the Cofan. These
groups have historic and linguistic connections with neighboring indigenous
groups in Colombia. The Siona-Secoya originally were two separate ethnic
groups with similar cultures and languages which were part of the Tucano fami-
ly of language. At the beginning of the twentieth century they began to merge,
particularly due to intermarriage, and currently are considered to be only one
ethnic group. The traditional dress of the Cofan (sometimes refered to as A'I,
from the name of their language A'Ingae) is an important part of their identi-
ty, and includes the characteristic perforations in their nose and ears for
the wearing of feathers, flowers, and other materials. Until the 1950s when
the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) missionaries began efforts to
evangelize them, the Cofan had remained relatively isolated from Western
society.  Since that time, both the Siona-Secoya and Cofan have been devas-
tated by outside forces. The region which they occupy has been an area of
intensive petroleum exploitation, especially in the 1970s with the Texaco-Gulf
consortium. Roads, pipelines, penetrating colonists all have had a devastating
and exploiting effect on their territory. "Quito planners and developers and
SIL linguistics talked of protecting the Cofan and of creating a park for them
so that they could be exploited more effectively for tourism" (Whitten:
1981:135) This has all led to an increasing disruption of society, including
as with the encroachment of colonization jaguars (who the Cofan believe to be
reincarnated shamans) disappear which leads to a further breakdown of their
worldview. Finally, in November of 1993, the Siona-Secoya fought back by suing
Texaco for more than one billion dollars for a variety of environmental
abuses, including dumping more than three thousand gallons of a oil a day into
lagoons.
      Recently, the Huaorani (sometimes called Aucas, a Quichua word meaning
"savage,") have faced similar problems. The Huaorani are perhaps equalled only
by their Shuar neighbors to the south for their reputation as a ferociously
independent group, hostile to outside intrusions and readily willing to resort
to violence to defend their territory. Of Ecuador's indigenous groups, they
remain the most isolated from Western civilization. Since the earliest record-
ed contact with European society in the 1600s, their relationships with the
outside world have been characterized by violence and bloodshed. Contact with
nineteenth-century rubber barons and with oil explorations beginning in the
1940s have only provided a continuity with this earlier history. David Stoll
credits the Huaorani with defying "the world market like few others" by de-
fending seven percent of Ecuador's valuable jungle territory against those who
wish to exploit the territory for its natural resources and economic potential
(Stoll 1982:278). The Huaorani hardly meet Jean-Jacques Rousseau's stereotype
of a noble savage living in an earthly paradise. They have been plagued by
spearings and revenge killings that threatened to decimate the population.
James Yost reported that in recent memory over half of the Huao deaths were
violent, due to both intra-tribal warfare and violent contact with outsiders.
These violent deaths are equalled only by the more subtle (and not so subtle)
forms of violence waged on the group by contact with white society. These
include not only the cultural disruption of contact with European society and
the intrusion of the tourism industry, but also the deaths due to the intro-
duction of diseases to which the Huaorani lack natural immunity (Yost
1981:687).
      The Huaorani are perhaps most famous for spearing five North American
Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) missionaries in 1956. As both Yost and
David Stoll attest, it is this same missionary group who sought to bring the
gospel to an unreached tribe that has had perhaps the largest recent impact on
this group. Since their initial contact in 1956, the destinies of these two
groups have been closely intertwined, though to different ends. Whereas the
Summer Institute of Linguistics has exploited the Huaorani for their evangeli-
cal propaganda purposes in the United States, the legacy of this contact for
the Huaorani has meant increased social cohesion, the development of a nation-
al identity, and integration into a pan-Indian movement in Ecuador.
      The Huaorani have been described as "an ancient tribe whose survival is
threatened by American oil development" as well as "missionary zeal, corporate
encroachment, and American environmentalist campaigns claiming to represent
their interests" (Kane:1993:54). They are "facing new cataclysmic change in
their territory but also as a people known primarily by false and distorted
myths which present their culture through the eyes of those seeking to convert
and subvert it" (Whitten 1981:138). In addition to the oil companies which
have repeatedly attempted to exploit their territory for its natural resourc-
es, the Huaorani have recently become a target for ethno- and eco-tourism. In
a recent critical treatment of the negative impact of tourism on the Huaorani,
Randy Smith notes that "there is not a doubt in my mind that tourism is the
number one culprit in the deculturation process of the Huaorani," even in
comparison to SIL and other missionaries (Smith 1993:235). In fact, Smith
credits Rachel Saint (the sister of one of the SIL missionaries who were
speared in 1956) from saving them from extinction by stopping constant intra-
tribal feuding. In the face of these threats to their culture, the Huaorani
have begun to organize themselves. To defend their interests in the face of
outsiders (including not only oil companies and missionaries, but also
environmental groups and threats from the large neighboring Quichua and Shuar
ethnic groups), they formed the Organizacion de Nacionalidad Huaorani de la
Amazonia Ecuatoriana (ONHAE, or the Organization of the Huaorani Nation of the
Ecuadorian Amazon) in 1990. Joe Kane has noted the tensions between local
group identity and national identity, stating that "Huao culture has no
precedent for speaking in the united voice required for political power" (Kane
1993:78).
      A final (seventh) indigenous group in the Ecuadorian Amazon are the
Zaparoans. Their history demonstrates the devastating impact of Western
civilization as their numbers collapsed from possibly more than one hundred
thousand to seven, and are probably now extinct. Their history shows the
catastrophic repercussions of the European conquest which began five hundred
years ago continues to exercise on native populations of the Americas. As
Blanca Muratorio has observed, "the process of conquest and initial
evangelization brought about an 'ethnocidal simplification' of the Amazon's
rich ethnic variety" (Muratorio 1991:42) The result is not only the disappear-
ance of the Zaparoans but also many other aboriginal ethnic groups and
languages.

The historical roots of indigenous revolts in Ecuador
      In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. History is written by the
winners, and so begins the traditional history of the Americas which the
dominant class has presented as the objective truth. The glorious discovery of
the Americas is followed by Cortes' victorious conquest of the Aztecs in 1519,
and Pizarro's defeat of Atahualpa and overthrow of the Inka Empire thirteen
years later.
      Clearly, this is only one side of the story. These traditional histories
ignored the aboriginal inhabitants of the Americas, or worse presented them as
savages who presented an obstacle which needed to be overcome in the forward
march of Western Civilization. Historical research over the past fifty years
has done much to uncover and present indigenous perspectives on the European
conquest. This has accompanied a shift in focus in the historiography from the
Spanish point of view to that of the indigenous population.  Especially in the
Andes, this historiographic shift resulted in a series of "resistance studies"
which glorified the heroic deeds of indigenous populations in the face of the
Spanish conquest. These studies emphasize actions such as that of Ruminahui,
the General of the Inka army in Quito who, after Atahualpa's capture at
Cajamarca on November 16, 1532, unified the remaining Inka forces in order to
stop the Spanish advance. John Murra has noted that "one can discern almost
national feeling and solidarity in Ruminahui's ability to raise large multi-
lingual armies in an attempt to stop the Spanish invasion" (Murra 1963:811).
In July of 1534 Ruminahui circled Sebastian de Benalcazar's troops in the
Ecuadorian sierra and was at the point of crushing the Spanish army when the
Tungurahua volcano erupted. The Inka troops interpreted this as the anger of
the gods and withdrew to Quito. At Quito they continued their battle against
the Spanish, and finally burned the city when they saw that all was lost. The
Spanish captured and burned Ruminahui and other indigenous leaders in January
of 1535 in the Plaza de la Independencia in Quito. Ruminahui has hence come to
embody the spirit of Inka resistance in Quito, and for the Ecuadorian Republic
is considered an early nationalist hero for his struggles against the Spanish.
      Thoughtful reflection on Andean history, however, demonstrates that such
a historiographic approach is, in its most fundamental sense, more of a
continuation of the traditional Spanish-centric history than a refutation of
it. Such a history is one of elites which ignores the actions and perceptions
of the bulk of the population. Even those with only a casual knowledge of
Andean history should be aware that the Inkas had appeared on the Andean scene
only relatively briefly before the Spanish made their debut in 1532. The Andes
have a deep cultural history which precedes both the Spanish and Inkas by
thousands of years. For the inhabitants of the Ecuadorian Andes, the Inkas
were also outside invaders just like the Spanish. In fact, the Canaris in the
southern Ecuadorian Highlands joined the Spanish against the Inkas in the hope
that they would be liberated from their overlords. Ocassionally the interests
of the Spanish and the Inkas coincided, as evidenced by the actions of Don
Francisco, a son of the last Inka king Atahualpa, who led troops against an
indigenous uprising against a Spanish encomendero. Sometimes there was what
could be termed truly popular resistance, as when the Huancavilcas burned
Guayaquil three times before the Spanish finally established control of the
city.  More often, however, what occurred was a clash between two imperialis-
tic empires. Inka resistance against the Spanish invasion, therefore, becomes
not a popular movement against a foreign invasion or against human rights
abuses, but an elite action in defense of an empire and for the status quo.
For the inhabitants of what later became the Ecuadorian republic, however,
they had to endure from 1450 to 1550 what could be termed a one hundred-year
Age of Conquests. Inka expansionism and the Spanish conquest came as a very
rapid one-two punch that displaced not only their cultures and traditions, but
also deprived them of their political independence.
      Contrary to popular perceptions, the Spanish conquerors did not encoun-
ter passive and easily subdued populations in the Andes. Ecuador, as in most
other countries in the Americas, has a long tradition of indigenous revolts
against the dominant European economic and political control. Coastal groups
such as the Atacames, Caraquez, and Punaes resisted repeated Spanish attempts
to penetrate the South American mainland between 1524 and 1531 (CEDIS no. 1
1985:6). Segundo E. Moreno Yanez' studies clearly demonstrate a high level of
resistance from many different sectors against the Spanish conquest and colo-
nization. Moreno has published two books detailing nineteen individual
uprisings in Ecuador during the colonial period. The Confederation of Indige-
nous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) has compiled an impressive list of
about 145 indigenous uprisings over the past five-hundred years (CONAIE
1989:258-303). These sources recount a large number of actions against the
Spanish confiscation of lands, tribute and labor demands, and in general, the
abuse, mistreatment, and exploitation of the indigenous people at the hands of
the Spanish. These early uprisings against the Spanish subjugation of indige-
nous cultures lacked a unified strategy or broad vision for social change.
Often the acts of resistance were of an individual nature, such as committing
suicide, but other actions, such as those taken by the many forasteros who
fled to inhospitable regions in order to escape the Spanish abuses, required a
more unified community response.
       In addition to this transition in focus from the point of view of the
Spanish to that of the Indians there has also been a change in the nature of
the critiques of the indigenous people's actions.  No longer are Indians, as
Nathan Wachtel presented in his Vision of the Vanquished, seen as victims who
were unjustly defeated by a stronger power.  Social history scholarship has
moved beyond Gibson's and Wachtel's simplistic acceptance of the fundamental
aspects of the Black Legend which portrayed the Indians as passive objects in
the face of the conquest by a superior civilization.  Not only does the new
scholarship portray the indigenous people as actors in the face of the Spanish
conquest, they are also seen as living, breathing people who have control over
their historical destiny.
      Many traditional political histories of the Andes begin with the Spanish
conquest in 1532, or perhaps with a quick summary of the Inka Empire. Tradi-
tional histories ignore the rich cultural history of the region which stretch-
es back for thousands of years, and deridingly call the period before the
Spanish conquest "prehistory." Enrique Ayala Mora notes, however, that
Ecuadorian history does not begin with the conquest and rather calls this
early period the "Aboriginal Era" (Mora 1993:13). One of the earliest signifi-
cant cultures was the Valdivia in the coastal region near present-day
Guayaquil. The Valdivia period, which dates to about five thousand years ago,
is characterized by small ceramic figurines. Many different groups resided in
the territory which is currently Ecuador, including the Canaris in the
southern highlands and the historically questionable Kingdoms of Quito and
Shyris to the north. The Inka occupation of the highlands erased much of this
early history. The Inkas were late arrivals in Ecuador, having begun their
imperial expansion out of their capital of Cuzco only with the ninth Inka rul-
er, Pachacuti Inka (1438-1471). His son Tupac Inka (1471-1493) continued this
expansion, but it was not until the rule of the eleventh Inka, Huayna Capac
(1493-1527), that there was a serious attempt to conquer Ecuador. Huayna Capac
put much of his hope and identity in Ecuador; he spent much of his time there
and established a second capital at Tumibamba (near present-day Cuenca). He
established control over the highlands, but never any more than a very tenuous
grip on the coast or Amazon Basin. He died in Ecuador, apparently during a
smallpox epidemic which spread before the arrival of the Spanish, and the
Spanish stumbled upon the resulting struggle for control of the empire between
an Ecuadorian son (Atahualpa) and a Peruvian one (Huascar).
      In this brief fifty-year period, the Inkas with their great civilizing
project which imposed their superior religion, language, and customs on the
barbarians which surrounded them were able to destroy more indigenous cultures
than the Spanish which came after them. Nevertheless, in non-Quichua place
names and in communal historical memories the idea remains among Ecuador's
indigenous people that they are not Inkas. This imperial expansion did not
happen without important resistance from the current occupants, such as the
Canaris in the southern highlands and the Caranqui, Cochasqui, Otavalo, and
Cayambe people in the northern highlands. Perhaps more than anywhere else in
Ecuador, this non-Inka identity persisted most strongly in Antisuyu, the
geographical region which formed the northeast quarter of Tawantinsuyu (the
Inka Empire) and today is known as the Oriente. For the Inkas this region,
which stretched the length of the eastern slopes of the Andes from Bolivia to
Ecuador, was a place where coca grew, jaguars roamed, and wild uncivilized
savages lived.  Although Antisuyu began not far from the Inka capital city of
Cuzco, its wildness and disorder were completely foreign to the highly struc-
tured and disciplined life to which the Inkas were accustomed.  The Inkas
feared the people who lived there and called them antis, which means "savag-
es." Although the Inkas held military superiority over the people who lived in
Antisuyu and made numerous attempts to subjugate them, the Inkas never com-
pletely conquered or politically controlled the region, nor were they ever
entirely comfortable with its presence so close to their civilization.  It
formed a Siberian-style exile grounds which the Inkas could use to punish
capital crimes by sentencing offenders to spend the rest of their lives
working in the Inkas' coca fields.  The Inkas, therefore, saw a clear division
between their organized, rational world of the sierra and the confusing,
unorganized world of the selva.  Although the lowland tropical forest cultures
contributed a great deal to highland Andean cultures, and the Inkas relied on
Antisuyu for many of their products, it was an area that they feared and never
really understood.  Antisuyu represented something wild and untamed that
needed to be subdued in order to become a part of the efficient and productive
empire of Tawantinsuyu.
      There is a good deal of continuity between how the Inkas perceived
Antisuyu and how the Spanish saw it.  The Spanish came into the new world
fresh from a holy crusade to expel the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula, and
they carried this crusading mentality with them as they first overthrew the
Aztec and Inka empires and then pushed inland toward Antisuyu in search of
wealthy empires to overthrow. The Spanish conquistadors quickly came to fear
the region and the people who inhabited it. Misunderstanding and tension have
been the norm between the "center" and the "margins" (as viewed from the
perspective of the dominant culture).  Throughout history, external dominant
cultures have always viewed Antisuyu as something that needed to be subdued.  
      During the colonial period, the Spanish incorporated what is now Ecuador
into their administrative system as the Audiencia of Quito under the Viceroy-
alty of Peru. Spanish efforts to press the indigenous population into servi-
tude resulted in uprisings against this repression and the abuses of colonial
institutions, censuses, tribute payments, and labor drafts. This was a popular
movement, but it was not unified. Due to its local and isolated nature it
lacked a broad social or national vision for change. Forms of resistance
included suicide, fleeing to inhospitable regions, killing Spanish, etc. What
emerges, therefore, is not the traditional picture of Indians passively
accepting Spanish rule, but increasing resistance (especially during the eigh-
teenth century) with more than one hundred uprisings which resulted in the
elimination of the encomienda, mita, and eventually political independence for
Ecuador.
      Political independence from Spain came to Ecuador on May 24, 1822, after
the successful Battle of Pichincha. For eight years Ecuador was part of the
Confederation of Gran Colombia with Colombia and Venezuela, before becoming an
independent country in 1830. Although indigenous people made up a large part
of the independence army, the movement for independence was largely an affair
of elite creoles. A white minority ruled the resulting independent republic.
Graffiti which appeared on walls in Quito stated that it was the "last day of
despotism and the first day of the same" (CEDIS no. 2 1985:26) Despite the
large role which indigenous peoples played in gaining independence for
Ecuador, it resulted in little change in their social and economic life.
Racial discrimination (including slavery in Ecuador) continued, a small elite
continued to control the country, and women were still excluded from political
life. Independence was not a process of national liberation for the great
majority of Ecuador's population; the system of exploitation simply continued
under different forms. To the indigenous population, it did not make much
difference that Ecuador was a free and independent country. Cultural diversity
was not recognized, and indigenous rights to education, land, and culture were
repressed. Rather, political leaders presented the idea that Ecuador was a
unitary state built upon a European culture. Consequently, indigenous upris-
ings continued even after independence from Spain.
      During the nineteenth century there was a continual struggle for
political control of the country, and much of the twentieth century has been
marked by a series of military dictatorships. The nineteenth century saw the
emergence of a liberal ideology which championed freedom of work, commerce,
conscience, and education. The name most associated with the Ecuadorian brand
of liberalism is Eloy Alfaro. Like most liberal leaders, Alfaro was from the
coast (he was born in the city of Montecristi in the province of Manabi, north
of Guayaquil). He led numerous revolts against the conservative government of
Gabriel Garcia Moreno. Conservative abuses led to the rallying of popular
forces, including indigenous people, peasants, and workers, to a radical
liberal movement led by Alfaro. According to a history of popular struggles in
Ecuador, this "was the only movement which identified with the suffering of
the people and their aspirations for liberty" (CEDIS no. 2 1985:4. The result
was that in 1895 General Eloy Alfaro and his liberal army led a campesino
insurrection which took control of the country. Alfaro promulgated a new
constitution which guaranteed separation of church and state and freedom of
religion, provided for the secularization of education, instituted civil
marriage and divorce, outlawed racial and social discrimination, and created a
professional army. As a bourgois revolution, however, the liberal revolution
was limited and partial because it "did not produce all of the transformations
which the society required" (CEDIS no. 2 1985:30).
      Twentieth-century Ecuador has been marked by a series of popular
organizing efforts. One of the first major working-class organizing efforts
was a general strike in Guayaquil which was brutally suppressed by the
military. The strike resulted in a bloody massacre on November 15, 1922, in
which hundreds of workers lost their lives.
      In 1926 leftists founded the Ecuadorian Socialist Party, which soon
became very fractionalized with a pro-Stalin split forming the Ecuadorian
Communist Party in 1931. Nevertheless, as Enrique Ayala Mora has noted, "since
the 1920s socialism has constituted one of the most dynamic ideological
influences in Ecuador" (Mora 1993:94). In many ways, the socialist left
continued the reformist tradition of nineteenth-century liberal radicalism
including struggles for secularism and educational reform.
      Popular organizing efforts in the 1930s and 1940s came from two differ-
ent poles. The Catholic Church, together with the Conservative Party, orga-
nized the first national labor union, the CEDOC (Confederacion Ecuatoriana de
Obreros Catolicos, or the Ecuadorian Confederation of Catholic Workers).
Although founded with a reactionary anti-socialist and anti-communist ideology
which opposed the idea of class struggle, the emergence of CEDOC was an
important development in the emergence of popular organizations in Ecuador.
      In 1944, the left (in particular, the Communist Party) organized the CTE
(Confederacion de Trabajadores del Ecuador, or the Confederation of Ecuadorian
Workers) which in turn launched the FEI (Federacion Ecuadoriana de Indios, or
the Ecuadorian Federation of Indians), Ecuador's first national peas-
ant/indigenous organization. Beginning in the 1960s with the influence of the
Cuban Revolution and reforms in the Catholic Church, progressive religious
personnel became critical in the organization of popular forces for social
change.
      Since 1979 the government has been in civilian hands, but despite the
return to democracy and a relatively peaceful climate, the indigenous and
peasant populations are still largely excluded from political power and a role
in national culture.


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