Ecuador

Categories: Ecuador | South American countries

República del Ecuador
Republic of Ecuador
Image:Ecuador flag large.png Image:Ecuador COA.jpg
(In Detail) (In Detail)
National motto:El Ecuador ha sido, es

y será País Amazónico
(Spanish; Ecuador has been, is and shall be an Amazonic country)

Image:LocationEcuador.png
Official language Spanish
Other languages Quechua and other Amerindian languages
Capital Quito
Largest City Guayaquil
President Alfredo Palacio 2
Area
 - Total
 - % water 		Ranked 71st
283,560 km²
8.8%
Population
 - Total (2002)
 - Density 		Ranked 62nd
13,183,978
36/km²
Independence


 - Date

From Spain


24 May, 1822

Currency US dollar1
Time zone UTC -5; UTC -6 (Galápagos Islands)
National anthem Salve, Oh Patria
Internet TLD .ec
Calling Code 593
1 Sucre until 2000.

2 After a coup d'êtat against Lucio Gutiérrez.

The Republic of Ecuador is a country in northwestern South America, bounded by Colombia on the north, by Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean on the west. The country also includes the Galápagos Islands (Archipelago de Colón) in the Pacific, about 965 km (about 600 mi) west of the mainland. Named after the Spanish word for equator, Ecuador straddles the equator and has an area of 272,045 km² (105,037 mi²). Quito is the country’s capital.
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History

Main article: History of Ecuador

Advanced indigenous cultures flourished in Ecuador long before the area was conquered by the Inca empire in the 15th century. In 1531, the Spanish conquistadors under Francisco Pizarro arrived and defeated the Inca Emperor Atahualpa and his army during the Battle of Cajamarca in 1532. In subsequent years the Spanish colonists became the new elite. The indigenous population was decimated by disease in the first decades of Spanish rule--a time when the natives also were forced into the "encomienda" labor system for Spanish landlords. In 1563, Quito, Ecuador became the seat of a royal "audiencia" (administrative district) of Spain.

After nearly 300 years of Spanish colonization, Quito was a city of about 10,000 inhabitants, and it was there on August 10, 1809, that the first cry for independence was heard. After independence forces defeated the royalist army in 1822, Ecuador joined Simon Bolivar's Republic of Gran Colombia, only to become a separate republic in 1830.

The 19th century was marked by instability, with a rapid succession of rulers. The conservative Gabriel Garcia Moreno unified the country in the 1860s with the supportuador : Country Studies - Federal Research Division, Library of Congress]


Countries in South America
Image:South America.png Argentina · Bolivia · Brazil · Chile · Colombia · Ecuador · Guyana · Panama · Paraguay · Peru · Suriname · Trinidad and Tobago · Uruguay · Venezuela

Dependencies: Falkland Islands (UK) · French Guiana · South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (UK)


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