History.—The territory of the present republic of Ecuador, when first it becomes dimly visible in the grey dawn of American history, appears to be inhabited by upwards of fifty independent tribes, among which the Quitus seem to hold the most important position. About 280 A.D. a foreign tribe is said to have forced their way inland up the valley of the Esmeraldas; and the kingdom which they founded at Quito lasted for about 1200 years, and was gradually extended, both by war and alliance, over many of the neighbouring dominions. In 1460, during the reign of the fourteenth Caran Shyri, or king of the Cara nation, Hualcopo Duchisela, the conquest of Quito was undertaken by Tupac Yupanqui, the Inca of Peru; and his ambitious schemes were, not long after his death, successfully carried out by his son Huaina-Capac, who inflicted a decisive defeat on the Quitonians in the battle of Hatuntaqui, and secured his position by marrying Pacha, the daughter of the late Shyri. By his will the conqueror left the kingdom of Quito to Atahuallpa, his son by this alliance; while the Peruvian throne was assigned to Huascar, an elder son by his Peruvian consort. War soon broke out between the two kingdoms, owing to Huascar's pretensions to supremacy over his brother; but it ended in the defeat and imprisonment of the usurper, and the establishment of Atahuallpa as master both of Quito and Cuzco. The fortunate monarch, however, had not long to enjoy his success; for Pizarro and his Spaniards were already at the door, and by 1533 the fate of the country was sealed. As soon as the confusions and rivalries of the first occupation were suppressed, the recent kingdom of Quito was made a presidency of the Spanish vice-royalty of Peru, and no change of importance took place till 1710. In that year it was attached to the viceroyalty of Santa Fé; but it was restored to Peru in 1722. When, towards the close of the century, the desire for independence began to manifest itself throughout the Spanish colonies of South America, Quito did not remain altogether indifferent. The Quitonian doctor Eugenio Espejo, and his fellow-citizen Don Juan Pio Montufar, entered into hearty co-operation with Nariño and Zea, the leaders of the revolutionary movement at Santa Fé; and it was at Espejo's suggestion that the political association called the Escuela de Concordia was instituted at Quito. It was not till 1809, however, that the Quitonians made a real attempt to throw off the Spanish yoke; and both on that occasion and in 1812 the royal general succeeded in crushing the insurrection. In 1820 the people of Guayaquil took up the cry of liberty; and in spite of several defeats they continued the contest, till at length, under Antonio José de Sucre, who had been sent to their assistance by Bolivar, and reinforced by a Peruvian contingent under Andres de Santa Cruz, they gained a complete victory on May 22, 1822, in a battle fought on the side of Mount Pichincha, at a height of 10,200 feet above the sea. Two days after, the Spanish president of Quito, Don Melchor de Aymeric, capitulated, and the independence of the country was secured. A political union was at once effected with New Granada and Venezuela on the basis of the republican constitution instituted at Cucuta in July 1821,—the triple confederation taking the name of Colombia.
A disagreement with Peru in 1828 resulted in the invasion of Ecuador and the temporary occupation of Cuenca and Guayaquil by Peruvian forces; but peace was restored in the following year after the Ecuadorian victory at Tarqui. In the early part of 1830 a separation was effected from the Colombian federation, and the country was proclaimed an independent republic. General Juan José Flores was the first president, and in spite of many difficulties, both domestic and foreign, he managed to maintain a powerful position in the state for about 15 years. Succeeded in 1835 by Vicente Rocafuerte, he regained the presidency in 1839, and was elected for the third time in 1843; but shortly afterwards he accepted the title of generalissimo and a sum of 20,000 pesos, and left the country to his rivals. One of the most important measures of his second presidency was the establishment of peace and friendship with Spain. Roca, who next attained to power, effected a temporary settlement with Colombia, concluded a convention with England against the slave trade, and made a commercial treaty with Belgium. Diego Noboa, elected in 1850 after a period of great confusion, recalled the Jesuits, produced a rupture with New Granada by receiving conservative refugees, and thus brought about his own deposition and exile. The democratic Urbina now became practically dictator, and as the attempt of Flores to reinstate Noboa proved a total failure, he was quickly succeeded in 1856 by General Francisco Robles, who, among other progressive measures, secured the adoption of the French system of coinage, weights, and measures. He abdicated in 1859 and left the country, after refusing to ratify the treaty with Peru, by which the defender of Guayaquil had obtained the raising of the siege. Dr Gabriel Garcia Moreno, professor of chemistry, the recognized leader of the conservative party at Quito, was ultimately elected by the national convention of 1861. Distrust in his policy, however, was excited by the publication of some of his private correspondence, in which he spoke favourably of a French protectorate, and the army which he sent under Flores to resist the encroachments of Mosquera, the president of New Granada, was completely routed. His first resignation in 1864 was refused; but the despotic acts by which he sought to establish a dictatorship only embittered his opponents, and in Sept. 1865 he retired from office. While he had endeavoured to develop the material resources of the country, he had at the same time introduced retrograde measures in regard to religion and education. The principal event in the short presidency of his successor, Geronimo Carrion (May 1865–Nov. 1867), was the alliance with Chili and Peru against Spain, and the banishment of all Spanish subjects. Several important changes were made by congress in the period between his resignation and the election of Xavier Espinosa, Jan. 1868: the power of the president to imprison persons regarded as dangerous to public order was annulled; and the immediate naturalization of Bolivians, Chilians, Peruvians, and Colombians was authorized. Espinosa had hardly entered on his office when, in August 1868, the country was visited by an earthquake, in which 30,000 people are said to have perished throughout South America. The public buildings of Quito were laid in ruins; and Ibarra, Otavalo, Cotacachi, and several other towns were completely destroyed. Next year a revolution at Quito, under Moreno, brought Espinosa's presidency to a close; and though the national convention appointed Carvajal to the vacant office, Moreno succeeded in securing his own election in 1870 for a term of six years. His policy had undergone no alteration since 1865: the same persistent endeavour was made to establish a religious despotism, in which the supremacy of the president should be subordinate only to the higher supremacy of the clergy. The tyranny, however, came to a sudden end in August 14th 1875, when the president was assassinated in Quito, by three of his private enemies. The consequent election resulted in the appointment of Dr Borrero, who, in his address to congress, December 1876, promised “to maintain, during the tenure of the responsible office to which he had never aspired, full political liberty and the freedom of the press.” An insurrection headed by Veintemilla, the military commandant of Guayaquil, had already broken out; and on the 14th December the Government forces under Aparicio were completely routed at Galte.
See Ulloa, Relation hist. del Viaje, Madrid, 1748; Caldas, Seminario de la Nueva Granada, Paris, 1749; Velasco, Hist. del reino de Quito, Quito, 1789 (French, by Ternaux-Compans, Paris, 1840); Humboldt and Bonpland, Voyages aux régions équinox. du nouveau continent, 1799, &c.; Villavicencio, Geografía de la Rep. del Ecuador, New York, 1858; Richard Spruce, “Visit to the Cinchona forests on the western slopes of the Quitonian Andes,” in Journ. of the Proc. of the Linnean Soc. 1860; Pritchett, “Explor. in Ecuador in the years 1856 and 1857,” in Journ. of Roy. Geog. Soc. 1860; Spruce, “On the Mountains of Llanganati,” and Prof. Jameson, “Journey from Quito to Cayambe in 1859,” in Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc., 1861; Viscount Onffroy de Thoron, Amérique équatoriale, 1865; Haussarek, Four Years among Spanish Americans, London, 1868; Juan Leon Mera, Ojeada historico-critica sobre la poesia Ecuadoriana, Quito, 1868; Wagner, Naturwissensch. Reisen im trop. Amerika, Stuttgart, 1870; Orton, The Andes and the Amazon, 1870; Flemming in the Globus, 1871 and 1872; Reiss and Stübel, “Höhenmessungen in Süd Amerika,” in Zeitsch. der Gesells. für Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1874; “Die Zustände in der Rep. Ecuador,” in Das Ausland, 1875; Dr W. Reiss, “Bericht über eine Reise nach dem Quilotoa und dem Cerro Hermoso,” in de, 1875; Vadet, “L'Équateur,” in L'Explorateur géographique et commerciale, 1875; Simson, “Notes of Journeys in the Interior of South America,” in Proc. of Roy. Geog. Soc., 1877.
EDAM, a town of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and arrondissement of Hoorn, about 11 miles north-east of Amsterdam, and hardly a mile from the present limits of the Zuider Zee, at the junction of two branch canals. It has a fine town-house, an exchange, and a fish-market, and one of its two Reformed churches is adorned with stained glass, and ranks among the most beautiful buildings of the kind in the province. Ship-building, rope-spinning, and salt-boiling are carried on, and the place gives its name to a well-known description of “sweet-milk” cheese—Zoetemelks Kaas. It was at Edam that nearly the whole of Admiral De Ruyter's fleet was constructed. Population of the commune in 1869, 5152, and of the town 3356.
