History of Ecuador (1860–1895)
Republic of Ecuador República del Ecuador | |||||||||
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1859–1895 | |||||||||
Motto: "Dios, patria y libertad" | |||||||||
Anthem: presidential republic under a military dictatorship | |||||||||
President | |||||||||
• 1859–1865 | Gabriel García Moreno | ||||||||
• 1865–1867 | Jerónimo Carrión | ||||||||
• 1868–1869 | Javier Espinosa | ||||||||
• 1869–1875 | Gabriel García Moreno | ||||||||
• 1875–1876 | Antonio Borrero | ||||||||
• 1876–1883 | Ignacio de Veintemilla | ||||||||
• 1883–1888 | José Plácido Caamaño | ||||||||
• 1888–1892 | Antonio Flores Jijón | ||||||||
• 1892–1895 | Luis Cordero Crespo | ||||||||
Legislature | National Congress | ||||||||
History | |||||||||
• Established | 4 September 1859 | ||||||||
22 September 1860 | |||||||||
1 July 1869 | |||||||||
5 June 1895 | |||||||||
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Today part of | Ecuador |
History of Ecuador |
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Ecuador portal |
This is a summary of the history of
Shortly after the onset of his third
Between 1852 and 1890, Ecuador's exports grew in value from slightly more than US$1 million to nearly US$10 million. Production of cacao, the most important export product in the late 19th century, grew from 6.5 million kilograms to 18 million kilograms during the same period. The agricultural export interests, centered in the coastal region near Guayaquil, became closely associated with the Liberals, whose political power also grew steadily during the interval. After the death of García Moreno, it took the Liberals twenty years to consolidate their strength sufficiently to assume control of the government in Quito.
After García Moreno's death
Five different presidents governed during the two decades of transition between Conservative and Liberal rule. The first,
In 1895, midway through his term in office, Cordero fell victim to scandal and charges of "selling the flag" over an agreement made with Chile. Cordero allowed the warship Esmeralda, which Chile was selling to Japan, to fly the Ecuadorian flag briefly in order to protect Chile's neutrality in the conflict between Japan and China. Bribes were apparently involved and, tremendously weakened by the scandal and also challenged by the outbreak of several military rebellions, the president resigned in April. In June the Liberals seized power in Guayaquil in the name of their most popular caudillo, General José Eloy Alfaro Delgado. Three months later, "the old battler" (a name Alfaro had earned during his armed struggle against García Moreno) returned after a decade of exile in Central America and marched triumphantly into Quito. It was the end of Ecuador's brief experiment with progressivism and the beginning of three stormy decades of rule by the Radical Liberal Party (Partido Liberal Radical—PLR), commonly referred to as the Liberal Party (Partido Liberal).