Ecuador as a multicultural society with minority and indigenous groups

Ecuadorians are people identified with Ecuador, a country in South America, its citizens or their descendants abroad, who identify with the Ecuadorian culture and descent. Ecuador was once the second empire of the Incas. Pre-Columbian Ecuador included numerous indigenous cultures, who thrived for thousands of years before the ascent of the Incan Empire. Las Vegas culture of coastal Ecuador is one of the oldest cultures in the Americas. The Valdivia culture in the Pacific coast region is a well-known early Ecuadorian culture. The Europeans (principally Spaniards, which are also the source of the Spanish language), who arrived over five centuries ago, and ultimately the sub-Saharan Africans, who were imported to New Spain as slaves during the same period. Europeans mixed with the Indians in Ecuador creating the Mestizos and some Europeans also mixed with the black slaves. Mestizos, an ethnic group of mixed European and indigenous American ancestry, are by far the largest of all the ethnic groups and comprise around 71.9% of the current population. Whites are estimated at 6.1% and consist largely of those of unmixed or predominantly European descent.