The Prehistory of Extractivism: State Paternalism and Indigenous Mobilization in the Ecuadorian Amazon before “La Realidad Petrolera”

This paper locates the origins of political dynamics around resource extraction and territorial sovereignty to the period before the oil boom that still shapes contemporary debates about state policies of redistribution versus environmental and indigenous concerns. During the decades leading up to the successful oil drilling operations of the late 1960s, the pattern of state management of resources and land had pitted different groups of indigenous people against one another and against the burgeoning population of colonists in the Amazon. Both provincial officials from Quito and nascent municipal governments established a modus vivendi in Ecuador's "Oriente" that created winners and losers; this sowed the seeds of indigenous political mobilization and was an important precursor to the grievances around the dislocation and environmental catastrophe of oil. The research for this paper comes from state archives and provincial offices in the Oriente. National periodicals' frequent commentary on the halting efforts to incorporate the Oriente also inform this research. Ecuador's Constitution grants extensive rights to Nature, and it is commonly held that the Amazon is the "lungs of the world." While the current symbolic importance of the Amazon is largely environmentalist in nature, this paper illustrates how the region was a symbol of Ecuador's future prosperity and a cure for the Republic's many ills during the 20th century. The conflict over Amazonian resources and power demonstrates how the region is caught between two symbolic purposes: on the one hand as Ecuador's key to social justice and prosperity, thanks to its resources, and on the other hand as a preserve for ecological diversity and indigenous territory. The tension between these two visions was a major issue in the Ecuadorian presidential elections of 2021; examining the historical roots of this conundrum is the aim of this paper.