Page "History of Ecuador" Paragraph 46

The next 15 years constituted one of the most turbulent periods in Ecuador's century and a half as a nation.

The marcistas fought among themselves almost ceaselessly and also had to struggle against Flores's repeated attempts from exile to overthrow the government.

The most significant figure of the era, however, was General José María Urbina, who first came to power in 1851 through a coup d ' état, remained in the presidency until 1856, and then continued to dominate the political scene until 1860.

During this decade and the one that followed, Urbina and his archrival, García Moreno, would define the dichotomy — between Liberals from Guayaquil and Conservatives from Quito — that remained the major sphere of political struggle in Ecuador in the 1980s.