Portal:Ecuador
 Ecuador PortalEcuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador (Spanish: Ecuador or República del Ecuador, IPA [re'puβlika ðel ekwa'ðoɾ]) 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 (Archipiélago de Colón) in the Pacific, about 965 kilometers (600 miles) west of the mainland. Named after the Spanish word for equator, Ecuador straddles the equator and has an area of 256,370 square kilometers (98,985 mi²). Its capital city is Quito. Selected article: Ecuador's History
The History of Ecuador: Numerous indigenous cultures thrived in Ecuador for thousands of years. Ancient Valdivian artifacts from as early as 3500 B.C. A large number of stone objects were found which were undoubtedly implements. The Spanish Conquistador, Francisco Pizarro, set out on his third expedition during the final months of 1531, the expedition would end in the defeat of the Inca Empire and the Spanish colonization and conquest of Ecuador. The struggle for independence in the Audiencia de Quito was part of a movement throughout Spanish America led by the criollos. A group of Quito's leading citizens followed suit, this early revolt,one of the first against colonial rule. The criollos' resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the peninsulares was the fuel of revolution against colonial rule. The spark was Napoleon's invasion of Spain, after which he deposed King Ferdinand VII and, in July 1808, placed his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the Spanish throne The second chapter in Ecuador's struggle for emancipation from Spanish colonial rule began in Guayaquil, where independence was proclaimed in October 1820 by a local patriotic junta under the leadership of the poet José Joaquín de Olmedo. By this time, the forces of independence had grown continental in scope and were organized into two principal armies, one under the Venezuelan Simón Bolívar Palacios in the north and the other under the Argentine José de San Martín in the south. Unlike the hapless Quito junta, the Guayaquil patriots were able to appeal to foreign allies, Argentina and Venezuela, each of whom soon responded by sending sizable contingents to Ecuador. Antonio José de Sucre, the brilliant young lieutenant of Bolívar who arrived in Guayaquil in May 1821, was to become the key figure in the ensuing military struggle against the royalist forces. Selected Picture: Quito Observatory Quito's observatory was the first in Latin America, and was nearly destroyed, or changed to a school, before it was declared of Nation's heritage importance. Selected biography: Eugenio Espejo
Francisco Javier Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo (born Luis Chuzhig)[a] (Royal Audience of Quito, 1747-1795) was a medical pioneer, writer and lawyer of mestizo origin in colonial Ecuador. Although he was a notable scientist and writer, he stands out as a polemicist who inspired the separatist movement in Quito. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in colonial Ecuador. He was Quito's first journalist and hygienist Espejo was noted in his time for being a satirist. His satirical works, inspired by the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment, were critical of the lack of education of the Royal Audience of Quito, the way economy was being handled in the Audience, the corruption of its authorities, and aspects of its culture in general. Ecuador news
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