Ecuador Profile
Full country name: Republic of Ecuador
Area: 283,560 sq km (109,000 sq miles) including the Galapagos Islands Population: 14 million (2010 census unofficial figures)
Capital City: Quito (population: 1.8 million)
People: Mestizo (60%), Indigenous (20%), Caucasian (15%), Black (5%)
Language(s): Spanish (official), Amerindian languages (especially Quechua)
Religion(s): Roman Catholic (95%)
Currency: US Dollar (since early 2000)
The 2008 constitution provides for a presidential system of democracy with presidential elections every four years and an executive and a legislature consisting of a unicameral National Assembly.
The Galápagos Islands are famous for their connection with Charles Darwin and his work on the "Origen of the Species". Yasuni National Park, located in the Amazon region, is one of the most biologically diverse areas on earth. UNESCO named Yasuni a biosphere reserve in 1989.It is also known for two indigenous tribes – the Tagaeri and Taromenane, who maintain their traditional ways in voluntary isolation.
Ecuador has supported the Kyoto Protocol and other environmental forums. For its size Ecuador has one of the highest concentrations of diversity in the world, though this is threatened by destruction of natural ecosystems.
The Galapagos Islands and surrounding waters are both World Heritage Sites and have been recognized as of vital ecological importance. When UNESCO put the islands on their list of sites at risk, the government undertook to address problems caused by immigration, excess fishing, invasive species and increased tourism, and in 2010 UNESCO took the Galapagos Islands off the list.
Advanced indigenous cultures flourished prior to the arrival of the Incas in the 15th century and subsequent conquest by the Spanish in 1534. After some 300 years of Spanish domination, forces under Antonio José de Sucre defeated the Spanish in 1822 at the battle of Pichincha, just outside Quito. Ecuador then joined Simon Bolivar's Republic of Gran Colombia, but left to become a separate Republic in 1830.
Political instability and rivalry between the coast and highlands heavily influenced the post-independence period. Growth of the banking sector and a rapid expansion in cocoa production created a wealthy coastal middle class whose increasing political power started a liberal revolution in 1895 and led to capitalist development over the next 30 years.
External shocks, including a collapse in the cocoa market in the 1920s and the Great Depression in the 1930s, deepened instability between 1931 and 1948. Between 1948 and 1960 Ecuador enjoyed 12 years of relatively stable civilian rule. Increasing banana exports helped to finance development policies. But social unrest resurfaced in the 1960s, giving rise to an anti-Communist military government between 1963 and 1966. Soon thereafter, Ecuador underwent an economic boom with the discovery of extensive oil reserves, which prompted the government to borrow heavily internationally to finance state-led industrialisation.
In 1978 a referendum approved a new constitution that formed the basis for a return to democratic elections and civilian rule the following year. Since then, Ecuador's 1998 constitution was rewritten by a constitutional assembly, which concluded in July 2008. The new constitution, Ecuador's twentieth since independence, was accepted in a national referendum on 28 September 2008. It came into force on 20 October 2008.
