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Inca Expansion & The ConquistadorsOn this page: Inca
Expansion | Arrival of the Conquistadors |The Conquest of Ecuador
Inca
Expansion
The history of Ecuador is
better known from the point of the Inca expansion than during the
Pre-Columbian era, though even after the Inca conquered Ecuador
many holes remain because of the limited recorded history they kept.
In 1463 the Inca warrior Pachacuti and his son Topa Yupanqui began
conquering Ecuador. By the end of 15th century, despite fierce resistance
by several Ecuadorian tribes, Huayna Capac, Topa Yupanqui's son,
conquered all of Ecuador.
The Inca ruled the Ecuadorian
Kingdoms until the arrival of Francisco Pizarro, Diego de Almargo
and a force of Spanish conquistadors in 1532. During the period
of Inca control, the Ecuadorian tribesmen assimilated agricultural
practices and the social organization of the Inca, but they maintained
their traditional religious beliefs and many customs. Ecuador's
indigenous population would suffer far worse under Spanish rule
than it did under the Inca.
Arrival
of the Conquistadors
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Incan
ruins like these are scattered throughout the Ecuadorian countryside. |
Pizarro set out in the final
months of 1531 from Panama on the expedition that would end in the
defeat of the Inca Empire and the Spanish domination of Ecuador.
He began the campaign with less than two hundred men while his partner,
Almargo, remained in Panama to gather more troops. After landing,
Pizarro was forced to spend several months on the Ecuadorian coast
and in northern Peru building a base of operations and collecting
jewels and gold to finance reinforcements.
When Pizarro's expedition
finally arrived in the recently founded Inca capital of Cajamarca,
the new Inca king, Atahualpa Capac, was resting at nearby thermal
baths after prevailing in a bitter civil war with his brother. The
familial war for their father's throne ignited because of a deep
hatred fueled by Huascar's, Atahualpa's half brother, insistence
that Atahualpa, borne by one of their father's (the Emperor Huayna
Capac) lesser wives, was a bastard and held no legitimate claim
to the Empire.
Atahualpa, reluctantly returned
to Cajamarca amongst thousands of his best troops to greet to Pizarro.
When he went to Cajamarca's central plaza to meet the Conquistador,
instead of Pizarro he found a pompous Fray Vicente de Valverde waiting
for him. Promptly after the Inca Emperor refused to submit to the
Catholic God and Spanish Crown, concealed Spanish soldiers and mercenaries
slaughtered thousands of the Inca defenders and took Atahualpa prisoner.
Within a year of his capture, Atahualpa was executed.
Conquest
of Ecuador
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The
Spanish conquest of Quito marked the end of serious resistance
in Ecuador. |
By mid-1534 the Spaniards
had taken Quito and effectively defeated the Inca armies. Weakened
by civil war and leaderless, the Inca empire collapsed swiftly though
the jungle lowlands in both the coastal region of Esmeraldas and
the Oriente remained unconquered until late in the seventeenth century.
The Spanish conquest of Ecuador can be described as nothing less
than brutal; looting, pillaging, and torture were standard tools
of the conquistadors.
Though the Inca were defeated,
it took Spain almost two decades before it established a continuous,
undivided system of colonial rule. After the Inca were subdued and
several native rebellions put down, the dislike between Almargo
and Pizarro that had been smoldering since the inception of their
partnership, exploded. Almargo initiated open rebellion against
Pizarro and was subsequently tried and executed for treason. Almargo's
followers then assassinated Pizarro. After several more power shifts
Spain tethered the remaining conquistadors and Ecuador began more
than two and a half centuries of relatively peaceful colonial rule.
On this page: Inca
Expansion | Arrival of the Conquistadors
| The Conquest of Ecuador
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