former name, Santiago de Guayaquil, a city in Ecuador; port on the bank of the Guayas River, which is navigable. 50 km from where it empties into the Gulf of Guayaquil on the Pacific Ocean. Administrative center of Guayas Province. Population, 738,600 (1969). Railroad station (on the line to Quito and the port of Salinas).
Guayaquil has an international airport. In the city there are foundries and machine shops; it has sawmilling, light-industry, and food-industry enterprises (milling of flour, brewing of beer, etc.). More than 90 percent of the country’s imports and some 50 percent of its exports pass through Guayaquil. There is a university in the city.
Founded in 1531 by the Spanish conquistador Sebastián de Benalcazar, Guayaquil was twice demolished in Indian rebellions against Spanish rule and permanently rebuilt in 1541. In 1687 and 1709 it was attacked by English pirates, and in 1587 and 1842 it suffered severely from epidemics of plague and yellow fever. On Oct. 9, 1820. Guayaquil proclaimed its independence, and in July 1822 as part of Quito Province it joined Gran Colombia. Early in the 20th century the city became the center of the country’s workers’ movement. The biggest strikes and mass protests by the toiling people occurred in 1922, 1942–44, 1949–50, and 1966.