ABSTRACT
Historical patterns inherited from the country's precolonial and colonial past have continued to exert a strong influence over Ecuador's political and economic development. Ecuador's first constitution explicitly recognized the regional character of the new republic, formally establishing Ecuador as a confederation of the three departments of Quito, Guayaquil, and Cuenca. The grafting of Spanish rule onto the conquered Inca society established a colonial system with a large Indian underclass and a small Hispanic elite whose power and privilege became consolidated in the highland hacienda. In practice Spanish control was most complete over those regions in which the Incas had previously subjugated the indigenous populations, principally those located within the inter-Andean valley. The encomienda system was a Spanish institution grafted onto the traditional Inca social structure. The upper class comprised the peninsular Spanish, who monopolized the higher offices in the civil and ecclesiastical bureaucracies, having received these positions by royal appointment.
