Ecuadoran Civil War of 1830-34
1830 CE to 1834 CE
Related Events
Showing 9 events out of 9 total
Venezuela declares its independence from Gran Colombia on January 13, 1830.
He has already sent several crates (containing his belongings and his writings) ahead of him to Europe.
The population of Ecuador has been divided during the last several years among three segments: those favoring the status quo, those supporting union with Peru, and those advocating autonomous independence for the former audiencia.
The last group prevails following Venezuela's withdrawal from the confederation during an 1830 constitutional congress that had been called in Bogotá in a futile effort to combat growing separatist tendencies throughout Gran Colombia.
On May 13, 1830, a group of Quito notables meets to dissolve the union with Gran Colombia.
Bogotá becomes the capital of a rump Republic of Colombia.
Antonio José de Sucre, upon learning that Bolívar has resigned and intends to leave the country,decides to go to Quito in order to resume his private life, but is assassinated by ambush near Pasto, at the Sierra de Berruecos in southern Colombia, on June 4, 1830.
The details of the murder are unclear and theories about the reason for it abound, but it certainly leaves no clear successor to Bolívar, who, when news of Sucre's death comes to him, says, "Se ha derramado, Dios excelso, la sangre del inocente Abel..." ("The blood of the innocent Abel has been spilled, God almighty...").
General José María Obando, who, as the vice president will serve for two years as interim President of the country, will be thought by some to have engineered the assassination, and one of the alleged assassins named in this theory will later be executed for his apparent role.
Later theories will implicate different (or additional) individuals, such as Juan José Flores, Agustín Gamarra, and Francisco de Paula Santander.
The department of Sucre in Colombia and the city of Sucre in Bolivia will be named for him, as will the future currency of Ecuador, and the State of Venezuela in which he was born, formerly Cumaná.
In Venezuela, where a large neighborhood in the city of Caracas is named Sucre, some of his descendants are to follow his military and political example.
Flores, born in Venezuela, 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 had married into the Quiteño elite, gaining acceptance, initially at least, within the local criollo upper class.
He is to remain the dominant political figure during Ecuador's first fifteen years of independence.
Bolívar’s dream of Gran Colombia is shattered with Venezuela and Ecuador having broken away to form independent states of their own.
Before setting sail and after a painful battle with tuberculosis, Bolívar dies on December 17, 1830, in the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino in Santa Marta, Gran Colombia (now Colombia).
General Juan José Flores, maintaining his power under the autocratic constitution of 1830 with an army composed mainly of foreign soldiers, rules from the mountain city of Quito, composed of a largely conservative populace, while ...
...discontent brews in the seaport of Guayaquil, populated by numerous liberals.
An uprising begins in 1834 in the coastal region under Vicente Rocafuerte, the aristocratic governor of Guayas province, and aims at removing the foreigners, including Flores.
The latter remains in control, briefly jails Rocafuerte, then agrees that they should take turns in the presidency.
On September 10, 1834, Rocafuerte becomes president and Flores became commander of the army.