History of Quito

By Dawn Wohlfarth

Pre-Inca Civilization

Nestled into a shallow valley 2850 meters above the sea, it is amazing that Quito was inhabited at all before modern transportation and cultivation technology, but the first signs of inhabitants in Quito date back to as early as 600 C.E. with the Quitu, Cara, Shyri and Puruhá groups. Quito was a permanent commercial trading center, or tianguez, because of its central location for the Coast, Sierra and Amazon Basin regions. The merchants, mindalaes, traded products like salt, cotton and shells from the coast for cinnamon, medicinal herbs and precious metals from the Amazon Basin. The sierra produced and traded potatoes, corn and other agricultural products endemic to the area.

Inca Rule

Not much else is known about these groups apart from the fact that in the late 15th century, they gave the Inca warriors solid resistance. After at least a decade of fighting, Quito was subjected to Inca rule under Huayna-Capac, who built a road south to his preferred capital in Cuzco. Upon Huayna-Capac’s death, the empire was divided in two and led by his sons, Huascar and Atahualpa. Huascar ruled from Cuzco; and Atahualpa made Quito the northern capital of the Inca Empire.

Spanish Rule

Just 30 years after the Inca wars, the Spanish, led by Francisco Pizarro, arrived. The quick victory of the Spanish is a fascinating and tragic part of history and a source of bitterness for many modern-day Quiteños. A series of unfortunate decisions by the Inca leader Atahualpa, and the shrewd deception of Pizarro eventually led the Spanish to overtake the Inca army, estimated at over 5,000, with a few dozen men. For a memento of this historic battle, just make a stop at a local market. At pretty much every indigenous market in Ecuador today, you can find Inca versus Spanish chess sets, complete with llamas on the Inca side and horses on the Spanish side.

There are no remaining Inca structures left in Quito. When Atahualpa realized he had been defeated, he went down in flames, razing Quito to ashes before the Spanish beheaded him.

Today, the Centro Histórico has the best display of colonial Quito with many original structures dating back to the mid- to late-1500s and built on Inca foundations. The Plaza San Francisco, for example, has a beautiful monastery and plaza built in the same spot that the pre-Inca tribes held their tianguez.

The Spanish introduced many changes to the indigenous population; among them, violent and obligatory conversion to Catholicism as well as an oppressive feudal system. The new system placed social status on race. Spanish were on the top rung of society, then the mestizo, or mixed population; followed by the indigenous groups and the African slaves the Spanish brought over were at the bottom.

Independence and Gran Colombia

The Catholic Church, faithful to the Spanish Crown, dominated economically and socially during the Colonial Period until the beginning of the 19th century when a common desire for liberation began to brew in Quito. On August 10, 1809 (still celebrated today as Ecuador’s Independence Day) the ‘First Cry for Independence’ was proclaimed in Quito. Thirteen years later, the Battle of Pichincha, (Pichincha is the province which includes Quito) led by Field Marshall Antonio José de Sucre decided Ecuador’s victory over the Spanish.

Ecuador was part of liberator Simón Bolívar’s Gran Colombia, along with parts of Panama, Venezuela, Colombia until 1830. The first constitutional government was headed by Juan José Flores that same year.

For more details on the political history of Ecuador, see our History of Ecuador.