The History of Ecuador

Ecuador has a diverse, dramatic, and engaging history. Through out time, the nation has been populated by a wide variety indigenous tribes each with their own distinctive cultures. For the most part, these communities were collectivist and often interacted and traded with one another. In the late 1400's, the northern Andean regions of Ecuador were colonized by the Inca. This marked the beginning of a bloody history of fights for domination of land and people in the nation. Not long after, in the early 1500's, the Spanish entered Ecuador after overtaking the Inca empire and began colonization efforts in Ecuador. For the next 320 years, Ecuador remained under Spanish rule. Indigenous peoples were consigned to labor upon previously communal lands which had been appropriated by wealthy Spaniards into hacienda land. In the 1820's Ecuador gained its independence from Spain and in the 1850's the nation banned slavery. However, the country was still a long way from gaining economic independence from European powers or finding any semblance of social equity.

In the later 19th century and early 20th century, Ecuador's economy was dominated by the exportation of cacao to Europe and the USA. When this industry collapsed in the 1930's the vulnerable economy was claimed by the American  corporation United Fruit company and bananas became the nation's main source of wealth. In the 1940's, the nation faced bloody conflicts with Peru over the ownership of land and as a result was forced to surrender large portions of land. In the 1960's and 1970's, movements for the redistribution of indigenous lands began and oil was discovered in the southern portions of the nation.