Napoleon's successful invasion of Spain in 1808 sent shockwaves throughout the New World colonies. On August 10, 1809 a short-lived junta in support of the deposed king, Ferdinand VII , was established in Quito, but it failed in a matter of weeks when the backing of the rest of the audiencia was not forthcoming. Despite assurances of pardons, those involved were rounded up and sentenced to death. In August 1810, an incensed public stormed the prison where the condemned were held, but the guards massacred the junta's leaders before they could be freed. Even so, the disturbances led to a new junta , which ambitiously declared the independence of the audiencia in 1811, whether the rest of the colony was ready for it or not. With a band of ill-disciplined troops, the new government launched a foolhardy attack against the well-trained Spanish forces and were consequently routed at Ibarra in 1812.

 

After that defeat, it wasn't until 1820 that the independence movement regained momentum, this time in Guayaquil and led by José Joaquín de Olmedo , an intellectual and shrewd politician. Now the timing was right: the city declared its independence on October 9, and urgent requests for assistance were immediately sent to Simón Bolívar , the Liberator, who was marching south from Venezuela, and José de San Martín , who was sweeping north from Argentina, crushing the Spanish armies as they went. Bolívar quickly sent his best general, the 26-year-old Antonio José de Sucre , with a force of 700 men. Sucre scored a great victory at Guayaquil, but was thwarted at Ambato, until reinforcements sent by San Martín enabled him to push on to Quito. On May 24, 1822, he won the decisive Battle of Pichincha , on the slopes of the volcano above the city, and five days later the old audiencia became the Department of the South in a new autonomous state, Gran Colombia , roughly corresponding to the combined territories of Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela today.

The early years of the republic were turbulent however, and disagreements over the state's border with Peru escalated into armed conflict in 1828. Guayaquil suffered extensive damage during a sea attack, but Sucre and General Juan José Flores defeated the Peruvian forces at the Battle of Tarqui in 1829. A year later, following Venezuela's split from Gran Colombia, Quito representatives also decided to declare their own republic, naming it Ecuador , after its position on the equator - other options were "Quito", which wasn't popular with those outside the city, and even "Atahualpia" - and General Flores , a Venezuelan by birth who had married into the Quito aristocracy, was made the country's first president.

The new nation didn't gel at all well. In the sierra, the Conservative land-owning elites were happy enough to keep the colonial system in operation, while on the coast, the Liberal merchant classes, rich on the country's sole export commodity, cacao, wanted free trade, lower taxes and a proper break with the old order. This dualism between the regions has coloured the politics and history of the country ever since.

Flores soon found his heavy-handed and Quito-oriented administration desperately unpopular on the coast, and cannily arranged for the Guayaquileño politician Vicente Rocafuerte to take the second term. Meanwhile Flores lurked in the background, pulling the strings as head of the military, and became president again from 1839 to 1845, when he was ousted by a junta from the coast. For the next fifteen years, the country descended into a political mire, with bitter fighting between the regions and the seat of government moving from Quito to Guayaquil to Riobamba and back to Guayaquil. Eleven presidents and juntas followed each other in government, the most successful being led by the Liberal General José María Urbina , who ruled with an iron fist from 1851 to 1856, and managed to abolish slavery within a week of the coup that swept him to power. Moreover, he had strongly encouraged his predecessor, General Francisco Robles , to axe the tribute that the indígenas were still being forced to pay after three centuries of abuse.

The turmoil of the era culminated in 1859 - what came to be known as the Terrible Year - when the strain between the regions finally shattered the country: Quito set up a provisional government; Cuenca declared itself autonomous; Loja became a federal district; and worst of all, Guayaquil, led by General Guillermo Franco, signed itself away to Peruvian control. Peru invaded and blockaded the port, while Colombia hungrily eyed the rest of Ecuador for itself.