Ecuador PRE-HISPANIC ERA
Ruins of Ingapirca, an Inca sun temple in Cañar Province
Courtesy Embassy of Ecuador, Washington
Ecuador offers little archeological evidence of its preHispanic civilizations. Nonetheless, its most ancient artifacts--
remnants of the Valdivia culture found along the coast north of the
modern city of Santa Elena in Guayas Province--date from as early
as 3500 B.C.
(see
fig. 1). Other major coastal archaeological sites
are found in the provinces of Manabí and Esmeraldas; major sites in
the Sierra are found in Carchi and Imbabura provinces in the north,
Tungurahua and Chimborazo provinces in the middle of the Andean
highlands, and Cañar, Azuay, and Loja provinces in the south.
Nearly all of these sites are dated in the last 2,000 years. Large
parts of Ecuador, including almost all of the Oriente, however,
remain unknown territory to archaeologists.
Knowledge of Ecuador before the Spanish conquest is limited
also by the absence of recorded history within either the Inca or
pre-Inca cultures as well as by the lack of interest taken in
Ecuador by the Spanish chroniclers. Before the Inca conquest of the
area that comprises modern-day Ecuador, the region was populated by
a number of distinct tribes that spoke mutually unintelligible
languages and were often at war with one another. Four culturally
related Indian groups, known as the Esmeralda, the Manta, the
Huancavilca, and the Puná, occupied the coastal lowlands in that
order from north to south. They were hunters, fishermen,
agriculturalists, and traders. Trade was especially important among
different coastal groups, who seem to have developed considerable
oceanic travel, but the lowland cultures also traded with the
peoples of the Sierra, exchanging fish for salt.
The Sierra was populated by elements, from north to south, of
the Pasto, the Cara, the Panzaleo, the Puruhá, the Cañari, and the
Palta cultures. These people lived mostly on mountainsides and in
widely dispersed villages located in the fertile valleys between
the Cordillera Occidental (Western Chain) and the Cordillera
Oriental (Eastern Chain) of the Andes
(see
fig. 3). The Sierra
natives were a sedentary, agricultural people, cultivating maize,
quinoa, beans, and many varieties of potatoes and squashes. The use
of irrigation was prevalent, especially among the Cañari. A wide
variety of fruits, including pineapples and avocados, was grown in
the lower, warmer valleys. Historians believe that political
organization centered around local chieftains who collaborated with
one another in confederations or were subjected to "kings." Such
local chiefs had considerable authority; they could raise armies,
for example, and administer communal lands.
The Inca expansion northward from modern-day Peru during the
late fifteenth century met with fierce resistance by several
Ecuadorian tribes, particularly the Cañari, in the region around
modern-day Cuenca; the Cara in the Sierra north of Quito; and the
Quitu, occupants of the site of the modern capital, after whom it
was to be named. The conquest of Ecuador began in 1463 under the
leadership of the ninth Inca, the great warrior Pachacuti Inca
Yupanqui. In that year, his son Topa took over command of the army
and began his march northward through the Sierra. After defeating
the Quitu, he moved southward along the coast, and from there he
launched an extensive ocean journey that took him, depending on the
account, to the Galápagos Islands or to the Marquesas Islands in
Polynesia. Upon his return, he tried unsuccessfully to subdue the
populations around the Gulf of Guayaquil and the island of Puná. By
1500 Topa's son, Huayna Capac, overcame the resistance of these
populations and that of the Cara, and thus incorporated all of
modern-day Ecuador into Tawantinsuyu, as the Inca empire was known.
The influence of these conquerors based in Cuzco (modern-day
Peru) was limited to about a half century, or less in some parts of
Ecuador. During that period, some aspects of life remained
unchanged. Traditional religious beliefs, for example, persisted
throughout the period of Inca rule. In other areas, however, such
as agriculture, land tenure, and social organization, Inca rule had
a profound effect despite its relatively short duration. Farming
remained the major form of subsistence, but the Inca introduced a
variety of new crops, including yucca, sweet potatoes, coca, and
peanuts. The use of llamas and irrigation was expanded
considerably. Largely in private hands previously, land became, in
theory at least, the property of the Inca emperor. In practice,
most land was held collectively by the ayllu, an agrarian
community group headed by a curaca, that was the basic
social grouping under the Inca. Within the ayllu, each
domestic family unit was allotted a small plot of arable land to
grow food for its own consumption. The state and the clergy also
held a substantial amount of land, which was worked by the
emperor's subjects as part of their obligatory public service.
Emperor Huayna Capac became very fond of Quito, making it a
secondary capital of Tawantinsuyu and living out his elder years
there before his death in about 1527. He preferred to rule through
local curacas as long as they were willing to accept
the divine authority of the Inca and to pay tribute. When he met
opposition, the emperor dispersed large parts of local populations
to other areas of the empire and replaced them with colonists who
were brought from as far away as Chile. This wholesale movement of
populations helped spread Quechua, the language of Cuzco, into
Ecuador. A standing army, a large bureaucracy, and a temporally
important clergy further enforced the rule of the emperor.
Huayna Capac's sudden death from a strange disease, described
by one Spanish chronicler as "probably smallpox or measles,"
precipitated a bitter power struggle between Huascar, a son borne
by Huayna Capac's sister and thus the legitimate heir, and
Atahualpa, a son who, although borne by a lesser wife, was
reputedly his father's "favorite." This struggle raged during the
half-decade before the arrival of Francisco Pizarro's conquering
expedition in 1532. The key battle of this civil war was fought on
Ecuadorian soil, near Riobamba, where Huascar's northbound troops
were met and defeated by Atahualpa's southbound troops. Atahualpa's
final victory over Huascar in the days just before the Spanish
conquerors arrived resulted in large part from the loyalty of two
of Huayna Capac's best generals, who were based in Quito along with
Atahualpa. The victory remains a source of national pride to
Ecuadorians as a rare case when "Ecuador" forcefully bettered a
"neighboring country."
Data as of 1989
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