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Ecuador history
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Pre-Colombian times and colonization
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Advanced indigenous cultures flourished in
Ecuador long before the area was conquered by the Inca empire
in the 15th century. |
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In 1534, the Spanish arrived and defeated
the Inca armies, and Spanish colonists became the new elite.
The indigenous population was decimated by disease in the
first decades of Spanish rule — a time when the natives also
were forced into the "encomienda" labor system for Spanish
landlords. In 1563, Quito became the seat of a royal
"audiencia" (administrative district) of Spain. |
Independence
After independence forces defeated the
royalist army in 1822, Ecuador joined Simon Bolivar's Republic
of Gran Colombia, only to become a separate republic on May
13, 1830.
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The 19th century was marked by instability,
with a rapid succession of rulers. |
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The conservative Gabriel Garcia Moreno
unified the country in the 1860s with the support of the
Catholic Church. In the late 1800s, world demand for cocoa
tied the economy to commodity exports and led to migrations
from the highlands to the agricultural frontier on the coast.
How do I travel around the islands? |
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