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There is archaeological evidence of settlements established by hunter-gatherer groups along Ecuador’s southern coast and in the central highlands. These ancient peoples traded with others in Peru, Brazil, and the Amazon Basin, building a civilization sophisticated enough to construct large coastal cities by 500 BC. These city dwellers worked with metal and had navigational skills sufficient for them to trade with cultures as far away as the Maya in ancient Mexico.
The Inca ruler Tupac-Yupanqui invaded from the south in 1460, but could not conquer the territories of three strong groups in Ecuador: the Canari, Caras, and Quitu. It fell to his son Huayna Capac to accomplish this in the next generation. The Incas brought their language, Quechua, to Ecuador, where it is still widely spoken today in the highlands and the rain forest.
Huayna Capac celebrated his conquest by building the monumental Inca city of Tombebamba, whose ruins near Cuenca remain impressive today. This Inca city in Ecuador rapidly became as large and important in the empire as Cuzco in Peru. When Huayna Capac split the empire between his two sons at his death in 1526, he made Tombebamba the capital of the northern half. It was here that the last Inca ruler, Atahualpa, began his reign. Later, he defeated his brother Huascar in a civil war that weakened the empire just before the Spanish conquistadors arrived.
After Francisco Pizarro and his conquistadors conquered the Inca Empire in 1532, Pizarro made his brother Gonzalo the first Spanish governor of Quito, Ecuador. A few years later, Francisco was killed in a dispute among the Spanish conquerors, and Gonzalo Pizarro rebelled against Spain. He ruled Ecuador independently for over seven years, until Spanish forces defeated his army and executed him in 1548.
Spanish governors ruled Ecuador from Lima, Peru, until the 18th century, after which Spain moved the seat of authority to Bogotá in New Granada (now Colombia). In 1822, Simón Bolívar’s chief lieutenant, Antonio Jose de Sucre, brought an end to Spanish rule in the area, though it was not until 1830 that the nation adopted the name “Ecuador” and gained complete autonomy.
Following independence, civil war broke out between the conservatives of Quito and more liberal elements in Guayaquil, initiating a pattern of conflict between right- and left-wing groups that has persisted in Ecuador’s political life ever since. Dictators ruled the nation for the remainder of the 19th century. Ecuador’s 20th-century history was an intricate series of alternating periods of democratic and military rule.
The last period of military rule in Ecuador ended with the presidential election of 1979. In 1984, conservative businessman León Febres Cordero Rivadeneira was elected president, and he succeeded in putting down military rebellions to finish his term in office. He was followed in 1988 by Rodrigo Borja Cevallos of the Democratic Left, who in turn was succeeded by U.S.-born Sixto Durán Bellén in 1992. Then, in 2006, Econ Rafael Correa was elected president.