The history of the Republic of Ecuador from 1830 to 1860 begins with the collapse of the nation of Gran Colombia in 1830, followed by the assassination of Antonio José de Sucre and the death of Simón Bolívar from tuberculosis the same year.

In 1834, facing a rebellion, he co-opted its presidential choice, José Vicente Rocafuerte y Rodríguez de Bejarano, and supported his presidency, while retaining considerable power as the commander of the military.

On the contrary, as bad as the peasants' situation had been, it probably worsened with the loss of the Spanish royal officials who had protected the indigenous population against the abuses of the local criollo elite.

Military expenditures, from the wars of independence and from an unsuccessful campaign to wrest Cauca Province from Colombia in 1832, kept the state treasury empty while other matters were left unattended.

In 1833, four intellectuals who had begun publishing the newspaper El Quiteño Libre to denounce the "pillaging of the national treasury by foreigners" were killed by the authorities at a time when Flores was absent from Quito.

In 1834, opponents staged a rebellion in an effort to place José Vicente Rocafuerte y Rodríguez de Bejarano, a member of the Guayaquil aristocracy who had recently returned from fourteen years abroad, in the presidency.

For four years following this Machiavellian political move, in effect the nation's first coup d'état, Flores continued to wield considerable power behind the scenes as commander of the military.

Flores surrendered on his plantation, La Elvira, near Babahoyo and agreed to terms that included his leaving power and rendering all his decrees, laws, and acts void and null, ending fifteen years of foreign domination of Ecuador.

The most significant figure of the era, however, was General José María Urbina, who first came to power in 1851 through a coup d'état, remained in the presidency until 1856, and then continued to dominate the political scene until 1860.

During this decade and the one that followed, Urbina and his archrival, García Moreno, would define the rivalry between liberals from Guayaquil and conservatives from Quito that remained the major sphere of political struggle in Ecuador into the 1980s.

Urbina freed the nation's slaves exactly one week after his coup of 1851, and six years later, his successor and lifelong friend, General Francisco Robles, finally put an end to three centuries of annual payments of tribute by the native peoples.

Attempts at diplomatic resolution resulted in another breakdown of relations, and in October 1858, the Peruvian government authorized President Ramón Castilla to go to war with Ecuador if necessary to resolve the matter.

President Robles, faced with the threat of the Peruvian blockade, moved the national capital to Guayaquil, and charged General José María Urbina with defending it.

[7] On May 1, a conservative triumvirate, initiated by Dr. Gabriel García Moreno, Pacífico Chiriboga and Jerónimo Carrión (Robles' vice president), formed the Provisional Government of Quito.

García Moreno fled to Peru, where he requested the support of President Castilla; the Peruvian leader supplied him with weapons and ammunition to subvert the Robles regime.

[9] As García Moreno was trying to resurrect his movement, the mediation efforts of the Granadine Confederation (a short-lived federal republic) and Chile had fallen through, with both countries blaming Peru for the failure.

The Peruvians were playing to all sides in the civil dispute; on August 31, 1859, Castilla betrayed his commitment to García Moreno, and came to an agreement with Franco that resulted in the end of the blockade of Guayaquil.

[6] When he received word of Franco's allegiance with Castilla, Robles disavowed their treaty, and moved the capital once again, this time to Riobamba, where he handed over leadership of the government to Jerónimo Carrión.

With the domestic situation at its most tumultuous, and the Peruvian blockade of the rest of the Ecuadorian coast nearing the end of its first year, Castilla sought to take advantage of the circumstances to impose a favorable border settlement.

When García Moreno became aware that an agent of Franco's was also traveling aboard the ship, he became furious, ending the possibility of discussions, writing to Castilla, "You have broken your promises, and I declare our alliance finished.

[10] Carrión Pinzano's suggestion was not acted upon until November 19, when the governments of Quito, Guayas-Azuay and Loja began discussions; they agreed to delegate to Franco the task of negotiating with Peru, except on the matter of territorial sovereignty.

In an unsuccessful attempt to seek a powerful ally, García Moreno sent a series of secret[16] letters to the chargé d'affaires of France, Emile Trinité, on December 7, 15 and 21; in them, he proposed that Ecuador become a French protectorate.