When the Spanish marched into the highlands of Ecuador in 1534, they knew that they were entering the northern sector of the Inca empire. Yet the terrain that they crossed and the societies they encountered were distinctly different from those of the southern Andes. These unique physical and cultural characteristics explain, in large measure, the area's special patterns of historical development both before and after the Spanish conquest. Inca control of the northern Andes had been achieved only a few years before the arrival of Europeans. Old World diseases quickly followed the Inca invasion and, in fact, preceded Pizarro and his men by several years. So even before the appearance of Spanish armies, demographic and political crisis gripped native communities throughout the Ecuadorian sierra.

The setting

The páramo (cool, humid highlands – 3, 360–4, 600 m) Andes of Ecuador are distinctly different from the puna (cold, dry highlands – 4, 000–4, 800 m) regions of the southern Andes, where higher elevations, lower temperatures, and an arid climate limit food production. In response to these challenging agricultural conditions, the indigenous inhabitants of Peru and Bolivia developed methods of food preservation enabling them to accumulate large surpluses. The level of political organization required to direct this effort, in turn, encouraged the development of large centralized state systems. Ecuador, by contrast, is characterized by lower elevations, higher temperatures, and constant humidity, allowing for year-round crop production. The milder climate and agricultural abundance of the northern Andes did not necessitate the creation of vast political networks; hence the predominance of small-scale chiefdoms.