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The history of the Republic of Ecuador from 1830 to 1860 begins with the collapse of the nation of Gran Colombia in 1830, followed by the assassination of Antonio José de Sucre and the death of Simón Bolívar from tuberculosis the same year. Heartbroken at the dissolution of Gran Colombia, Bolívar is quoted to have said shortly before his death, "America is ungovernable. Those who have served the revolution have plowed the sea." These words would seem prophetic during the chaotic first thirty years in the existence of Ecuador. General Juan José Flores became the first President of Ecuador, ruling from 1830 to 1834. In 1834, facing a rebellion, he co-opted its presidential choice, José Vicente Rocafuerte y Rodríguez de Bejarano, and supported his presidency, while retaining considerable power as the commander of the military. In 1839, Rocafuerte retired, and Flores regained the presidency. In 1845, the Marcist Rebellion forced him into exile. The next fifteen years saw much turmoil, as various factions struggled for supremacy. Matters came to a head in 1859, the "Terrible Year" in Ecuadorian history. Then President Francisco Robles faced several opposition movements. Neighboring Peru, under President Ramón Castilla, began negotiating with all factions and imposed a blockade. On Castilla's suggestion, the four competing Ecuadorian governments selected General Guillermo Franco to negotiate with him. When the various factions realized that Franco had betrayed them, they banded together. At the Battle of Guayaquil, fought between September 22–24, 1860, Franco was defeated, and a new conservative era of government was ushered in. ==Beginnings of the Republic of Ecuador== Independence did not bring a revolutionary liberation of the masses of Ecuadorian peasants. On the contrary, as bad as the peasants' situation had been, it probably worsened with the loss of the Spanish royal officials who had protected the indigenous population against the abuses of the local criollo elite. These criollos, who had spearheaded the struggle for independence, were to be its principal beneficiaries. The early battle for control of the new state was fought, to a great extent, among the various factions—Ecuadorian and foreign, military and civilian—of this elite. General Juan José Flores, the "Founder of the Republic" and first President of Ecuador, was of the foreign military variety. Born in Venezuela, he had fought in the wars for independence with Bolívar, who had appointed him governor of Ecuador during its association with Gran Colombia. Although of humble origins with little formal education, Flores married into the Quiteño elite, gaining acceptance, initially at least, within the local criollo upper class. As a leader, however, he appeared primarily interested in maintaining his power. Military expenditures, from the wars of independence and from an unsuccessful campaign to wrest Cauca Province from Colombia in 1832, kept the state treasury empty while other matters were left unattended. In 1833, four intellectuals who had begun publishing the newspaper ''El Quiteño Libre'' to denounce the "pillaging of the national treasury by foreigners" were killed by the authorities at a time when Flores was absent from Quito. Although not directly responsible for the killings, Flores inevitably became associated with them, and criticism of his regime grew. In 1834, opponents staged a rebellion in an effort to place José Vicente Rocafuerte y Rodríguez de Bejarano, a member of the Guayaquil aristocracy who had recently returned from fourteen years abroad, in the presidency. The effort failed; Flores then co-opted his opponent and sponsored Rocafuerte as a presidential candidate. For four years following this Machiavellian political move, in effect the nation's first coup d'état, Flores continued to wield considerable power behind the scenes as commander of the military. President Rocafuerte's most lasting contribution was to begin development of a public school system. Although he had previously condemned Flores's violations of civil liberties, Rocafuerte argued that "the backwardness of Ecuador makes enlightened despotism necessary." At the end of his term in 1839, Rocafuerte returned to his native Guayaquil as provincial governor, while in Quito Flores was again inaugurated as president. After four years in office, Flores summoned a constitutional convention that wrote a new constitution, dubbed "the Charter of Slavery" by his opponents, and elected him to a new eight-year term of office. After 1843, opposition to Flores often manifested itself in unpleasant ways: in reference to the dark skin of Flores and his fellow Venezuelan and Colombian soldiers, Rocafuerte (by now exiled in Lima) wrote that "the white oppressors of the peninsula were less oppressive than the Negro vandals who have replaced them." A young student named Gabriel García Moreno—later to become the most infamous of all of Ecuador's nineteenth century dictators—tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Flores. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Ecuador (1830–60)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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