ECUADOR

 

 

 

NAME:                                República de Ecuador

                                             Etymology: "Ecuador" is the Spanish word for "equator," which passes through this country.

POPULATION:                  16,000,000 (2014)

ETHNIC GROUPS:            Mestizo (65%); Spanish (7%); African (3%); Amerindian (25%)

CAPITAL:                           Quito (2,600,000 in 2014); full name: San Francisco de Quito

INDEPENDENCE DAY:   May 24, 1822

LANGUAGES:                   Spanish (official); Quechua (unofficial)

RELIGION:                        Roman Catholic (95%)

LIFE EXPECTANCY:       men (74); women (80)

LITERACY:                        91%

GOVERNMENT:                Democratic federal republic

ECONOMY:                       Petroleum, bananas, flowers, shrimp and fish

MONEY:                             The same as and pegged directly to the United States dollar (USD)

GEOGRAPHY:                   Tropical coast to the Andean mountain range in the center to the upper Amazon basin in the east.

INTERNET CODE:            .ec

 

HISTORY:

 

            3500 BCE                   Various indigenous cultures

            1400 CE                      Cañari culture fell to the Inca empire.

            1530                            Atahualpa (Inca lord) defeated Huascar (Inca emperor) and conquered the whole Inca empire for the northern crown of Quito.

            1531                            Pizarro and Spanish conquistadors defeat the Inca empire.

            1563                            Quito becomes the seat of a royal audiencia (administrative district) of Spain and part of the Vice-Royalty of Lima; later Ecuador passes to the the Vice-Royalty of  Nueva Granada (northern South America)

            1809                            Independence from Spain for South America starts in Quito

            1822                            Battle of  Pichincha (near Quito) under Antonio José de Sucre, joined and Simón Bolívar frin Gran Colombia, defeat Spanish troops.

            1830                            Ecuador becomes separate republic.

            1895 - 1925                 Power of clergy and conservative land owners reduced under Eloy Alfaro; liberals rule until revolution of 1925.

            1972                            A pipeline constructed that brought petroleum to the west coast for export making Ecuador South America's second largest oil exporting nation.

            (1979-2009                  Ecuador had 10 different presidents.)

            2000                            Ecuador eliminated the currency (sucre) and replaced it with the US dollar (USD)

            2006                            Rafael Correa Delgado (American educated economist) elected president: progressive populist leader.

            2009                            Rafael Correa Delgado re-elected president to four-year term with 51% of the vote. According to Simón Romero reporting for the New York Times (April 27, 2009), Correa combines “nationalistic control of the economy with broadly popular social welfare programs for the poor,” programs that in danger of being reduced ($30 monthly payment to each poor Ecuadorian: see entry for 2000 above) in 2009 due to the falling value of Ecuador’s big export of petroleum.

            2017                            Lenín Moreno (Lenín Boltaire Morenod Garcés) elected President representing the Alianza PAIS party (Patria Altiva i Soberana [Proud and Sovereign Homeland]. This political party is socialist, humanist and centered on social bases (bases sociales). Moreno is a paraplegic, having been shot in the back in 1999 in a parking lot robbery. In 2012 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his worldwide advocacy on behalf of the disabled.