Editing Ecuador (section)

===Loss of claimed territories since 1830===
{{Main|Ecuadorian–Peruvian territorial dispute}}
{{Campaignbox Ecuadorian-Peruvian}}

After Ecuador's separation from Colombia on 13 May 1830, its first President, General [[Juan José Flores]], laid claim to the territory that had belonged to the [[Real Audiencia of Quito]], also referred to as the Presidencia of Quito. He supported his claims with Spanish Royal decrees, or ''real cedulas'', that delineated the borders of Spain's former overseas colonies. In the case of Ecuador, Flores based Ecuador's ''[[de jure]]'' claims on the Real Cedulas of 1563, 1739, and 1740; with modifications in the Amazon Basin and Andes Mountains that were introduced through the [[Treaty of Guayaquil]] (1829) which Peru reluctantly signed, after the overwhelmingly outnumbered Gran Colombian force led by [[Antonio José de Sucre]] defeated President and General La Mar's Peruvian invasion force in the [[Battle of Tarqui]]. In addition, Ecuador's eastern border with the Portuguese colony of Brazil in the Amazon Basin was modified before the Wars of Independence by the [[First Treaty of San Ildefonso]] (1777) between the [[Spanish Empire]] and the [[Portuguese Empire]]. Moreover, to add legitimacy to his claims, on 16 February 1840, Flores signed a treaty with Spain, whereby Flores convinced Spain to officially recognize Ecuadorian independence and its sole rights to colonial titles over Spain's former colonial territory known anciently to Spain as the Kingdom and Presidency of Quito.

Ecuador during its long and turbulent history has lost most of its contested territories to each of its more powerful neighbors, such as Colombia in 1832 and 1916, Brazil in 1904 through a series of peace treaties, and Peru after a short war in which the Protocol of Rio de Janeiro was signed in 1942.