History of Ecuador

Ecuador - Ingapirca El CastilloThe earliest evidence of human culture in Ecuador was in 3500 BC.
Many different civilizations arose in Ecuador, such as the Valdivia Culture and Machalilla Culture. The Quitus arose from this area and the Caсari culture, which is the modern day Cuenca.

Each civilization developed its own distinctive pottery, religion and architecture. The Caсari eventually fell and were assimilated into the Incan empire.

Through a number of wars and marriages among the nations, the area became a part of the Inca Empire. At one point the nation was divided in two with one of the Incan sons, Atahualpa, taking the north and Huascar taking the south. Eventually Atahualpa defeated Huascar to take over the empire.

In 1531, the Spanish conquistadors under Francisco Pizarro arrived to find a country torn apart by civil war. The Spanish wanted to take over the area and captured Atahualpa, holding him for ransom. The Spanish eventually took over and the indigenous people were decimated by disease under early Spanish rule. In 1563, Quito became the administrative district of Spain.

In 1809, Latin America attempted to get out of Spanish rule and began the process of eventually getting independence, beginning in 1820. The rest of Ecuador gained independence in 1822.

Leave a Comment

XHTML: You can use these tags: