Chapter 1: 1836-1840
Ecuador starts as a backwater country lodged between the much larger countries of Bolivia and Colombia. The population and military are both disappointingly small, and there are plenty of ethnic minorities, while the only accepted national culture is North Andean. The economic outlook is equally grim, as the four westernmost provinces provide lumber, Quitos and Esmeraldas produce fruit, Loja produces livestock, and Guayaquil produces sugar: there is a decided lack of wealthy exports. However, there is one good thing going for Ecuador: it begins the game as ademocracy.
(Note: I don't have deep knowledge of Ecuadorian history. I will create historical figures as needed, although Juan
Jose Flores is a real historical figure.)
Chapter 1: 1 January 1836- 1 January 1840
El Presidente, Frederico Utilisante, was been elected after a campaign promising to improve education, promote the welfare of the lower classes, and improve production efficiency. As such, his first act as President was to increasefunding for education, set voting rights to "Suffrage," and decrease military spending. The Liberal Party, of which he was a member, dominated the parliament and hastily passed these measures. Ecuador had taken her first steps out of complacency with the unfortunate status quo.
Immigrants began arriving late in 1836, North Germans and Ashkenazis. They were welcomed with open arms, and integrated into society as much as possible. President Utilisante floated the idea of creating government programs to teach Spanish to these immigrants, but the idea was shot down due to budgetary issues.
All was not well for President Utilisante, though, and after the first year in office, his party was showing pretty badly in early polls. Worse yet, it was trailing to the radical reactionary Jesuit Party. El Presidente, infamous for delusions of grandeur, decided that drastic steps must be taken to shore up support for his rule. That opportunity would come sooner than expected.
In early January, Chile declared war on Ecuador's southern neighbor, Bolivia. El Presidente saw this as an opportunity to garner support for his government, and asked his trusted Minister of War, Juan Jose Flores, to draw up a war plan for a quick offensive war. President Utilisante wanted only one province, and minimal casualties. Minister Flores presented the President with just such a plan, and war was declared on 28 January, 1837.
Argentina seemed to have similar intentions, and declared war on Bolivia in May of that same year, forcing the embattled Bolivians to fight three different enemies on three different fronts. Iquitos, the original target of the war, was taken in August 1837. President Utilisante decided, however, that he would not immediately sue for peace and demand that province, as was the original plan. Smelling blood, and hearing reports of rebel armies marauding through the heart of Bolivia, he ordered Minister Flores to draw up a plan that would see yet another Bolivian province fall into Ecuadorian hands. Piura was liberated on Christmas Day, and a peace arranged by New Years: Iquitos and Piura would be ceded to Ecuador.
The revised battle plan:
President Utilisante was shocked to find that the war, which he assumed would be lauded as a fine example of a small country defeating the evils of a tyrannical neighbor, saw his war with Bolivia as nothing more than a land-grab, and Ecuador's reputation was tarnished accordingly. His popularity dwindled, and by April of 1839, he was facing an imminent election disaster. A rebellion against his percieved ineptitude broke out in Piura, and when word reached Quito, Minister Flores himself led the army against the rebels. After several days of brutal urban combat, Flores and his troops successfully sent the revolutionaries scrambling across the border into the mountains of Bolivia.After several months licking their wounds, the rebels returned to Piura, but were once again sent packing by Minister Flores.
Flores, now regarded as a war hero, was well aware of his popularity, and was something of a schemer. Exploiting the weak political position of the president, he formed his own political party, the Conservative Party of Ecuador. President Utilisante knew he would be defeated in the upcoming elections, and feared the power of the Jesuit Party, but came up with a suitable plan: he would resign in favor of Minister Flores, provided that Flores pledges that his Conservative Party of Ecuador refuses to give members of the Jesuit Party any government positions. Flores quickly accepted, and on 8 January 1839, became president of Ecuador.
President Flores had every intention of keeping his end of the deal. He, like his predecessor, despised the Jesuit Party, although he had altogether different means of combatting them: he announced that upcoming elections would be suspended for an indefinite amount of time. This announcement, which many (quite rightly) took as a proclamation of a new presidential dictatorship, caused the supporters of the Jesuit Party to become increasingly militant, culminating with a revolution just east of Quito in December of 1839. As President Flores marched on the rebels, the fate of Ecuador was very much hanging in the balance.
Leaders of Ecuador
1836-1839: Ferderico Utilisante
1839-: Juan Jose Flores