l period. The Spanish heavily evangelized the indigenous people and also pressed them into service for the construction of churches, homes and other buildings used by Spanish administrators.
The indigenous population was decimated by disease in the first decades of Spanish rule, a time when the natives also were forced into a labor system that benefitted Spanish landlords. The Spanish maintained strict control over Ecuador for 250 years. The Spanish laws, customs and ideas were introduced to the local population in cities including Quito. Natives of the region began to mix the old traditions with the new (History of Ecuador).
According to a lengthy essay written by Kim Clark and Marc Becker, the Spanish colonial administration in Ecuador treated native Indians as wards of the state and considered them legally inferior to white and mestizo inhabitants. Along with this status came the Spanish crown's paternalistic policies that in some ways protected native Indians from some of the worst abuses at the hands of the Spanish colonial elite. With independence from Spain, liberal ideals flourished that eliminated with special privileges and obligations for certain groups of people while at the same time retaining aspects of Spanish colonial legislation and institutions that ensured the continued subjugation of Indians (Indigenous Peoples and State Formation in Modern Ecuador).
According to an essay published online on the Articles.industrialsoft.org website, by 1809, Quito was a city of about 10,000 inhabitants that had been under Spanish rule for about 300 years. Aristocrats living and working in Quito declared the city's independence. This revolt was suppressed by force by the Spanish authorities and as a result both military leaders and leading intellectuals were killed. More specifically, when Spanish forces arrived from Lima, Peru and killed the leaders of the uprising along with about 200 inhabitants of...