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The Incas

By the early 1500's the Inca leader Huayna Capac consolidated his conquest upon the land of Ecuador. War shortly broke out upon the inheritance of the newly established Inca Kingdom. Thus, weakend the region on the eve of the arrival of the Spaniard invaders. The first Spaniards invaded northern Ecuador in the year 1526. This very same year Huayna Capac divided the empire between his two sons, Atahualpa and Huascar. Atahulpa ruled the northern half where Huascar ruled the southern. In 1532 Francisco Pizzaro came to Ecuador when he intended to conquere the Incas. Just as Hernando Cortez acomplished crushing Mexico's Aztecs, Pizzaro could not have picked a greater time for his mission. Shortly after entering Ecuadors territory he forced Atahualpa to collect an enormous ransom and then Pizzaro had him executed. After Pizzaro completed his mission the Inca were broken. Reminants of them are still apart of Ecuador today, but the tribe as a whole no longer exists.