Ecuador, [Spanish=equator], republic (109,483 sq mi/283,561 sq km; 1990 population 9,622,608: 2004 estimated population 13,212,742), W South America; (cap.) Quito.
Geography
Bordered N by Colombia, S and E by Peru, and W by the Pacific Ocean. It includes the Galapagos Islands at the equator, c.650 mi/1,046 km off the coast. The Andes are the most obvious relief feature: two parallel ranges (Cordillera Occidental and Cordillera Central) cross the country from Colombia to Peru. A lower, less well defined series of ranges, known locally as the Cordillera Oriental, make the transition toward the Amazon basin. The highest peak is the Chimborazo (20,577 ft/6,272 m). Many active volcanoes, mostly on the Central Cordillera (Cotopaxi, one of the Earth’s highest, Antisana, Cayambe, and Tungurahua, among others); on the W Cordillera only the Guagua Pichincha is active. The Andes create three distinct regions in the country: the Costa, coastal lowlands and hills toward the Pacific; the Sierra, or uplands, including the mountains and a series of ten high elevations, well-drained intermontane basins (or hoyas) between the W and central cordilleras; and the Oriente, extending from the E Andes (Cordilleras de Galeras de Cutucá, and Del Cóndor) to the Amazonian lowlands. Climate and vegetation depend chiefly on elevation and vary from equatorial rainforest, on the Costa and Oriente, to páramos, or plains, and perpetual snowfields on the Sierra. The twenty mainland provinces are almost symmetrically distributed in the major physical regions: five in the Costa, ten in the Sierra, and five in the Oriente.
Population
The population is almost 58% urban and is almost evenly distributed between Costa and Sierra, with only about 5% living in the Oriente. Ethnic composition is approximately 40% Amerindian, 40% mestizo, 15% white, and 5% black. Roman Catholicism is the main religion, although there is no established church. Ecuador has ten universities. Spanish is the official language, but many natives speak Quichua. The few European-descended residents are mostly landholders and play a dominant role in Ecuador’s unstable political life.
Economy
The Costa, especially the hot, humid valleys of the Guayas River and its tributaries is the source of Ecuador’s chief agricultural exports: bananas (c.19% of total exports in 1993); the coastal area itself is a major producer of shrimp and prepared fish (c.18% of exports in 1993). Other agricultural exports are produced also in agriculture areas of the Sierra and the Oriente (coffee, cocoa, sugar, rice; also tropical woods, and fruits). Major export destinations were (2004): U.S. (41.5%), Colombia (5.6%), Germany (5.5%), South Korea (5.5%). Petroleum, the country’s major export, is now extracted mainly in the Oriente region. Imports come mainly from U.S. (32.5%), EU (21.4%), Latin Amererica (19.3%), and Japan (13.0%). Guayaquil and Esmeraldas are the main ports. Almost one-third of the work force engages in agriculture. Potatoes, corn, barley, rice, and wheat are grown for subsistence. Manufacturing industries are few and small-scale, including popular arts (textiles, jewelry). During the 1980s and early 1990s, Ecuador’s leaders imposed austerity budgets on the government in an attempt to stimulate economic growth.
History to 1832
Despite the development of modern communications, the country is still rent by the personal and factional rivalry that began with the Spanish conquest. Prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, Ecuador was controlled by the Inca empire. Francisco Pizarro’s subordinate, Benalcázar, entered the area in 1533. The region became a colonial backwater. Given an audiencia in 1563 and established politically as the presidency of Quito, it was at various times subject to Peru and to New Granada. After an abortive independence movement in 1809, the region remained under Spanish control. It was liberated by Antonio José de Sucre in the battle of Pichincha (1822) and was joined by Simón Bolívar to Greater Colombia. With the dissolution of the union in 1830, Ecuador, geographically isolated, became a separate state (four times its present size) under a constitution promulgated by its first president, Juan José Flores. Ecuador unsuccessfully attempted to annex Popayán province from Colombia by war in 1832 and occupied the Galápagos Islands the same year.
History 1832 to 1925
Boundary disputes led to frequent invasions by Peruvians in the 19th and 20th centuries. The entire E frontier, known as Oriente was in dispute. In 1942, Ecuador signed the Protocol of Río de Janeiro ceding a large area to Peru, but in 1960 it renounced the treaty. The area in dispute covers 125,000 sq. mi/323,750 sq. km embracing the Amazon and Marañon rivers and including Iquitos and Peru’s main equatorial forest oil producing region. In 1981, the dispute flared into a five-day war. Bitter internecine struggles between Conservatives and Liberals marked the political history of Ecuador in the 19th century. The Conservatives, led by Flores and García Moreno (1821–1875), supported entrenched privileges and the dominance of the Roman Catholic Church; the Liberals, led by Vicente Rocafuerte (1783–1847) and Elroy Alfaro (1867–1912) and championed by the writer Juan Montalvo (1832–1889), sought social reforms. In the 20th century there have been a great number of changes in government.
History 1925 to 1970
In 1925 the army replaced the coastal banking interests, dominant since 1916, as the ultimate source of power. Military juntas supported various rival factions, and between 1931 and 1940, twelve presidents were in office. José María Velasco Ibarra became president (for the second time) by a coup in 1944. He was ousted in 1947, and the next year Galo Plaza was chosen in free elections. During Plaza’s regime there was unprecedented political reform. Velasco Ibarra was elected again in 1952 and sponsored improvements in roads and schools. The first Conservative to rule in sixty years, Camilo Ponce Enríquez, followed (1956–1960), but Velasco Ibarra was elected again in 1960. He was forced to resign the following year. His legal successor, Julio Arosemena Monroy, was deposed by a junta in 1963. Agitation for a return to civilian government led the military to remove the junta in 1966. A constitutional assembly installed Otto Arosemena Gómez as provisional president and drafted the country's seventeenth constitution. Velasco Ibarra was elected for the fifth time in 1968. However, the military deposed him in February, 1972, and canceled elections.
History 1970 to Present
Ecuador’s relations with the U.S. deteriorated in the early 1970s after Ecuador tried to enforce its claim to territorial waters extending 200 mi/322 km out to sea. In the same period Ecuador became Latin America’s second largest oil producer, with large fields in the Oriente and the construction of the Trans Ecuadorian pipeline to Esmeraldas. Increased oil revenues and exploitation of the country’s vast forests raised the prospect of rapid economic development. In 1979 a new constitution came into force and a series of ineffectual presidents followed. In 1992 many state-owned enterprises were privatized, including the state airline. Also in 1992, Ecuador became the first member country to drop out of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The boundary conflict with Peru flared up in early 1995 in the disputed area in the Cordillera del Cóndor. Efforts by the guarantor countries of the Rio de Janeiro Protocol of 1942 (U.S., Brazil, Chile, and Argentina) established an “immediate and effective cease-fire.”
Government
The current chief of state is President Lucio Gutierrez (since 2003). The president is both the chief of state and head of government. The next election will take place in 2006.
