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| Reino de Quito | |
|---|---|
| Conventional long name | Reino de Quito |
| Common name | Quito |
| Era | Early Middle Ages |
| Status | Kingdom (disputed) |
| Year start | 980 |
| Year end | 1100 |
| Capital | Quito |
| Common languages | Quechua language, Cañari language, Spanish language |
| Religion | Indigenous religion, Roman Catholicism |
| Today | Ecuador |
Reino de Quito The Reino de Quito is a contested polity purported to have existed on the northern Andes highlands in the territory of present-day Quito and Ecuador during the late first millennium to the early second millennium. Scholars debate its contours against evidence from Inca Empire, Spanish Empire, Cañari, Caranqui peoples, Quitu-Cara culture and colonial chronicles by Sarmiento de Gamboa, Juan de Velasco, Diego de Torres y Zambrano. Archaeologists compare material from Cochasquí, Ingapirca, La Florida (Ecuador), Tiwanaku, Chavín de Huántar and Moche sites to contextualize claims.
Most reconstructions place the polity’s emergence amid the collapse of Tiwanaku influence and the expansion of Huari and regional chiefdoms, with chronologies derived from Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire narratives and indigenous oral traditions recorded by Juan de Velasco and criticized by Benjamín Carrión and Eugenio Espejo. Sources link power centers in Quito to pre-Incan groups such as Quitu people, Cara people, Cañari, and later interactions with the Inca Empire under Topa Inca Yupanqui and Huayna Capac during 15th-century conflicts in the Andes. Colonial-era historians like Pedro Cieza de León and Gonzalo Pizarro provide intermittent accounts that modern researchers cross-examine with findings from radiocarbon dating, ceramic typology and surveys at La Tolita, Cerro Narrío, Pambamarca. Revisionist scholars reference administrative documents from the Real Audiencia of Quito, correspondence involving Francisco de Orellana, and ethnographies by Alexander von Humboldt to argue for either a coherent kingdom or a loose confederation of chiefdoms.
The claimed realm spanned highland valleys and intermontane basins between the Andes eastern and western cordilleras, incorporating sites around Quito, Cayambe, Otavalo, Pichincha, Cotopaxi and reaching toward Manabí and the Choco region on limited fronts. Topographic evidence from Cayambe Volcano slopes, irrigation works near Caranqui (archaeological site), and road segments aligned with the Qhapaq Ñan network are compared to colonial maps in the archives of the Viceroyalty of New Granada and reports by José de la Mar. Environmental reconstructions use pollen cores from Lake San Pablo, Lake Cuicocha, and Laguna de Mojanda while linking settlement patterns to Andean forest ecotones, alpine páramo landscapes, and river basins such as the Guayllabamba River and Atrato River catchments.
Interpretations vary between a centralized monarchy with dynastic rulers modeled after Inca Empire systems and a federative assembly of lineages resembling governance observed among Cañari and Caranqui communities. Colonial chroniclers like Juan de Velasco describe kingship and succession rituals similar to those attributed to Manco Cápac and Atahualpa, while modern historians such as Tulio Febres Cordero and Raúl Porras Barrenechea question the transplant of Inca-like hierarchy onto local institutions. Administrative features inferred from settlement hierarchies, storehouses at Ingapirca, and roadway management engage comparisons with institutions in Tiawanaku and Wari polities and with Spanish-era corregimientos recorded by the Real Audiencia of Quito.
Economic life combined highland agriculture around terraces near Quito, pastoralism with camelids in upland puna zones, and trade in obsidian, Spondylus shells, and textiles linking to Coastal Ecuador and Amazonia corridors. Archaeological assemblages show pottery parallels to La Tolita and metallurgical artifacts comparable to Cañari goldwork, while colonial tax records in the Archivo General de Indias reflect continuity of tribute and labor practices later integrated into encomienda systems. Social stratification is reconstructed from funerary contexts at sites like La Florida, kinship patterns among Quitu, Cara, and Cañari peoples, and the incorporation of elites into provincial administration under Spanish colonization.
Religious life probably blended Andean cosmologies centered on mountain worship of Pachamama and Apu figures with ritual practices visible in ceremonial plazas and huacas analogous to those at Caral and Chavín de Huantar. Iconography on ceramics and metalwork shows motifs also present in Moche and Chimú repertoires, while rites involving coca, hallucinogens and astronomy align with traditions recorded among Inca and Kichwa communities. Chroniclers include accounts of temple complexes and priestly classes mirrored in descriptions by Pedro Cieza de León, Juan de Velasco, and Bernabé Cobo.
The polity’s interactions involved warfare, alliances, and tribute arrangements with neighboring groups including Cañari Confederation, Caranqui polities, and the expanding Inca Empire culminating in documented campaigns by Topa Inca Yupanqui and Huayna Capac. Post-contact dynamics shifted dramatically during expeditions by Francisco Pizarro, Sebastián de Belalcázar, and administrative reorganization under the Viceroyalty of Peru and later the Viceroyalty of New Granada. Military architecture inferred from defensive terraces and hilltop fortresses near Pambamarca is compared to known battle sites like Hatun Huarochirí in studies by military historians and archaeologists.
The legacy of the polity figures prominently in regional identities, historiography, and nationalist narratives advanced by writers such as Juan de Velasco, Miguel Riofrío, and Benjamín Carrión, while revisionists including Guillermo del Águila and María Rostworowski critique the kingdom’s scale and institutional coherence. Contemporary debates synthesize evidence from archaeology, ethnohistory, linguistics and colonial archives in the Archivo General de Indias, producing competing models that influence heritage policy in Ecuador, museum displays at institutions like the Museo de la Ciudad (Quito), and UNESCO considerations for Andean cultural landscapes.
Category:Pre-Columbian cultures of South America Category:History of Ecuador