History History

Human occupation on the coast and in the Sierra. Stone tools. Preceramic period.

Maize is already known in Ecuador.

Real Alto, near Valdivia, is a metropolis with 1,500 to 3,000 inhabitants. Archaeological studies have revealed that they belong to the Valdivia, Machallilla, Guangala and Manteño-Huancavilca cultures.

The Valdivia culture is the oldest formative culture in Ecuador, where it developed mainly in the coastal areas of the Guayas d'El Oro and Santa Elena provinces. Vast collections of ceramics remain in the country's various museums.

It was followed around 1800 BC by the Machalilla culture, distinguished by its distinctive, often hollow ceramics, which were probably used as containers and mostly depicted women.

The Chorrera culture, which flourished from around 1300 to 300 BC, was one of the most widespread in pre-Columbian Ecuador, stretching from the coast to the Andes and as far as the Colombian border.

Period of regional development, based on organized ethnic groups, on the coast and in the Sierra. Metal work (gold, copper, lead, silver and platinum).

Regrouping and beginning of embryonic states. From the 8th century, appearance of the Caras, who founded the kingdom of Quito.

The kingdom of Quito extends from the south of Colombia to the north of Peru. The Caras, who arrived from the coast to find more fertile land, took control of the Quito region around the year 1000 and imposed their monarchical system, whose leader is known as the Scyris. There were about fifteen Scyrians between the year 1000 and 1475.

Beginning of the conquest by the Incas of the kingdom of Quito. The Caras-Quitus and the Incas enter in war and the Incas begin to win battles, starting with the fortress of Tiojacas.

The last Scyri was killed by the Incas at Lake Jaguacocha in 1475 and the Inca king Huayna Capac married his daughter. At his death, the latter bequeathed his kingdom to his son, Atahualpa, born from this union.

Christopher Columbus brings America to Europe.

The Spanish pilot Bartolomé Ruíz lands on the Ecuadorian coast after leading Pizarro, Diego de Almagro and their 160 men to Colombia, which they will invade. He then continued to Ecuador, which he was the first European to discover. He explored the entire coastline and named Cape San Francisco in honour of Pizarro.

Death of the Inca Huayna Cápac and coronation of Atahualpa.

War between the two Inca emperor brothers Huascar and Atahualpa, the first one being finally defeated, then assassinated.

Atahualpa, his half-brother born around 1500 from the union of his father Huayna Capac with the daughter of the last of the Scyri, took power after this fratricidal war and is still considered today as the last Inca emperor. He was captured by Pizarro who, after obtaining a huge gold ransom from the Inca people, got rid of him claiming to have been betrayed.

Francisco Pizarro lands in Tumbéz, in the north of present-day Peru.

Pizarro goes to Cajamarca and sends emissaries to Atahualpa, one of the Inca chiefs, proposing an unarmed meeting.

Pizarro captures the Inca chief Atahualpa by treachery, the conquistadores came armed while the Incas kept their word...

Atahualpa delivers to Pizarro six tons of gold in order to obtain his release, but contrary to the promise made to him, he does not regain his freedom. In order to avoid an uprising, Pizarro had him executed after an expeditious trial and proclaimed a new Inca, Topa Hualpa, Atahualpa's younger brother, the new Inca leader. But he died of cholera shortly afterwards.

After helping Pizarro in battles against the Incas, Sebastián de Benalcázar left to conquer Quito. Quito was the city of the northernmost region of the Inca Empire, but before Benalcázar's arrival, the Inca general Rumiñahui sent the city's treasure deep into the Andes and burned the city. Benalcázar founded the new city of Quito with Diego de Almagro and named it "San Francisco de Quito". Foundation of the first bishopric of Quito.

(Final) foundation of Guayaquil by Francisco de Orellana.

An expedition led by Francisco de Orellana leaves for the Oriente, hoping to discover gold and bring it back to the crown.

Supporters of Diego de Almagro stormed Pizarro's palace in Lima (now Ecuador) and stabbed him to death. He was succeeded by Vaca de Castro, who beheaded the young Almagro initially chosen to replace Pizarro.

The expedition to the East, led by Francisco de Orellana, discovered the Amazon and descended the Amazon. The expedition arrived in the Atlantic in August 1542, although everyone thought that its members had disappeared during the long journey.

This period saw an internal war between the supporters of Gonzalo Pizarro, Francisco's brother and the supporters of Almagro. This war will last 7 years, until Gonzalo Pizarro who was in disagreement with the Spanish crown had to surrender and was beheaded.

The Royal Audience (real audiencia) of Quito became the highest court of the Spanish Crown in the territories of the province or presidency of Quito, within the Viceroyalty of Peru, which later became part of the Viceroyalty of New Granada

Installation in Lima of a court of the Inquisition, with jurisdiction over Ecuador.

Riobamba is considered to be the first Spanish city founded on the lands of present-day Ecuador in 1534, under the name of Santiago de Quito. On July 9, 1575, Antonio de Rivera and Don Ruy Díaz de Fuenmayor renamed it San Pedro de Riobamba.

In July 1586, the first four Jesuits settled in Quito: the priests Baltasar Piñas, Diego González, Diego Hinojosa and Brother Juan de Santiago. Proselytism and education were the fundamental objectives of Ignacio de Loyola's children in America

This was one of the first political demonstrations of the people of Quito against the Spanish authorities. It took place between July 1592 and April 1593, at a time when Don Manuel Barros de San Millán was president of the royal audience of Quito. It originated in the creation of a new tax by the Spanish crown. It was a failure and its organizers were severely repressed.

The City of San Miguel de Ibarra was founded on September 28, 1606 by Captain Cristóbal de Troya, under the order of Miguel de Ibarra, then President of the Royal Court of Quito and under the mandate of King Felipe of Spain.

A smallpox epidemic hits Ecuador, wiping out a third of its original population. At the time, the number of natives was estimated at 1 million before the pandemic.

In 1736, the first French geodetic mission, organized by the Paris Academy of Sciences, reached the coast of Ecuador to measure an arc of the Earth's meridian and, by this means, define the exact shape of our planet. The participants in this mission were the mathematician Louis Godin, who led the expedition, the mathematician and astronomer Pierre Bouguer and the geographer Charles de La Condamine. They were accompanied by a naturalist, a physician and some technicians.

The Revolution of the Drunkards or Revolution of the Quito quarters, was a riot against taxation in the city of Quito. The population of Quito rose up against an increase in taxes on alcohol (tobacco) by the colonial authorities, which became a transversal conflict between the colonial Spaniards (called "chapetones" in the conflict) and the city's Creoles.

Seeing the power that the Jesuits were taking in Ecuador as in the rest of the Spanish colonies, Charles III decided to expel them.

Inca cacique, José Gabriel Condorcanqui, adopted the name of Tupac Amaru II claiming to be a descendant of the famous Cacique Tupac Amaru and led the most formidable indigenous revolution of the colonial era, to protest against the bad treatment suffered by the Indians.

Execution of Tupac Amaru. The indigenous struggle continues for several months.

The first cry for independence was heard in 1809 from the Creoles, who demanded greater autonomy without actually aiming for independence, as they did not yet want to lose the support of the Spanish crown. Quito became independent just a few months before being taken back by the Spanish crown in 1810, under the control of the Viceroy of Peru. The date of August 1809 remains an important one in the construction of modern Ecuador, and has been chosen as the date of the country's national holiday.

The independence of the city of Guayaquil is a process of independence that took place with the aim of breaking the colonial ties that existed between the territory of the province of Guayaquil and the Spanish empire, and which gave way to the emergence of the Free Province of Guayaquil. The independence of Guayaquil marked the beginning of the War of Independence of the Royal Audience of Quito within the framework of the emancipatory wars of Spanish America. Among the most influential factors for its unleashing, we can highlight the will of the Creoles, who had a high social and economic status, to obtain political power.

Success of the Patriot armed forces at Riobamba (April 21), then victory at Pichincha (May 24) over the Spaniards. Bolívar enters Quito. The two liberators, Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín, meet in Guayaquil on July 26. Bolívar campaigns to integrate Quito, Riobamba and Loja into Colombia. Only Guayaquil remained independent, prompting Bolívar to travel to Guayaquil in July 1822 to integrate the province into Colombia, like its neighbors.

Born in 1783 in Caracas, Simon Bolivar was to become one of the greatest resistants against the Spanish crown. Born into a family of Creoles (descendants of Spaniards born in the country), he devoted his life to the defense of minorities. Considered a hero in Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and Ecuador, he is still called "El Libertador" by most of the peoples of northern South America.

Tensions in the region between Peru, Gran Colombia and Ecuador would lead to the independence of Ecuador, which would soon promulgate its first constitution as an independent republic.

Ecuador breaks away from Gran Colombia, which disappears as a state, and declares itself free and independent. The first constitution of the State of Ecuador is written by a group of 21 representatives of the country's various provinces. General Juan José Flores is appointed first President of the State of Ecuador. Flores is forced to relinquish a large portion of territory to Colombia (in 1822, Ecuador covered an area of 700,000 km²).

Accused of imperialist designs, lonely and desperate, Bolívar died in December 1831, in Santa Marta, Colombia. "El Libertador", Simón Bolívar officially died of tuberculosis, but many experts now believe he died of slow arsenic poisoning.

Incorporation of the Galapagos Islands into the new independent republic of Ecuador, which makes it a prison and a place of forced labour.

In 1851, General José María Urbina took power and issued a decree to free the slaves. A year later, the Constituent Assembly ratified the decree.

It was in this year that Moreno assumed full power. His "reign" lasted until his assassination in 1875. Born into an aristocratic family of landowners, he took part in the revolutionary movement that led to the removal of President Juan José Flores and the triumph of the Roca administration in 1846.

The Salesians took on the evangelization of the Shuar (Jivaros).

The Liberal Revolution in Ecuador was a process of political and economic transformation within the Republic of Ecuador that pitted the ruling liberals and conservatives against each other, leading to a civil war. The liberals were victorious and Eloy Alfaro became president of the Republic in January 1897.

This year will be the year of the beginning of the railroad with the establishment of the Guayaquil-Quito line.

Murder of Eloy Alfaro.

Bloody repression of the general strike in Guayaquil, which will result in a thousand deaths.

The July Revolution began when the so-called Military League overthrew President Gonzalo Córdova on July 9, 1925, replacing him with an eight-member government junta. This revolution, historians say, was of vital importance to Ecuador. Power remained in the hands of the revolutionary junta until 1931 when President Ayra was forced to resign in the face of numerous popular demonstrations against the backdrop of the world economic crisis.

First presidency of José María Velasco Ibarra.

The war between Peru and Ecuador, also known as the War of '41, was one of many armed conflicts that broke out between these two South American countries due to their age-old territorial dispute and the lack of recognized and accepted borders between the two countries.

After the war, the two countries signed the Rio de Janeiro Protocol, which took away almost half of Ecuador's territory, mainly in the Amazon and the southern Sierra, to Peru.

The military took power and held it until 1966. The ruling junta developed a progressive and social policy, while distancing itself from Cuba, for example, in its international policy. It was behind the first agrarian reform in 1964, which effectively eliminated Huasipungo, a slavery-like form of employment for indigenous people in the countryside. The reform also provided for the recovery of Church and State lands, and the distribution of virgin Amazonian lands (actually belonging to indigenous ethnic groups) to settlers from the Sierra. The junta displeased the big landowners; the people were disappointed; development and a return to democracy were slow in coming. On March 23, 1966, as the banana boom drew to a close, the Guayaquil Chamber of Commerce called a general strike. It was widely followed. On March 29, the junta renounced power (^17th Constitution).

Velasco Ibarra was elected president for the fifth time (1934-1935, 1944-1947, 1952-1956, 1960-1961 and 1968-1972). During this last term, Ecuador joined the Andean Pact (with Venezuela, Peru, Colombia and Bolivia), whose objective was economic independence and protection of the national economies of each of the five countries (this objective, severely compromised by inadequate communications, border wars and the absence of an industrial infrastructure, had recently changed direction). The aim is to attract foreign capital and open up to the liberalization of Latin American economies. Vested with dictatorial powers, Ibarra suspended the Constitution in 1970. In 1972, he was deposed by the military and replaced by General Guillermo Rodríguez Lara.

Signature of the Andean Pact, an economic integration organization to which Ecuador belongs.

General Guillermo Rodríguez Lara formed a nationalist and revolutionary government. This new military government proposed to react against the stranglehold of the large international companies on Ecuador's oil wealth. This stranglehold had been in place since 1964, practically without any compensation for the country. One third of the country, including the entire Gulf of Guayaquil, is under concession. Among the first measures taken to ensure state control of the oil were restrictions on the extent and duration of concessions to foreign companies.

In 1975, a military putsch forced Rodríguez Lara to hand over power to a Supreme Governing Council representing the three armies. The Council promised to hand over power to civilians after two years. The end of his reign was marked by the abandonment of the reform policy and by a violent repression of the workers' movements (the strike of the workers of the AZTRA sugar refinery ended in October 1977 in a bloodbath).

The 1978 elections were marked by the adoption of the eighteenth Constitution and the accession to power of Jaime Roldós (who went on to become Ecuador's most popular president). Although Jaime Roldós was not backed by forces powerful enough to challenge the country's socio-economic structures, he did implement a major literacy campaign and several major public works projects. But it was above all his foreign policy that made him a leading figure: a resolute defense of human rights and the interests of the Third World in general, and the Andean countries in particular.

Such a policy did not go entirely in the direction desired by the United States. Ronald Reagan, who came to power in 1981, had every intention of holding Latin America. Hence a series of attempts by the US Secret Service to destabilize President Roldós, and the establishment by the same service of espionage outposts, including the Summer Linguistic Institute, which was supposed to disseminate translations of the Bible in the various languages of the forest Indians.

On May 24, 1981, two days after signing the decree expelling the Summer Language Institute, President Roldós, his wife and several members of the government were killed in a plane crash. A few weeks later, another opponent of U.S. policy, Panamanian General Omar Torrijos, was killed in a plane crash. Since the death of Jaime Roldós, the principles of neo-liberalism have been applied in Ecuador. As in the whole of Latin America, the economic policy imposed by the International Monetary Fund is accompanied by an increase in unemployment and poverty. The public sector is privatised, the exploitation of national wealth is opened up to foreign companies. And, as in the other countries of the Andean Pact, cocaine money is helping to prop up a faltering economy.

The first major indigenous uprising. In the collective memory of Ecuador, from the 1990s onwards, the organizational structure of the indigenous movement became a reference point for social movements, organizations and collectives.

11,000 km² recognized as property of three groups of indigenous Amazonians.

Election of President Sixto Durán Ballén.

Election of the President of the Republic Abdalá Bucaram Ortíz (Ecuadorian Roldosist Party).

Signature in Santiago de Chile of a new peace agreement between Peru and Ecuador, supposed to put an end to the border conflict between the two countries since 1942.

After his election in 1996, Abdala Bucaram Ortíz plunged the country into a new political crisis. His disconcerting behavior, austerity programs that led to a resurgence in inflation, and intemperate statements led Parliament to dismiss him for "mental and physical incapacity" in February 1997, following a general strike.

In July 1998, Jamil Mahuad, a Christian Democrat and former mayor of Quito, was elected. The economic and financial crisis linked to the collapse of the Asian economy led him to declare a state of emergency on several occasions.

Dollarization of the Ecuadorian economy and currency by President Jamil Mahuad, immediately overthrown by a military junta (led by Colonel Lucio Gutiérrez) supporting the revolt of the people. General Mesa, at the head of another junta, then ousted Gutiérrez. President Gustavo Noboa of the same party as Mahuad took over the leadership of Ecuador.

Lucio Gutiérrez was elected President of the Republic, thanks to the support of the indigenous party MUPP-NP.

President Gutiérrez, losing credibility, dissolved the Supreme Court of Justice by recomposing it to allow the return of former presidents convicted of corruption: Bucaram, Noboa and Dahik. Despite the support of the United States, Gutiérrez was overthrown by the Ecuadorian people gathered en masse in Quito. On April 21, Alfredo Palacio was named interim president of the Republic of Ecuador, until the end of Lucio Gutiérrez's term. New presidential elections are scheduled for 2006.

Rafael Correa was elected president on 26 November on a programme advocating a citizen's revolution through radical reforms, particularly in favour of the poorest, the renegotiation of the country's debt, a complete overhaul of the oil agreements, the non-renewal of the agreement with the United States on the Manta base, and the end of a power in the hands of corrupt political elites

Rafael Correa was invested president on January 14 in Zumbahua, a village in the Andes, in front of 20,000 Indians and in the presence of the Venezuelan Hugo Chávez and the Bolivian Evo Morales. Correa is the first president elected with a real left-wing programme, likened by his opponents to Hugo Chavez. He is an economist who studied in Belgium and is popular with the country's working classes.

In March 2007, there were already demonstrations in the country, when 57 parliamentarians who rejected the idea of a Constituent Assembly opposed Rafael Correa and the Supreme Court. The same year, the president proposed to the international community to finance the non-exploitation of the oil located in the Yasuni park, under the Amazonian forest. The richest reservoir of biodiversity in the country. The financing will never arrive...

Adoption by referendum, with nearly 70% of "yes" votes, of the new Constitution laying the foundations of "21st century socialism".

Rafael Correa was re-elected President of the Republic of Ecuador with nearly 52% of the vote.

A political crisis leads to a police mutiny. President Rafael Correa is put in danger, but the military re-establishes the situation.

As part of a policy of reform, the government has organized a constitutional referendum, a popular consultation allowing the population to give its opinion on 10 issues in the following areas: the judiciary, security, the environment, the banking system and the media (among others).

Rafael Correa grants political asylum to Julian Assange, the Australian founder of Wikileaks, who is on trial for rape and espionage. Taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, he cannot reach Latin America at the risk of being arrested by the British authorities. The Ecuadorian president's gesture was deemed "anti-imperialist" by many countries.

Rafael Correa was re-elected with 56.7% of the vote, against 23.3% for his main rival Guillermo Lasso, a former banker and member of Opus Dei. The president gave up the project to protect the Yasuni in the Amazon for lack of international support.

The Constitutional Court makes it possible to change the constitution so that all terms of office, including that of the Head of State, can be renewed indefinitely.

Visit of Pope Francis to South America and thus to Ecuador (Guayaquil and Quito).

Demonstrations throughout the country by opponents of the Correa government. The crowd wants the president to leave, accusing him of corruption. The latter denounced a conspiracy by the right-wing opposition.

An earthquake of magnitude 7.8 was felt in the city of Muisne, near Esmeralda, on the Pacific coast. The toll was heavy: 668 dead, 8 missing, 6,274 injured and 29,067 homeless. In July, two new tremors of a magnitude of 6.2 and 5.9 hit the region, weakening the buildings even more.

Lenín Moreno, 64 years old, candidate of the left-wing party Alianza País, won by a short head in the second round of the Ecuadorian presidential election. He succeeds President Correa of whom he was for a long time the Prime Minister, but from whom he very quickly detached himself after his election.

Lenín Moreno announced Ecuador's withdrawal from the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). Various countries questioned the effectiveness of this organization and accused it of promoting an ideology, which was not its initial role. With the departure of Ecuador, UNASUR has become an almost empty shell, since of the 12 countries that initially made it up, only 5 remain (Venezuela, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and Uruguay). It should be noted that the headquarters of UNASUR was in Quito and that its immense premises are now abandoned, awaiting a concrete project for reuse. The conservative countries of Latin America have initiated a new union excluding Venezuela in particular, it is called PROSUR, let us hope that it will be able to federate these 12 countries which have never succeeded in forming a block at the international level until now.

As in most countries around the world, the Covid-19 pandemic is taking center stage. The city of Guayaquil was particularly hard hit at the start of the crisis.

Guillermo Lasso, former president of the association of private banks of Ecuador, succeeded in his third attempt to take power. He narrowly qualified for the second round by beating the indigenous candidate, Andrès Arauz, by only 0.4% of the votes (19.74% against 19.39%), but far behind Correa's candidate who obtained 32.72% in the first round. The centrist candidate and a large part of the indigenous population decided to block the road to Correa's supporters and Guillermo Lasso was elected with 52.4% of the vote, but he did not have an absolute majority in the National Assembly and would have to make alliances to govern

President Guillermo Lasso, in the midst of a political storm, decided to apply what is known here as "la muerte cruzada", i.e. the dissolution of the Assembly coupled with the resignation of the President. He even decided not to stand for re-election. New elections were therefore to be held in August and October 2023, to elect a president who would remain in office until the end of the initial term, in May 2025.

After a violent election campaign dotted with murders, including that of one of the candidates, Fernando Villavicencio, the presidential elections ended with the election of Daniel Roy Gilchrist Noboa Azín, born in Miami and heir to one of Ecuador's wealthiest families, specialized in banana exports from Guayaquil and the surrounding region.