The Historical Background:Ecuador as a Spanish Colony

CHAPTER I.

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: ECUADOR AS ASPANISH COWNy.1

Prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, Ecuadorappears to have been inhabited by some fifty inde-pendent tribes among which the Quiros held themost important position, centered about what is nowthe city of Quito, and extending over an area of aboutfifty square leagues. About 280 A. D" the Caras,"a foreign tribe of unknown origin, are said (0 haveforced their way inland from the coast up the valleyof the Esmeraldas and founded the town of Care-quez. GuaduaJly they expanded the area of thei rcentral region until they reached Quito, where theyimplanted their type of life and definitely settledfor about 1200 years, when the region was conquer-ed by the Incas and annexed to thei r dominion inwhat is now Peru. Thus the Inca Empire reachedits greatest territorial extent, stretching from AngasMayu, now in Colombia, to the river Maule in thepresent Chile.

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When-the expedition of Francisco Pizarro cameto San"'Mateo near the mouth of the Esmeraldasriver':;n" 1526 the Spanish warriors saw cultivated

..f.icldsl huts and a few curious spectators, astonished"st the sight of the approaching strangers. They en-'countered also a boat full of Indian traders, whotold them of great stores of wealth in gold and silverin the palace at the chief at Tumbea. Meanwhile,PIZarro himself, who had penetrated inland to theriver San Juan, returned in a mood of discourage-ment which was promptly succeeded by joy oversuch good news. Prudence, however, suggested thedesirability of obtaining help from Panama beforeentering upon the occupation of the region. Pizarro,accordingly, in agreement with his partner, Diegode Almagro, was to remain at the Island of Gallo,awaiting reinforcements.

When Huayna Capac, the Inca ruler, heard ofthe appearance of the strangers on the coasts of hisempire, he started at once for Quito, where he ar-rived ill. Knowing that he had not long to live, hedecided co divide his realm into two parts, leavingthe southern dominion, with its capital at Cczcc, tothe heir apparent, Huascar, and the kingdom ofQuito to his favorite son, Atahualpa. Very soon,however, war broke out between the two, OWing toHuascar's pretensions to supremacy over the entireempire. By 1531 AtahuaJpa had triumphed, andhad reunited the Inca realm, though seriously weak-ened by the prolonged struggle. The fortunatemonarch, however, did not enjoy his success. Piaar-

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ro and the Spaniards were already at the door, andby 1533 the fate of the country was sealed.

From Caraquez, where they collected gold andemeralds, the Spanish conquerors followed the coastof Manabi up to the island of Puna. Here at firstthey were well received, but their exorbitant de-mands compelled the islanders to rise in arms againstthem. When the newcomers learned of the strug-gle between Atahualpa and Huascar, they seized theopportunity tor intervention. At Tumbez, how-ever, where some of the Spaniards were treacher-ously killed, Pizarro decided to save his forces fora bolder enterprise. He stationed himself at Paira,a strategic point further to the southward, and with100 soldiers and 70 horses started upon his famousexpedition for the conquest of Peru. The events ofthis undertaking, as well as the fate of Atahualpa,are too well known to be repeated here.

With the conquest of Peru the personal anddespotic government of the Incas came to a close.It was replaced by anarchy. Ruminahui (stone-face), an Indian leader, well-known for his valorand cruelty, had come to Quito with his followersin the early months of 1533 to take possession ofpower for the time being, hut with the intentionof succeeding Atahualpa. In vain .were the at-tempts of the native nobles to induce Rumiriahui tosurrender the treasures there as ransom for the Incachieftain. They sent, however, their own personalwealth for the purpose. On the way they met Her-nando Pizarro to whom they 9urrendered the trees-

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UTes and in return received the body of the Inca,which they took to Quito. Ruminahui treacher-ously killed the nobles at a banquet and proclaimedhimself king. The chiefs of the army were changed.Many of the leaders would not pledge allegianceand preferred to fall into the hands of strangersrather than yield. The Canares, another tribe, op-posed Rumii\ahui and allied themselves with theSpanish captain, Sebastian Bena1coizar, who wasthen marching northward from Peru at the head of140 soldiers.

Guided by the Cartares, the Spaniards reachedLcja. Many Indians joined them on the way andbrought them provisions and information. In aprc:liminary encounter, the natives lost 600, and theSpaniards three. Ruminahui thereupon raised anarmy ot 11,000, which defeated Benalcazar. On thenight of the battle, however, Mount Cotopaxi wasin eruption. The terrorized Indians who had neverseen such a spectacle before fled, practically leavingthe country to the invaders.

Benalcasar entered Liribamba {Riobamba)which had been abandoned. Many Indians pledgedthemselves to him. In the meantime Rumiftahuilaid waste the country as he passed on to Quito. Heburied his treasures that have since become a sourceof many legends, burned the town, and fled to themountains of Llanganate.

In December 1533, Benalcazar entered Quitowhich was in complete ruins. For his great priva-tions he consoled himself with having gold dug from

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the tombs. Leaving the cruel Juan de Ampudia incharge there, he returned to Riobamba in 1534 toestablish there the capital of the Spanish dominion.

Meanwhile Pedro de Alvarado landed withmany Spaniards at the Bay of Caraquez in Marchof the same year. From Portoviejo he determinedto go to Quito, which he supposed had not been con-quered. Guided by an Indian, he passed throughthe forests and reached the river Daule where hisguide left him. A·fter many privations and the lossof a fourth of his men, he reached the central plains.A Imagro, on the other hand, sent up by Pizarro, join-ed Benalcizar and made the necessary preparationsto resist Alvarado, who compromised and returnedwith a large sum of gold to Guatemala, which he hadconquered some years before. Quisquis, the lastgeneral of Atahualpa to attempt a restoration ofthe empire, fled from Almagro and was defeated byBenalcazar, who tried his best to repopulate Rio-bamba, while Ampudia in his search for gold op-pressed the Indians most cruelly.

These abuses ceased with the arrival of the con-queror, who took possession of Quito December 6,1534 in the name of the Spanish king. Here Benet-casar organized a government, rebuilt the principaltowns, such as Latacunga, Ambato, Mocha, Chimbo.Alausi, Canar, Cayambe, Otavalo and others, whilethe Indians submitted to the new masters.

Later, Benalcazar founded the posts of Mantaand Guayaquil, leaving Diego Daza as governorthere. He then returned to Quito. He carried out

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an expedition in 1536 to Candas and Ouijos whichwere famous for their riches. In the meantime Gua-yaquil had been destroyed by the Indians. On hear-ing this, Pizarro sent Zarea trom Lima to restoreorder. Guayaquil was then founded for the secondtime. The Indians regained their independence oncemere until for the third time the town was foundedin 1537 by Francisco de Orellana.

Benalcazar extended his conquests northward toPopayan, in the present Colombia, discovering therich regions of the Cauca River. He also discoveredthe Magdalena River and in 1538 established SanSebastian de la Plata. A fter three years absence, hereturned to Quito, which he found large and prosper·ous under the leadership of Juan Diaz de Hidalgo.Benalcaaar continued his way to Lima with greatwealth as the result of the exploration of the mines.He had under his command the lands that he hadjust conquered from Pastas to the north, while thekingdom of Quito was entrusted for a while to Gon-zaJo Pizarro.

It was not until after the arrival in 1546of Pedrode la Gasca, a Spanish ecclesiastic of great abilityto whom the duty had been entrusted at establishingorder in the newly conquered regions, that the bound-aries were determined for the provinces of Popayanand Quito, and the various dioceses into which theywere divided. The bishop of Quito, whose diocesehad been erected in 1545, received the territory fromthe River Mayo on the north to the sixth degree oflatitude on the south, including within his territory

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the province of Pastas, on the north, all those of thekingdom of Quito in the centre, and that of SanMiguel de Piura in the south.

As soon as the rivalries and struggles of theperiod of the conquest had been suppressed, what isnow known as Ecuador was organized in 1563underthe name of the Presidency of Ouito, commonlycalled the Kingdom of Quito, and comprised a fargreater territory than does the present. republic. Itincluded on the north, Pasta, Pcpayan, Cali, Rugaand Buenaventura. On the south it stretched as faras Paita and jaen, and on the east, as the towns ofCanclos and Quijos up to the mouth of the YavariRiver. Politically, until the eighteenth century, itformed part of the viceroyalty of. Peru, and there-after, of the viceroyalty of New Granada, whichcomprised the "audiencias" of Quito, Santa Fe deBogota and Caracas. The local government of theprovince was entrusted to a board of magistratesknown as the "audiencia". In political and militarymatters, Quito was subject first to the viceroy of Peruand later to the viceroy of New Granada, and inecclesiastical matters to the archbishop of Lima.

In general the life in Ecuador during the colonialperiod was a peaceful one. The religious orders, andin particular the Franciscans, Dominicans, August-inians and Jesuits, extended their quieting and civil-izing force! far into the erstwhile land of the Incas.On the, sea coast there were occasional assaults bypirates. About 1624 the viceroy of Peru, Ariola,sent troops to punish them. In 1709 the Englishman

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Clipperton bribed the "cotregtdor", or local magis-trate, of Guayaquil and sacked the city. In the lat-ter part of the eighteenth century the English sackedAtacames and Esmeraldas.

Among the Bourishing towns of the time, in ad.clition to Quito and Guayaquil, were Mecca, Avila,Archidona, Mendoza and Sevilla de Oro. When-ever the Indians rebelled, many of the inhabitantstook refuge in Quiw. On one of these occasions, in1602, the Jesuit Father Ferrer was despatched todeal with the Indians. During the course of hisactivities he founded San Pedro de Cofanes, ex-plored the Amazon and discovered the Putumayo.The savages rebelled once more. In Logrono 12,000and in Sevilla de Oro 19,000 Europeans and nativesare said (with some exaggeration) to have perished.But on the whole, between 1550 and 1809, the num-ber of uprisings was scant and few of them were at,II serious.

In general the presidents of the "audiencia" ofQuito paid little attention to education. It was thereligious orders that did so. In 1589 the first coursein philosophy was started. Five years later theJesuits founded at the capital town the College ofSt. Louis, and in 1620 the University of St. Gregory.The Franciscans in 1567 and the Dominicans in1688 also had colleges of their own. In 1786 theDominicans united the University of Sf. Gregorywith a new one under the name of St. Thomas. Sti 11another university founded during the colonialperiod was that of San Fulgencio. There were thus

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three universities in spite of the relatively smallpopulation. At the close of the seventeenth century.furthermore, Mateo de Mara Ponce de Leon estab-lished an orphanage and was greatly interested inthe education of the Indians, trying to have themlearn Spanish.

The Jesuits placed at the head of their education-al institutions competent men brought from Spainand France. Among them was Jose Perez Dalarna,who in the latter part of the eighteenth centurypresented 525 books to one of the universities, andfounded the first Society of the Friends of the Coun-try (Amigos del Pais), an organization designed topromote the social and economic welfare of the coun-try. In June 1736, certain French and Spanishscientists arrived at Quito to measure an arc of themeridian at the equator. Among them was La Con-damine.

Pedro Fermin Cevallos, the historian of Ecuador,mentions three personages of great intellectual pro-minence during the colonial period. The most note-worthy of them was Pedro Vicente Maldonado, bornin Riobamba in 1709. Upon completing his studiesin the college of St. Louis, he took up astronomy andgeometry. Maldonado explored the coastal forestsand opened up a road from Quito to Esmeraldas-He founded towns, and collected facts about naturalhistory. At Quito he met the Spanish and Frenchscientists. Following their observations, he tracedhis famous map of the kingdom of Quito (Mapa delReino de Quito) which has been the basis of sub-

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sequent maps. He travelled through the Orienteand accompanied La Ccndamine across the continentto the Para Rivet.

Relatively stable as conditions in the presentEcuador during the colonial period were, the desirefor independence toward the close of the eighteenthcentury began to manifest itself there as elsewhere inSpanish America. The example of other coloniesand the news of Napoleon's invasion of Spain, aswell as local discontent, heightened this desi reoThere were good leaders among the intellectual clas-ses and sufficient energy to carry out thei r ideals. AtQuito, for example, Espejo and Monrufar, enteredinto hearty cooperation with Marino and Zea, theleaders of the revolutionary movement at Santa Fede Bogota i and it was at Espejo's suggestion that thepolitical association called the "Escuela de Concor-dia" was instituted at the capital town. 1n 1808 sev-eral of the prominent men of Quito met at a farmin the valley of Chillo near the city to plan out aninsurrection to throw off the Spanish yoke. Therevolution which occurred on August 10, 1809, lack-ed popularity in spite of its excellent leaders. Thepeople at Popayan, Cuenca, and Guayaquil protest-ed against a rebellion at this time when Spain wasin so much distress. It is doubtful indeed whetherthe movement for independence had gained muchheadway anywhere. The insurgents at all eventswere taken prisoners and many of them were killed.

I t would seem partly as a result of the outbreak andpartly for other reasons that the Council of Regency

BBTWEEN BCUADOR AND PERU '7in Spain authorized an election of members fromthe colonies to the Cones at Cadiz. In preparationfor it Carlos Mcntufar, of Quito, son of one of theinsurgents of the revolution of 1809, and AntonioVillavicencio, were the representatives chosen fromthe viceroyalty of New Granada at large. Monte-far, however, who was well-received at Quito, consid-ered the cause of independence worthier than thatof the old regime, notwithstanding the confidenceshown him by the Regency.

N early all the members of the governing juntathen elected had taken part in the attempt for in-dependence, and accordingly declared themselves tobe independent of the Spanish Regency. Severalroyalists, including the president of the audieneia ofQuito, Count Ruiz de Castilla, were assassinated.His successor, Toribio Montes, defeated the patriots,and in 1813 the Spanish constitution was acceptedand the second attempt for independence crushed.

New revolutionary movements took place, and in1820 Guayaquil, Ambato and Latacunga took upthe cry of liberty. In spite of several defeats, thecontest continued tiJl at length, under Antonio Josede Sucre who had been sent to their assistance byBolivar and reinforced by a Peruvian contingentunder Andres de Santa Cruz, the insurgents gaineda complete victory, on May 22, 1822, in a battlefought on the site of Mount Pichincha, near Quito,at a height of 10,200 feet above sea level. Two dayslater the Spanish president at Quito, Melchor deAymeric, capitulated, and the independence of the

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country was secured. A political union was at onceeffected with New Granada and Venezuela OQ thebasis of the republican constitution instituted at SaoRosario de Cucuta in July, t821-the triple coo-federation taking the name of Colombia.

It was in connection with the annexation to Co-lombia that the memorable interview between Boli-var and San Martin took place, resulting in Bolivae'said to Peru, while General Sucre was to undertakethe organization of Ecuador. The people of Guaya-quil, however, began to distrust what seemed to bean imperialistic policy on the part of Bolivar andwere discontented in general with the Venezuelanand Granadinc leaders. They accordingly declaredthemselves independent in 1826. To suppress theinsurrection, General Juan Jose Flores came fromQuito and Cuenca with 1,300 men, but did not needthem, since a counter revolution had reduced thetown to obedience. A disagreement with Peru in1828, furthermore, resulted in Colombia's declaringwar on Peru and the temporary occupation of Cuencaand Guayaquil by Peruvian forces; but peace wasrestored in 1829 when the Colombians took Guaya-quil and invaded the province of Loja. Both townand province were recovered by Sucre and Flores inthe battle of Tarqui, on February 28, 1829, import-ant because it provided the basis for a boundary de-marcation with Peru which is to the present timestill unsettled.

Unfortunately after the deaths of Bolivar andSucre, there was no possible way of maintaining the

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great republic which had been the work of Bolivar'sgenius. Deputies came together at Riobamba onAugust 14th, 1830, and after a short session pro-claimed themselves as the Constitutional Congressof the Republic of Ecuador. General Flores waselected its first president.