In 1492 Christopher Columbus landed on Española Island, thinking he reached India by the elusive western sea route. But his mistake not only gave the inhabitants of this continent a misnomer of a name but also gave the Spaniards first shot of subjugating and exploiting a brand new continent and its people. After conquering the Aztec Empire in Mexico in 1519 and establishing themselves in the Isthmus of Panama, they turned their eyes south as rumors told of an immensely rich empire, where gold abounded. The task of finding it, fell to Francisco Pizarro, who after an initial landing in 1526, somewhere near Esmeraldas, returned more determined in 1531and landed in Tumbes, Northern Peru. Hearing, that the Inca Empire was in turmoil thanks to civil war, he did not hesitate and set out with a few of his men to find Atahualpa, recent glorious winner of the fraternal fight. The Spaniards found him in Cajamarca and took him right away prisoner in his own home. One has to admire their guts and belief in themselves as being superior and their daring to conquer in face of an unknown enemy and territory. After Atahualpa´s underlings paid his ransom in filling rooms of gold, the Inca emperor was not freed as promised by his capturers but instead beheaded. Some Inca generals continued on fighting with Rumiñahui the last one to fall to the Spanish military power two years later. Rumor still has it that this Inca general hid an enormous treasure from the Spanish greed somewhere in Ecuador with the hottest clues pointing to the Llanganatis region near Baños.

After the death of Rumiñahui the natives retreated and no major Indian uprisings occurred in the next decades but enough fighting and killing among the Spaniards themselves, kept everybody entertained for a while. It was a time when conquerors tried to consolidate their power against each other and the Spanish crown. One of the victims was the man himself, Francisco Pizarro, who was killed in 1541 by the son of his erstwhile partner Diego Almagro, who of course was earlier killed by Pizarro. Over the following years the Spanish crown established their power and control of Spanish America and many cities were established, which served as administrative and political centers. Quito, which was one of the first ones founded on December 6th of 1534 by Sebastian de Benalcazar on the ruins of the old northern Inca capital became the most important center in the region. Although Quito later became part of the Viceroyalty of Lima, which was established in 1543 by the Spanish crown to have tighter control over its colonies, it was mostly independent and in 1564 was named a Real Audiencia, which gave the city more real power and independence and more direct dealings with the royal court in Madrid. Later it became part of the Viceroyalty of Granada, with seat in Bogotá but achieved a few years later again its semi-independent status.

Life for the indigenous people in the Ecuadorian territories did not get any easier under Spanish rule. Used to the authoritarian rules under the Incas the people were now subjects to Spanish interests and so mainly worked the farms for the Spaniards or in their factory shops. Although the work was hard and remuneration little, their life was relatively better off compared to the Indians of Peru and Bolivia, who worked and died in the silver and gold mines. In the first decades of Spanish rule, a system called Encomienda, was instituted in the country. It basically gave Spanish colonists unlimited power over Indians. In exchange of converting the Indians to the Christian faith and therefore saving them from eternal damnation, the indigenous people had to repay their so-called benefactors and the king with labor or part of their land or other material things. This system, which was denounced from the beginning by liberal clerics, with Bartolomé de Las Casas, the most vocal one, was at the end of the 16th century abolished and replaced by the system of mitas, a concept adopted from the Incas. In those mitas under Inca rule everybody from the community had to get together and work on a communal project, which ought to have benefited everybody. Under the Spanish system it degenerated into forced paid labor, which most of the time benefited the colonists and the crown. That and the loss of native land, which was forcefully bought by Spanish colonists or simply taken away, led in the next century to Indian uprisings, which were put down by the colony and did not change much of anything.

The 18th century brought a downturn of the economy of the colonies due to various factors. For one the mines did not produce the same quantity and quality of metals like before, the Spanish empire lost more and more power on the European continent with England becoming the main force due to its early capitalist system. For instance cheaper and better quality English textile put Quito's out of business. Another factor of importance was the expulsions of the Jesuits in 1766 from the South American continent due to conflict of interests between the catholic church and the state. In the eyes of the crown and local dignitaries especially the Jesuits became too powerful for their own good. Not only did they establish big agricultural enterprises but also provided the only valid educational system in the country and therefore had a big influence in the colony's political, social and economic activities.

Criollos (name for Spaniards born in South America) resented more and more with time the weak central government oceans away and sought more power and control over their own affairs. When Napoleon occupied Spain, they figured it was time to act

..... to find out what happened next, you have to wait for the next installment.