Ecuador (pron-en??kw?d?ren-us-Ecuador.ogg), officially the Republic of Ecuador (lang-esRep�blica del Ecuador, IPA-esre?pu?lika �el ekwa?�orpron), literally, "Republic of the equator") is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. The country also includes the Gal�pagos Islands in the Pacific, about convert1000kmsp=us west of the mainland.

Ecuador straddles the equator, from which it takes its name, and has an area of 283.561 km2, 109,415 sq ml. Its capital city is Quito, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the 1970s for having the best preserved and least altered historic center in Latin America. The countrys largest city is Guayaquil. The historic center of Cuenca, the third largest city in the country, was also declared a World Heritage Site in 1999, for being an outstanding example of a planned inland Spanish style colonial city in the Americas. Ecuador is also home?despite its size?to a great variety of species, many of them endemic (endemism), like those of the Gal�pagos islands. This species diversity makes Ecuador one of the seventeen megadiverse countries in the world. The new constitution of 2008 is the first in the world to recognize legally enforceable Rights of Nature, or ecosystem rights.

Ecuador is a presidential (presidential system) republic and became independent in 1830, after having been part of the Spanish colonial empire (Spanish colonization of the Americas) and the republic of Gran Colombia. It is a medium-income country with an HDI (Human Development Index) score of 1.025 (2010), and about 10.3% of the people living below the poverty line.

In 1531, the Spanish conquistadors, under Francisco Pizarro, arrived to find an Inca empire torn by civil war. Atahualpa wanted to reestablish a unified Incan empire; the Spanish, however, had conquest intentions and established themselves in a fort in Cajamarca, captured Atahualpa during the Battle of Cajamarca (1532), and held him for ransom. The Incas filled one room with gold and two with silver to secure his release. Despite being surrounded and vastly outnumbered, the Spanish executed Atahualpa. To escape the confines of the fort, the Spaniards fired all their cannons and broke through the lines of the bewildered Incas. In subsequent years, the Spanish colonists became the new elite, centering their power in the vice-royalties of Nueva Granada (Viceroyalty of New Granada) and Lima.