Free Province of Guayaquil

The Free Province of Guayaquil was the South American state that emerged between 1820 and 1822 with the independence of the province of Guayaquil from the Spanish monarchy. It lived under a provisional government with a constitution until Gran Colombia annexed it in 1822, and its successor was the Department of Guayaquil inside the Colombian federation, until the whole of Gran Colombia broke apart a decade later. The old Spanish province had been taken out of the Viceroyalty of Peru and answered legally only to the court of the Real Audiencia of Quito. The free province held the same lands as the Spanish Government of Guayaquil, from Esmeraldas in the north to Tumbes in the south, between the Pacific in the west and the Andean foothills in the east, taking in a great part of the Ecuadorian coast and the present provinces of Guayas, Santa Elena, Manabí and most of Los Ríos, El Oro and Cañar.