Ecuadorian–Peruvian territorial dispute of 1857-1860
| Ecuadorian-Peruvian Territorial Dispute of 1857-1860 | |||||||||
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| Part of the Ecuadorian-Peruvian Territorial Dispute | |||||||||
 The Peruvian fleet that blockaded Guayaquil, docked in Callao. Pictured is the BAP Apurímac (later Callao), commanded by Rear Admiral Ignacio Mariátegui |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Republic of Peru
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 Republic of Ecuador
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| President Ramon Castilla |
President Francisco Robles Guillermo Franco |
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A territorial dispute between Ecuador and Peru took place between 1857 and 1860. The dispute began when Ecuador attempted to sell Amazon basin land claimed by Peru in order to settle a debt with British creditors. When diplomatic relations between the two countries broke down, prior to the fragmentation of the Ecuadorian government into several competing factions, the Peruvian government ordered a blockade of Ecuador's ports in order to force the cancellation of the sale, and the official acknowledgement of Peruvian ownership of the disputed territories. By late 1859, control of Ecuador was consolidated between General Guillermo Franco, in the city of Guayaquil, and a provisional government in Quito headed by Gabriel García Moreno. Peruvian President Ramón Castilla sailed to Guayaquil with several thousand soldiers in October 1859, and negotiated the Treaty of Mapasingue with General Franco in January 1860. The signing of the treaty indicated Ecuadorian compliance with all of Peru's demands, and temporarily marked the end of the territorial dispute between the two countries. However, in September 1860, the forces of the provisional government, commanded by García Moreno and General Juan José Flores defeated Franco's government at the Battle of Guayaquil, ending the civil war in Ecuador. The new government disavowed the Treaty of Mapasingue, followed shortly afterwards by its Peruvian counterpart; this re-opened the territorial dispute.
The dispute is sometimes referred to as the Ecuadorian–Peruvian War of 1859, due to the temporary occupation of Ecuadorian territory by Castilla's forces upon arriving in Guayaquil. No fighting took place between the troops of the two countries within the duration of the dispute, although a detachment of Peruvian forces pledged by Castilla in the Treaty of Mapasingue was involved in the later Battle of Guayaquil.
During its war of independence from Spain, the government of Gran Colombia had incurred a number of debts to private European creditors. Its three daughter states: Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador, split the debts amongst themselves. In 1837, Ecuador assumed responsibility for 21.5 percent of the debt. In the 1850s, a committee of holders of Latin American bonds organized itself and sent several representatives to Ecuador to arrange settlement of the debt. On September 21, 1957, George S. Pritchett, representing the Ecuadorian Land Company, Ltd. signed a treaty with Ecuadorian Minister of Finance Don Francisco de Paula Icaza, that gave the creditors rights to several territories in Esmeraldas; several more on the shores of the Zamora river; one million quarter sections in the canton of Canelos; as well as 410,200 quarter sections near the Cañar river: a total of 2,610,200 quarter sections, at a value of £566,900. Ecuadorian sovereignty over the lands would be preserved, but all activities carried out there would be tax-exempt for a period of 15 years. This was not the first time that the Ecuadorian government had previously attempted to settle debts by transferring title over part of its territory.
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