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Jan 1, 1000
Kingdom of Quito
The tribes in the northern highlands of Ecuador formed the Kingdom of Quito around 1000. It was absorbed, by conquest and marriage, into the Inca Empire. -
Jan 1, 1532
Spanish Conquistador Francisco Pizarro
Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro conquered the land in 1532, and throughout the 17th century a Spanish colony thrived by exploitation of the Indians. -
Revolt
The first revolt against Spain occurred in 1809. -
Greater Colombia Confederacy
In 1819, Ecuador joined Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama in a confederacy known as Greater Colombia. -
Ecuador's Independence
When Greater Colombia collapsed in 1830, Ecuador became independent. Revolts and dictatorships followed; it had 48 presidents during the first 131 years of the republic. -
Revolution of 1895
Conservatives ruled until the revolution of 1895 ushered in nearly a half century of Radical Liberal rule, during which the church was disestablished and freedom of worship, speech, and press was introduced. -
Peru Invades Ecuador
Peru invaded Ecuador in 1941 and seized a large tract of Ecuadoran territory in the disputed Amazon region. In 1981 and 1995 war broke out again. -
Economic Crises
In 1998, Ecuador experienced one of its worst economic crises. El Niño caused $3 billion in damage; the price of its principal export, oil, plunged; and its inflation rate—43%—was the highest in Latin America. In 1999, the government was near bankruptcy, the currency lost 40% of its value against the dollar, and the poverty rate soared to 70%, doubling in five years. The president's economic austerity plan was protested with massive strikes in March 1999. -
Peace
In May 1999, Ecuador and Peru signed a treaty ending the nearly 60-year border dispute. -
Adopting the U.S. Dollar
President Jamil Mahuad was overthrown in Jan. 2000, in the first military coup in Latin America in a decade. The junta gave power to the vice president, Gustavo Noboa. Faced with the worst economic crisis in Ecuador's history, Noboa restructured Ecuador's foreign debt, adopted the U.S. dollar as the national currency, and continued privatization of state-owned industries, generating enormous opposition. -
Lucio Gutiérrez
Lucio Gutiérrez, a leftist colonel best known for orchestrating the 2000 coup against President Jamil Mahuad, was elected to the presidency in 2003 on an anticorruption platform. He became Ecuador's sixth president in seven years. His attempts to introduce austere fiscal reforms, however, quickly alienated his political base, and numerous national strikes took place throughout 2003. -
Alfredo Palacio
In April 2005, Gutiérrez was ousted by the Ecuadoran Congress, after replacing much of the supreme court with his allies. Polls at the time indicated that just 5% of the people supported him. His estranged deputy, Alfredo Palacio, took over as president. -
Alvaro Noboa
In 2006, huge nationwide protests took place concerning a potential free-trade agreement with the U.S. In the Nov. 2006 presidential runoff elections, Rafael Correa, a left-wing economist, won with 56.7% of the vote, defeating conservative businessman Alvaro Noboa. Correa took office in Jan. 2007. -
Rafael Correa
The current president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, exercises his power from the presidential Palacio de Carondelet in Quito. The current constitution was written by the Ecuadorian Constituent Assembly elected in 2007, and was approved by referendum in 2008. -
Economy of Ecuador
Ecuador's economy has heavily depended on exporting resources such as petroleum, fish, shrimp, timber and gold. In addition, it has rich agriculture: bananas, flowers, coffee, cacao, sugar, tropical fruits, rice, roses, and corn. The country's greatest national export is crude oil. -
Culture in Ecuador
Ecuador's mainstream culture is defined by its Hispanic mestizo majority, and like their ancestry, it is traditionally of Spanish heritage, influenced in different degrees by Amerindian traditions, and in some cases by African elements. -
Climate in Ecuador
Tropical along coast, becoming cooler inland at higher elevations; tropical in Amazonian jungle lowlands. -
Tourism in Ecuador
The Galápagos Islands and its surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a biological marine reserve. These islands are a beautiful destination for tourists.
