ECUADOR. -
I. GEOGRAPHY
The smallest of the Andean States, so called because it is crossed by the Equator. Its area, after the long dispute with Peru—which concerned more than 400,000 sq. km. of territory—was settled by the treaty of 28 January 1942, was reduced to 256,074 sq. km. It comprises a section of the Andes including a series of high basins, among them the plateau of Quito (about ½ of the country), a coastal zone (¼ of the country), partly low-lying and unhealthy, and a strip of the eastern plain, crossed by great tributaries of the Amazon and covered with imposing forests. The Galápagos archipelago belongs to E.In 1948 the population amounted to 3.4 million inhabitants (13 per sq. km.), consisting predominantly of Indians (48%) and mestizos (30%). Europeans and Creoles accounted for barely 8%, and blacks for the same proportion; mulattoes made up 6%. There are approximately 2,000 Italians.
E. is potentially very rich, but is still little developed. The principal products are cocoa (of which the country is one of the world’s major exporters), coffee, sugar cane, and cotton; among minerals, first place is held by petroleum, which is also exported.
Apart from a few pagan tribes living in the Amazonian lowlands, the overwhelming majority of the population is Catholic. The official language is Spanish.
E. is a unitary parliamentary (bicameral) republic; administratively, it is divided into 16 provinces and 1 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 forms its outlet to the Pacific.
II. EVANGELIZATION
With Sebastiano de Belalcazar, Franciscans and Dominicans arrived in Quito. The Indian tribes of the country had belonged to the Inca kingdom since the 15th century. Under Spanish rule, from 1563 Quito formed an audiencia (province) of the viceroyalty of Peru, and from 1739 of the viceroyalty of New Granada. The diocese of Quito was erected as early as 1545. The Franciscans and Dominicans established doctrinas among the Indians of the Sierra. In the 17th century, missionary activity extended toward the east of the audiencia. The Jivaros of the southeast, who toward the end of the 16th century had destroyed the Spanish colonies of Zamora, remained resistant to the Christian religion. The Dominicans, however, succeeded in establishing themselves in Canelos, and from 1632 the Franciscans undertook several missionary expeditions toward the east. The Jesuits, who had gone to Quito in 1586, founded the mission of the Mainas along the Napo, Pastaza, and Marañon rivers from 1637 onward, and gathered 14,236 Christian Indians into 35 reductions (1762). After their expulsion, the Franciscans and Dominicans partly replaced them. Unfortunately, the missions east of Quito began to decline toward the end of the 18th century and subsequently almost completely disappeared during the wars of independence, with the exception of the mission of Canelos.After the Republic of E. was established, the governments hindered the development of the Church. In 1848 Quito was elevated to an archdiocese, with the suffragan dioceses of Cuenca, erected in 1786, and Guayaquil, erected in 1838. Under President García Moreno (1861–65, 1869–75), new dioceses were erected: Ibarra in 1862, Riobamba in 1863, Loja in 1866, and Puerto Viejo in 1871. In 1863 a concordat was concluded with the Holy See. In 1869 the Jesuits were invited to resume their missionary activity in the east of E., and in 1871 the apostolic vicariate of Napo was erected. Approximately 10,000 Indians were brought back to the Catholic faith. In 1886 the mission of Canelos was entrusted once 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, Zamora for the Franciscans, Mendez y Gualaquiza for the Salesians, and the prefecture of Canelos y Macas for the Dominicans. But in 1896 the Jesuits and Franciscans were again expelled by the government 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 Mendez y Gualaquiza and founded several mission centers; the Franciscans, on the other hand, succeeded in resuming the mission of Zamora only in 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 as the apostolic prefecture of S. Miguel de Sucumbios and entrusted to the Discalced Carmelites; the apostolic prefecture of Esmeraldas, erected in 1945 along the Pacific Ocean, was likewise entrusted to them. In 1948 the diocese of Amabato and the apostolic vicariate of Los Rios were erected, the latter being entrusted to the Spanish Institute of St. Francis Xavier for Foreign Missions.
III. MODERN HISTORY
The Indians of Quito, whose settlement was situated near the present-day capital, were subjugated around the 10th century by a warlike people whose chiefs bore the name Seyris. The latter, in turn, were obliged to recognize the sovereignty of the Incas. When, at the death of the Inca Huayna-Capac, the Empire was divided between his sons Atahualpa and Huascar—the former receiving the kingdom of Quito and the latter Cuzco and the southern empire—a conflict between the brothers soon arose, breaking out on the eve of the arrival of the Spaniards under Francesco Pizarro.The fratricidal war greatly facilitated the Spanish conquest, and Quito fell into the hands of one of Pizarro’s lieutenants, Captain Belalcázar. In 1563, at the request of the municipal council, which complained of the weakness of royal government in that distant province and of the abuses of justice to which this circumstance gave rise, the audiencia of Quito was established: administratively, it depended on the viceroy of Peru. The territorial extent of the audiencia was considerably greater than that of present-day E. In 1718 it was suppressed and annexed to the viceroyalty of New Granada; but, re-established four years later, it was once again placed under the authority of Lima, until in 1740 it returned to the jurisdiction of New Granada, remaining so until the proclamation of independence.
IV. CONTEMPORARY HISTORY
A war over territorial questions began immediately between New Granada and E., ending with E.’s defeat and the annexation by New Granada of the disputed territories. The first president of E. was General Flores. In 1835 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 mota proprio provision for 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 nevertheless lacking; this was communicated in Aug. 1838 by Cardinal Lambruschini, Secretary of State to Gregory XVI, to the Ecuadorian Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the republic’s domestic politics, the radical and anti-Catholic current prevailed until the presidency of García Moreno. Once the latter came to power, the Catholic religion enjoyed a privileged position. Schools, hospitals, and other charitable and educational institutions were founded and entrusted to the Jesuits, the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, and the Sisters of Charity. Subsequently, the new president sent a plenipotentiary to Rome to negotiate the conclusion of a concordat, which was signed on 26 Sept. 1862. The Catholic religion was declared the religion of the State; education and instruction were to conform to Catholic doctrine; the bishops were free to communicate with Rome and were not to encounter any obstacle in the administration of their dioceses. In 1865 García Moreno had to leave the presidency, and his opponents took advantage of this to declare the concordat abrogated and to confiscate ecclesiastical property. Returning to power four years later, he restored the Catholic Church to its privileged position, and E., through the efforts of its president, was the only country to protest vehemently against the occupation of Rome in 1870 and against the illegitimate situation
On 2 May 1881, under the presidency of General Veintemilla, a new concordat was signed in Quito by the apostolic delegate Mocenni and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Vernaza; it was, on the whole, almost identical to that of 1862, except for modifications introduced in the article concerning ecclesiastical jurisdiction, regarding the transfer of non-canonical cases to the civil courts. On 8 Nov. 1890, a treaty was concluded concerning the replacement of tithes. At the beginning of the new century, the radical currents succeeded in 1904 in securing the denunciation of the concordat and the separation of Church and State. The Catholic religion is no longer regarded as the religion of the State, but is simply recognized and tolerated on an equal footing with any other religion. In 1927, several decrees were issued prohibiting any foreign ecclesiastic from residing in the republic. In 1942, after a dispute lasting more than a century, E. settled its borders with Peru.
Silvio Furlani
V. ORDINAMENTO SCOLASTICO DELL'E
From 1914 onward, the educational authorities began attempting to give the schools of E. the character of a modern education, following examples from abroad. From 1914 to 1919 and from 1921 to 1924, the German educational system was followed, and escaletas del trabajo were established, while also feeling the influence of the French system, which became intermingled with Spanish traditions.The establishment of the Higher Institute of Pedagogy and Letters in Guayaquil opened the way to the pedagogical doctrines of Dewey, Kilpatrick, Washburn, and Kandel, which contributed to the reform of education in 1947. Its aim is the cultural, moral, and social renewal of the country’s ethnic groups, and especially of the Indians. Of particular importance in the reform, as in the
