Editing Mestizo (section)

===Ecuador===
During the colonial era, the majority of Ecuadorians were Amerindians and the minorities were the Spanish [[conquistador]]s, who came with [[Francisco Pizarro]] and [[Sebastián de Belalcázar]]. With the passage of time these Spanish conquerors and succeeding Spanish colonists sired offspring, largely nonconsensually, with the local Amerindian population, since Spanish immigration did not initially include many European females to the colonies. In a couple of generations a predominantly Mestizo population emerged in Ecuador with a drastically declining Amerindian population due to European diseases and wars.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}

[[Afro-Ecuadorians]], (including [[zambos]] and [[mulatto]]es), are a significant minority in the country, and can be found mostly in the [[Esmeraldas Province]] and in the [[Valle del Chota]] of the [[Imbabura Province]]. They form a majority in both of those regions. There are also small communities of Afro-Ecuadorians living along the coastal areas outside of the Esmeraldas province. However, significant numbers of Afro-Ecuadorians can be found in the countries' largest cities of [[Guayaquil]] and [[Quito]], where they have been migrating to from their ancestral regions in search of better opportunities.

Mestizos are the largest of all the ethnic groups, and comprise 70% of the current population. The next 30% of the population is comprised by four ethnic groups with about 7.5% each, the [[Montubio]] (a term for Mestizos from the inland countryside of coastal Ecuador - who are culturally distinct from Mestizos from the rest of the country), Afro-Ecuadorian, Amerindians, and Europeans.