Revolution of 1895

The liberals were brought to power in Ecuador by an uprising that followed the resignation of the progressive president Luis Cordero in the face of a conservative-inspired rebellion. The provisional government lost control as the country disintegrated into warring factions, with insurrections in Ambato, El Oro, Guayaquil, Latacunga, Los Ríos, Manabí Province, and Quito. Coastal liberals saw an opportunity to achieve national supremacy by inviting Eloy Alfaro to return from exile and assume command of their forces. With the support of other guerrilleros, including Leonidas Plaza, Alfaro's coastal montoneras decisively defeated government troops in August 1895. Alfaro first assumed power and then called an assembly that wrote a new liberal constitution and elected him interim president in October 1896. The triumphant liberals, who dominated national politics until 9 July 1925, stressed the necessity of establishing a secular state to promote social and economic development and modernization.

See alsoEcuador: Since 1830 .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Luis Robalino Dávila, Orígenes del Ecuador de hoy, vol. 7 (1969).

Linda Alexander Rodríguez, The Search for Public Policy: Government Finances in Ecuador, 1830–1940 (1985), esp. pp. 44-52, 88-92.

Frank MacDonald Spindler, Nineteenth-Century Ecuador (1987), esp. pp. 147-169.

Additional Bibliography

Ayala Mora, Enrique. Historia de la revolución liberal ecuatoriana. Quito: Corporación Editora Nacional, 2002.

Cárdenas Reyes, María Cristina. José Peralta y la trayectoría del liberalismo ecuatoriano. Quito: Ediciones Banco Central del Ecuador, 2002.

Iglesias Mata, Dumar. Eloy Alfaro, Cóndor de América. Manabí, Ecuador: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 2003.

Núñez, Jorge. La revolución alfarista de 1895. Quito: Centro para el Desarrollo Social, 1995.

                                Linda Alexander RodrÍguez