ECUADOR - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. V, p. 57

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

ECUADOR. —

I. GEOGRAPHY

The smallest of the Andean States, so called because it is traversed by the Equator. Its area, after the long-standing dispute with Peru—which involved more than 400,000 sq. km. of territory—was settled by the treaty of 28 January 1942, has been reduced to 256,074 sq. km. It comprises a stretch of the Andes including a series of high basins, among which the plateau of Quito (about 1% of the country), a coastal zone (1% of the country), partly low and unhealthy, and a portion of the eastern plain, furrowed by the great tributaries of the Amazon and covered by vast forests. To Ecuador belongs the Galápagos Archipelago.

The population in 1948 amounted to 3.4 million inhabitants (13 per sq. km.), consisting mainly of Indians (48%) and mestizos (30%). Europeans and Creoles represent only 8%, as do Negroes; mulattoes 6%. Italians number about 2,000.

Ecuador is potentially very rich, but still little developed. The principal products are cocoa (of which the country is one of the world’s leading exporters), coffee, sugar cane, and cotton; among minerals, petroleum holds first place and is also exported.

With the exception of a few pagan tribes living in the Amazonian lowlands,

Article illustration — Ecuador — 1) National boundaries; a) Ecclesiastical district boundaries; 3) Railways.

G. Toniolo, *Scritti di e. statistica* (2nd series of the *Opera Omnia*), Rome 1940; various authors, *Études d'économie malaisienne et sociale à la mémoire de Eugène Duthoit*, Paris 1949; W. Röpke, *Espansion economica e crisi sociale*, Milan 1936.

the vast majority of the population is Catholic. The official language is Spanish.

Ecuador is a unitary parliamentary republic (bicameral), administratively divided into 16 provinces and one territory (the eastern region). There are only two important cities: the capital Quito (260,000 inhabitants), situated on the plateau at 2,850 m. above sea level, and Guayaquil (216,000 inhabitants), which provides the country’s outlet to the Pacific.

Bibl.: T. Wolf, *Geografía y geología del E.*, Leipzig 1892; R. Riccardi, *E. Condiciones naturales y económicas*, Rome 1924; S. E. Izurieta-Merchán, *Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung Ecuadors von 1900 bis zur Gegenwart*, Leipzig 1939; A. B. Franklin, *Ecuador: Portrait of a People*, New York 1943.

II. EVANGELIZATION

With Sebastián de Belalcázar, Franciscans and Dominicans arrived in Quito. The Indian tribes of the country had, from the 15th century, been part of the Inca realm. Under Spanish rule, Quito from 1563 formed an *audiencia* (province) of the Viceroyalty of Peru and from 1739 of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. As early as 1545 the diocese of Quito was erected. The Franciscans and Dominicans established *doctrinas* among the Indians of the Sierra. In the 17th century missionary activity extended eastward from the *audiencia*. The Jívaros of the southeast, who had destroyed the Spanish colonies of Zamarano toward the end of the 16th century, remained refractory to Christianity. The Dominicans, however, succeeded in establishing themselves in Canelos, and the Franciscans from 1632 undertook several missionary expeditions eastward. The Jesuits, who came to Quito in 1586, from 1637 founded the mission of the Maimans along the rivers Napo, Pastaza, and Marañón and gathered 14,236 Christian Indians into 35 reductions (1762). After their expulsion, Franciscans and Dominicans partly took their place. Unfortunately, the missions of eastern Quito began to decline toward the end of the 18th century, disappearing almost completely during the struggles for independence, with the exception of the mission of Canelos.

With the establishment of the Republic of Ecuador, the governments hindered the development of the Church. In 1848 Quito was raised to an archdiocese with the suffragan sees of Cuenca (erected in 1786) and Guayaquil (erected in 1838). Under President García Moreno (1861–65, 1869–75), new dioceses were erected: in 1862 Ibarra, in 1863 Riobamba, in 1866 Loja, and in 1871 Portoviejo. In 1869 a concordat was concluded with the Holy See. In 1869 the Jesuits were invited to resume their missionary activity in eastern Ecuador, and in 1871 the Apostolic Vicariate of Napo was erected. About 10,000 Indians were brought back to the Catholic faith. In 1886 the mission of Canelos was entrusted again to the Dominicans, from whom it had been taken in 1867. Negotiations with the Holy See led in 1893 to the erection of the vicariates of Napo for the Jesuits, of Zamora for the Franciscans, of Méndez y Gualaquiza for the Salesians, and of the Prefecture of Canelos y Macas for the Dominicans. In 1896, however, Jesuits and Franciscans were again expelled from their missions by the government of President Alfaro. In 1904 the separation of Church and State was proclaimed, and from 1906 the Catholic religion was no longer recognized as the religion of the State. The Dominicans and Salesians were able to remain in their missions of Canelos and Méndez y Gualaquiza and founded several mission centers; the Franciscans, however, did not succeed in resuming the mission of Zamora until 1921, and in the same year the Apostolic Vicariate of Napo was entrusted to the Pious Society of St. Joseph of Turin. In 1924 the northern part of Napo was erected into the Apostolic Prefecture of St. Michael of Sucumbíos and entrusted to the Discalced Carmelites; to them was also entrusted the Apostolic Prefecture of Esmeraldas, erected in 1945 along the Pacific Ocean. In 1948 the diocese of Ambato and the Apostolic Vicariate of Los Ríos were erected, the latter entrusted to the Spanish Institute of St. Francis Xavier for Foreign Missions.

Bibl.: J. Chantre y Herrera, *Historia de las misiones de la Compañía de Jesús en el Marañón*, Barcelona 1901; J. M. Vargas, *Historia de la provincia de San Catalina Virgen y Monte de Quito de la Orden de Predicadores*, Quito 1942; J. Joaquín, *Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la antigua provincia de Quito*, 1970–1974; G. Arcila Robles, *Historia de la provincia de Quito*, 1960–1974.

III. MODERN HISTORY

The Indians of Quito, whose seat was near the site of the present capital, were subjected about the 10th century by a warlike people whose chiefs bore the name of *Scyris*. These in turn had to recognize the sovereignty of the Incas. At the death of the Inca Huayna-Capac, the empire was divided between his sons Atahualpa and Huáscar, the former obtaining the kingdom of Quito and the latter Cuzco and the southern empire. A conflict soon broke out between the brothers, which flared up on the eve of the arrival of the Spaniards under Francisco Pizarro.

The fratricidal war greatly facilitated the Spanish conquest, and Quito fell into the hands of a lieutenant of Pizarro, Captain Belalcázar. In 1563, at the request of the municipal council, which complained of the weakness of the royal government in that distant province and the abuses of justice to which this gave rise, the *audiencia* of Quito was created; administratively it depended on the Viceroy of Peru. The territorial extent of the *audiencia* was much greater than that of present-day Ecuador. In 1718 it was suppressed and annexed to the Viceroyalty of New Granada, but reconstituted four years later, it was again placed under the jurisdiction of Lima until 1740, when it was transferred to the jurisdiction of New Granada and remained so until the proclamation of independence.

Bibl.: F. González Suárez, *Historia general de la República del Ecuador*, 7 vols., Quito 1900–1903; C. A. Pérez, *Historia de la América española*, VI, Madrid 1974, passim.

IV. CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

Between New Granada and Ecuador a war soon began over territorial questions, which ended with Ecuador’s defeat and the

cession to the New Granada of the contested territories. The first president of Ecuador was General Flores. In 1833 he was succeeded by Rocafuerte. During the latter’s four-year term, approaches were made to the Holy See for recognition of the new state. Although as early as 1827, with the provision under its own authority of the episcopal sees of Quito and Cuenca, there had been a *de facto* recognition of the end of Spanish sovereignty in those lands, an official recognition of Ecuadorian independence was still lacking; it was notified in August 1838 by Cardinal Lambruschini, Secretary of State of Gregory XVI, to the Ecuadorian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In the domestic politics of the republic, the radical and anti-capitalist current predominated until the presidency of García Moreno. Once the latter came to power, the Catholic religion enjoyed a privileged position. Schools, hospitals, and other welfare and educational institutions were founded and entrusted to the Jesuits, the Dames of the Sacred Heart, and the Sisters of Charity. Later, the new president sent a plenipotentiary to Rome to negotiate the conclusion of a concordat, which was signed on 26 September 1862. The Catholic religion was declared the religion of the state; instruction and teaching were to conform to Catholic doctrine; bishops could freely communicate with Rome and encountered no obstacles in the administration of their dioceses.

In 1865 García Moreno had to leave the presidency, and his opponents took advantage of the situation to declare the concordat void and to confiscate ecclesiastical property. After his return to power four years later, the Catholic Church was restored to its privileged position, and Ecuador, through its president, was the only country to protest vigorously against the occupation of Rome in 1870 and the illegitimate situation thereby imposed on the Holy See. Even after García Moreno’s assassination in 1875, the Church did not suffer greatly, though anti-Catholic currents occasionally gained the upper hand.

On 2 May 1881, during the presidency of General Veintemilla, a new concordat was signed in Quito by the Apostolic Delegate Mocenni and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Veranza. This concordat was almost identical to that of 1862, save for modifications introduced in the article concerning ecclesiastical jurisdiction, transferring non-canonical cases to civil courts. On 8 November 1890 a treaty was concluded regarding the substitution of tithes. At the beginning of the new century, radical currents secured in 1904 the denunciation of the concordat and the separation of Church and state. The Catholic religion was no longer considered the religion of the state but was simply recognized and tolerated on an equal footing with any other cult.

In 1927 certain decrees were issued prohibiting any foreign cleric from residing in the republic. In 1942, after a controversy lasting more than a century, Ecuador definitively settled its borders with Peru.

Bibl.: A detailed history of Ecuador is that in 8 vols. by F. González Suárez, *Historia general de la república del Ecuador*, 2 vols., Quito 1890–1904. On relations with the Holy See and the condition of the Church cf. J. Schmidt, *Papstgeschichte der neueren Zeit*, 4 vols., Munich 1933–39, passim. On the recognition of the republic by Gregory XVI cf. P. Leutra, “Gregorio XVI y la emancipación de la América española,” in *Gregorio XVI. Miscellanea commemorativa*, II, Rome 1948, pp. 205–252. On García Moreno a brief profile in F. Meda, *Statisti cattolici*, Naples 1926, pp. 47–58, and the related entry. The text of the concordats is found in *Raccolta di concordati su materia ecclesiastica tra la S. Sede e le autorità civili*, ed. Angelo Merlani, Rome 1919, pp. 683–690, 1901–193, 1979–1988. Silvio Furlani.

V. EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF ECUADOR – From 1914, the school authorities began attempts to give Ecuador’s education a modern character in line with foreign models. From 1914 to 1919 and from 1921 to 1924 the German system was followed, and work-experience schools were formed, though French influence also mingled with Spanish traditions.

The founding of the Higher Institute of Pedagogy and Letters in Guayaquil opened the way to the pedagogical doctrines of Dewey, Kilpatrick, Washburne, and Kandel, which contributed to the 1947 educational reform aimed at a cultural, moral, and social renewal of the country’s ethnic groups and principal indigenous peoples. Particular importance in the reform, as in