Life and Legacy of Simón Bolívar

The man known to history as Simón Bolívar was born on the 24th of July 1783 in Caracas, capital of the Captaincy General of Venezuela, a Spanish imperial colony, in South America. His father was Colonel Don Juan Vincente de Bolívar, a 57-year-old military officer and colonial administrator. who had extensive commercial interests, including 12 houses, a copper mine, a rum distillery, a textile business, and a range of agricultural enterprises worked on by hundreds of slaves. The Bolivars owed their fortune to Simón de Bolivar, a Basque settler who arrived in the Americas in the 1560s, before helping to establish the colony of Venezuela and serving as a leading colonial official, as accountant general of Venezuela. de Bolivar was able to ensure that he and his descendants would become the richest landowners in the colony, using the labor of Indian and African slaves, working in mines and plantations to deliver great wealth to the Spanish crown. When Simon Bolivar's father, Don Juan Vincente, was asked what name he would like to give his fourth child, he gestured to a portrait of his illustrious ancestor, Simon Bolivar's mother. Doña María de la Concepción Palacios y Blanco was 14 years old when she married her husband in 1773, who was 32 years her senior. It was common practice at the time for women to be married at such a young age, though the large age gap between the couple would have raised some eyebrows. The Palacios were part of the same colonial elite as the Bolivars, and the two families were close neighbors in Caracas. The family had been in the Americas even longer than the Bolivars, as Doña Concepción was descended from the Tzedlas. The young bride would give her husband four children between 1777 and 1783, of whom Simón was the youngest, and it was into this family that the man who would liberate much of South America from Spanish rule was born. They were one of the richest and most powerful families in Venezuela. and his birth was celebrated by gathering of Caracas'oldest and most distinguished families, though his childhood would prove a difficult one. Although Don Juan Vincente had been a loyal servant of the Spanish crown for most of his life, a series of reforms introduced by the Bourbon monarchy in Madrid in the 1770s were threatening his political and commercial interests. In 1777, The Captaincy General of Venezuela was established in order to strengthen Madrid's control over the colony and its economic output, resulting in higher taxes and greater restrictions on local business practices. For two centuries, Creole families such as the Bolivars had held the highest political offices in the land. But under this new arrangement, the Spanish government appointed Spanish-born officials while dismissing Creoles. For Don Juan Vincente and his fellow Creoles, these new replacements were typically seen as men of lesser ability and intellect, chosen only for their closer connection to the home country. Similar complaints had motivated the likes of George Washington to raise the flag of rebellion against their British colonial masters in North America a decade earlier, and by the year of Simon Bolivar's birth, the United States of America had won the American Revolutionary War. Motivated by this spirit of rebellion and the desire to throw off what they considered a tyrannical regime, in 1782 the elder Bolivar wrote to Francisco de Miranda, a Venezuelan colonel and revolutionary adventurer, who advocated breaking with Spain, asking for his advice in rising up against the Spanish crown. These plans for insurrection did not materialize, however, and Don Juan Vincente would die of tuberculosis in January 1786 at the age of 59. His 27-year-old widow, Doña Concepción, labored to get family affairs into order and soon recognized that of all her children, Simón was the most troublesome. He had been raised by a black wet nurse named Hipólita, who adored him but was unable to keep him under control. In the end, she chose the distinguished lawyer. José Miguel Sanz to serve as Simón's governor and administrator of the vast fortune he had inherited from his father. Despite an intimidating reputation, Sanz was no more than a more successful in disciplining the young child. From the age of six, Simon lived at the lawyer's house, but by the time he was eight, he had moved back home to his family mansion, where his mother's health was rapidly failing. She died on the 6th of July 1792 of tuberculosis, the same disease that had carried her husband to the grave six years earlier. A few weeks shy of his ninth birthday, Simon Bolivar was now an orphan. and he and his siblings passed into the care of his maternal grandfather, the elderly Don Feliciano Palacios, who would himself die the following year. Despite possessing a vast fortune, the 10-year-old Simón and his 12-year-old brother Juan Vincente had endured a troubled childhood. Following their grandfather's death, they were transferred to the care of maternal uncles, who neglected them and squandered the Bolívar fortune. The unruly Simón took the opportunity to escape to the back streets of Caracas, where he befriended children of far lesser means, most of whom were black or mixed race. In June 1795, while his uncle Carlos was away, he ran away to the house of his sister Maria Antonia and her husband Pablo Clemente. A custody battle ensued for the 12-year-old child. who stubbornly refused to comply with the court's ruling for him to return to his uncle's house. But he eventually did so after two months living with his elementary school teacher, Don Feliciano's former secretary, Simón Rodríguez. Under a new arrangement, from October 1795, Rodríguez became Bolívar's personal tutor, responsible for reading and grammar. His duties were supplemented by Andrés Bello, who taught him literature. while Francisco de Adujar, a priest who earlier served as the child's moral tutor in Sanz House, instructed him in mathematics and science. More than anyone else, the 25-year-old Rodríguez accepted the boy's nature and encouraged his sense of adventure, teaching him outdoors on horseback and inspiring his charge with a love of ideas and free thinking. Rodríguez was an admirer of the Enlightenment ideas of freedom and equality. And it was these beliefs which caught him up in a conspiracy to overthrow the Spanish authorities in 1797. He escaped conviction, but was forced to go into exile, where he would later cross paths with his former pupil. Deprived of his tutor and as a condition of his inheritance, Simón Bolivar enrolled into the White Volunteers of the Valley of Aragua, a military corps founded by his grandfather. and commanded by his father. He spent a year learning the basics of military service and was promoted to second lieutenant. Once he was 15, his uncle Esteban Palacios sent him to Spain to continue his education in Madrid. On the 19th of January 1799, he left aboard the San Ildefonso, arriving in northern Spain more than four months later after a perilous journey which witnessed a significant delay, owing to a British blockade and a terrible storm that diverted the vessel from its intended destination of Cádiz. Within months of his nephew's arrival in Madrid, Esteban Palacios arranged for the Marcos of Ustariz to take charge of the teenager's education. A native of Caracas and a member of the Spanish Supreme Council of War, the Marcos enthusiastically accepted Simón and provided him with a structured course of education encompassing both intellectual subjects and physical activities, including fencing and dancing. On occasion, Simón and his uncles Esteban and Pedro would attend court, notorious for its corruption and debauchery. King Carlos IV was weak and ineffectual, and during the 1790s, political power was in the hands of the Prime Minister Manuel Godoy, who also managed to find his way into the bedroom of Queen María Luisa. By the end of the decade, Godoy's unpopularity resulted in his dismissal from office and the royal bedchamber, and not long afterwards the queen took a new lover in the form of Manuel Mayo, who happened to be Esteban Palacio's close friend and roommate. Although this connection to the new royal favourite did nothing to advance the careers of Bolivar's uncles, it did allow them a look behind the curtain of the Spanish court, despite its wealth and ostentation. The young Simon could see that the Spanish monarchy rested on weak foundations during an era of revolutionary turmoil. By the beginning of 1800, In the year 1900, Bolivar's two uncles moved from Madrid, sensing a change in the political winds which would soon see Godoy return to his previous position of influence. In the meantime, the 17-year-old Simón set his eyes on María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro, the 19-year-old daughter of rich Venezuelan parents born in Spain. Although his prospective father-in-law was taken aback by the swiftness of the courtship and had reservations about Bolivar's youth. The couple were eventually married in Madrid on the 26th of May 1802. Three weeks later, they departed to Venezuela, aboard the same San Ildefonso that had carried Bolívar across the Atlantic three years earlier. Although she had family members in Caracas, this was the first time the bride had seen the colonies for herself. The newlyweds dreamed of a long and happy existence together, but María Teresa contracted yellow fever. and her health deteriorated rapidly, dying at the age of 21. On the 22nd of January 1803, the heartbroken widower vowed never to remarry, a promise that he would keep, despite taking many lovers over the course of his lifetime. Seeking a new purpose for his life, Bolívar returned to Europe and arrived in Cadiz at the end of 1803, a two-month stay in Madrid, with all the reminders of his dead wife, prompted him to cross the Pyrenees into France in the company of Fernando del Toro, a childhood friend and his late wife's cousin. In May 1804, the two arrived in Paris, which Bolivar had briefly visited previously in early 1802, and became great admirers of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, the brilliant young general who had taken power in the coup of 18 Brumaire. in November 1799, bringing to an end the political instability of the previous decade while seeking to create a meritocratic society, rewarding individuals of high ability rather than those of high birth. Although Napoleon would be proclaimed emperor on the 18th of May 1804, Bolivar still considered him the hero of the republic and an inspiration for his own future. While Bolivar would change his mind later that year, When Napoleon was crowned in a grand ceremony at Notre Dame on the 2nd of December, the example of a military commander overthrowing a corrupt government and championing the cause of liberty would remain with him. In Paris, Bolivar set aside his grief and found consolation in the arms of several lovers, while also creating for himself a circle of male friends. One of these was the German scientist Alexander von Humboldt. who had traveled to Latin America between 1799 and 1804 and met Bolivar's family and friends while in Venezuela. However, by the end of the year, the winter chill and the anger over Napoleon's coronation caused him to be unwell and in April 1805 he and del Toro left Paris for Italy, traveling alongside his former tutor Simon Rodriguez, who had been based in the French capital since 1801. and spared nothing to come to the assistance of his former pupil. The three witnessed Napoleon's coronation as King of Italy in Milan, before travelling onward to Rome. On the 15th of August, Bolivar and his two companions climbed up Mount Sacro, where Rodriguez spoke of the poor plebeians of ancient Rome, who in 494 BC climbed up the mountain to denounce the rule of the wealthy patrician class, falling to his knees, Bolivar clasped the hands of the two men, spoke of the injustices inflicted on his homeland, and vowed to avenge them. From then onwards, the 21-year-old Bolivar made it his mission to liberate South America from Spanish imperial rule. As the Napoleonic Wars raged in Europe, the budding revolutionary vowed to return home, and by June 1807 he was back in Caracas. He gathered a number of friends and family members, who, despite being privileged members of the local aristocracy, were also openly supportive of Bolívar's revolutionary ideas. However, for all the talk of sedition, the conspirators had no plans and recognized how difficult it would be to overthrow the Spanish state. It was only in the previous year that the adventurer Francisco de Miranda The same man who Bolivar's father had asked for advice about insurrection two decades earlier, landed a small number of men in an attempt to provoke an uprising in Venezuela, only to find no support at all, eventually being forced into an embarrassing death. retreat. The opportunity the young revolutionaries were looking for was provided by the Emperor Napoleon, who invaded Portugal in the autumn of 1807 in order to force the country into his continental system. The economic process he set up the previous year to ban British ships from trading in continental European ports in an attempt to starve the British government of trade revenues. He received permission from his Spanish ally, to march an army through Spain on its way to Portugal. But Napoleon's force of 100,000 was far larger than the Spanish government anticipated, and their presence left the country under effective French occupation. In March 1808, an angry mob rose up and forced the pro-French Manuel Godoy, first Secretary of State, from office, obliging King Charles IV to abdicate in favour of his son, who was proclaimed Ferdinand de Pau. VII. In the political turmoil that followed, both father and son appealed to Napoleon to support their claim to the throne. After inviting them both to the French city of Bayonne, just across the border from Spain, under the pretext of mediating the crisis, on the 7th of May 1808, the emperor forced both men to abdicate and installed his elder brother Joseph Bonaparte as king of Spain. days after his brother-in-law, Marshal Joaquim Murat, brutally suppressed the 2nd of May uprising in Madrid. Napoleon's actions in Spain triggered a civil war which would see opponents of the new Bonapartist regime form a junta in Seville, which remained loyal to King Ferdinand. The junta received military support from Britain, whose armies were in the process of wresting control of Portugal away from Napoleon's men, during the opening stages of a six-year conflict known as the Peninsular War. When the news reached Venezuela in July 1808, the Caracas City Council took advantage of the weakness of the mother country and established its own government and followed the example of Seville in professing loyalty to King Ferdinand, who was, at the time, languishing as Napoleon's prisoner. Bolívar, who despised Ferdinand from his earlier acquaintance with him in Madrid, was not even prepared to make a token gesture of loyalty to the powerless king. By May 1809, the Junta appointed a new Captain General, Field Marshal Vincente Emperan, whose Inspector General happened to be Bolivar's friend, Fernando del Toro. Emperan's authority was limited, especially after news reached Caracas that the central Junta was forced to flee to Cadiz in 1810, where it dissolved itself and established a new government called the Regency. On the 19th of April, the Creoles staged a coup against the Captain General and removed him from power, establishing the Supreme Junta of Caracas, while continuing to declare loyalty to King Ferdinand. Several other colonies soon followed suit, with Buenos Aires, Bogota, Quito, and Mexico establishing their own juntas. Bolivar had been reluctant to support the coup due to the Junta's continued allegiance to King Ferdinand, but offered his services as an envoy to the British government in London. The Junta reluctantly accepted the offer, appointed him to the rank of colonel, and sent his brother Juan Vincente on a similar mission to the United States. While carrying out his diplomatic mission, the headstrong and inexperienced Bolivar informed British Foreign Secretary Lord Richard Wellesley that the Venezuelans had risen up against the oppression of the Spanish crown and were intent on full independence, while accidentally handing him his instructions from the Junta, which stated the exact opposite. In spite of this blunder and the British minister's steadfast commitment to his Spanish ally, Wellesley was moved by Bolivar's impassioned pleas and invited him to further talks. In the meantime, once again in defiance of the Junta's orders, The Venezuelan envoys met with Francisco de Miranda, who was then living in London. Bolívar and Miranda had lengthy discussions, not only about revolution, but the practicalities of political administration and economic development. Bolívar returned to Venezuela on the 5th of December 1810, with Miranda arriving five days later. Although Bolívar had tried to persuade the older man that he would be greeted enthusiastically, and welcomed as the leader of the new government, the latter received a cold welcome and realized that Bolívar was far more radical than anyone on the junta. The two men turned their attention to political organization, taking over a political party called the Patriotic Society and establishing a newspaper, and Miranda successfully won election to Congress. Over time, these efforts helped them win the support of the non-Creole races. Shifting popular support in Miranda's favour, calls for independence grew louder in July 1811, after a member of Congress was unmasked as an agent of the Regency. On the 5th of July, Miranda gave a report to Congress reporting on the most recent news from the Peninsular War. Marshal André Masséna had been defeated by Lord Wellington's British Army in his second invasion of Portugal, and he suggested that Napoleon would soon be defeated. giving Spain a free hand to crack down on the rebellious colonies. Sensing that there was no time to lose, Congress voted in favor of independence. Although the newly independent Venezuela proclaimed a democratic government, political power remained in the hands of the whites, and royalist sympathizers took advantage of this to incite rebellion among the disadvantaged classes. When an uprising occurred in the city of Valencia on the 19th of July, The government force under the Marquis del Toro proved ineffective. When Congress turned to Miranda to take over command, he agreed under the condition that Bolívar would not accompany him. The younger man was infuriated by this snub, by his political ally, but was instead given an appointment on del Toro's staff. Miranda's army duly took control of Valencia and Bolívar distinguished himself in the process during the two battles for control of the city. The battle would establish Bolívar's credentials as a soldier, but by early 1812, the Republican government faced a new enemy. In the form of an army led by Domingo de Monteverde, that sought to restore Spanish rule. On the 26th of March 1812, a series of earthquakes ripped through South America, devastating Caracas and encouraging the belief that the revolutionaries were being punished for defying God and the Spanish crown. In response to the desperate situation, the Venezuelan Congress appointed Miranda dictator and the old general engaged in a series of battles with Monteverde's army without taking the offensive. Bolívar was given the task of defending the town of Puerto Cabelo, but was not given authority over the fort, which not only contained valuable Spanish prisoners, but also a vast store of weapons. On the 30th of June, the second in command at the fort released all the prisoners and declared for King Ferdinand, placing Bolívar in an impossible position. After begging Miranda for reinforcements that would not materialize, Bolívar fled for Caracas. not realizing that Miranda was in the process of surrendering to Monteverde. Miranda's eagerness to surrender could be explained by his reluctance to fight a bloody civil war, or his belief that Venezuela might be better off back under Spanish rule, now that the regency had adopted a liberal constitution in 1812. The enraged Bolivar learned that the defeated dictator was seeking to escape to England from the port of La Guaira. and plotted with the port's governor Manuel de las Casas to arrest him. Although the arrest was carried out, Las Casas had also been in contact with Monteverde and Miranda was delivered to Spanish authorities, never to see the light of day again. While Monteverde cracked down on the Republicans, Bolívar escaped to Caracas where, thanks to his connections with old royalist friends, he obtained a passport and escaped to the port of Curaçao, then under British control. After a few months, he moved on to the port of Cartagena in New Granada, which remained independent from Spain, but had broken up into a number of competing governments. After offering his services to the independent government of Cartagena, Bolivar issued a call to arms, addressing the citizens of New Granada. In this Cartagena Manifesto, he argued that the Venezuelan Republic had been defeated by inviting and weak government. and that in order to overthrow Spanish rule, the whole of South America must unite and act as one. In the meantime, Bolívar made his way to the small town of Barranca on the banks of the Magdalena River, the remote outpost he had been assigned to by President Manuel Toríces of Cartagena. After making sure to win the support of the area's local landowners, he recruited a small band of men and launched daring attacks against Spanish positions. winning more men over to his cause and being welcomed as a hero in Republican strongholds. In the 15 days between 21 December and 8 January 1813 Bolivar and his men took control of the entire 300-mile length of the river. In the meantime, Monteverde consolidated his hold on Venezuela by waging a brutal pacification campaign against the Creoles. In early 1813, His army was preparing to invade the Grenadan province of Pamplona, whose commander, Colonel Manuel del Castillo, had only 300 men. He requested assistance from Bolívar, who was given permission by the Cartagena authorities to lead his army of 400 men to reinforce Castillo and attack the Spanish. On the 28th of February, the combined force attacked a Spanish army twice their size and captured the border town of Cúcuta. with minimal casualties, further increasing the fame of the Venezuelan, who was appointed Brigadier General by President Torrises. Fresh from his latest success, Bolivar was granted permission to invade his native Venezuela despite having only 500 men under his command after the jealous Castillo decided to quit the army. Despite leading a small and ill-equipped army, Bolivar's aggressive strategy once again proved successful. Capturing the undefended city of Merida on the 23rd of May, where he was proclaimed liberator and won 600 more men to his cause. On the 14th of June, he had liberated the province of Trujillo. Although he had been incredibly successful, Bolivar knew from his earlier experience serving the First Venezuelan Republic that it was much harder to hold territory than to take it. In his Cartagena Manifesto, he made it clear that he believed Miranda's weakness and leniency towards the Spanish had been the cause of the defeat of the Venezuelan Republic. He now put his words into action. Issuing an uncompromising decree, Spaniards and Canary Islanders, count on death, even if you have been indifferent. Americans, count on life, even if you have been guilty. This controversial decree had an immediate effect, prompting hundreds of royalist troops to join the Republican cause, but would cause widespread bloodshed in the longer term. Although he had been given explicit orders not to march on Caracas, Bolívar remained true to his character and defied them, leading an army of little more than a thousand men and fighting a series of skirmishes against the larger but less agile Spanish forces. Within the space of ten days, at the end of June and the beginning of July, they had overcome 5,000 enemy troops, some of whom were recruited into the liberating army. Soon after celebrating his 30th birthday, Bolivar's 1,500 men met Monteverde on the plain outside Valencia. Bolivar outmaneuvered Monteverde by having his infantrymen jump onto the horses of his cavalry which charged deep into the enemy lines, before the foot soldiers dismounted to attack the Spanish from the rear. A few days later, Bolivar accepted the surrender of Caracas and proclaimed a new Venezuelan republic. on the 6th of August 1813. Bolívar had been proclaimed liberator and dictator by his fellow Caracans, but his authority did not extend across the whole of Venezuela. General Santiago Marino had conquered eastern Venezuela from Monteverde, and was in no mood to submit to Bolívar's authority. Meanwhile, Bolívar's regime was under simultaneous attack from slave insurrections and Spanish royalists. who once again mobilized the non-white population, which saw the Creoles rather than the royalists as their oppressors. With Spain liberated from Napoleonic rule in 1813, the Spanish authorities in Madrid could now devote their attentions to taking back their colonial possessions in South America. Bolívar's most formidable foe was José Tomás Bóves, the commander of a fearsome army of cavalrymen from the plains nicknamed the Legions of Hell. professing outward loyalty to the Spanish crown, but answering to no one. Though Bolívar and Boves traded victories, the royalists were more successful in recruiting men to their cause. As Bolívar put his uncompromising authoritarian ideas into practice, the conflict devolved into a brutal race war with countless atrocities committed by all parties. When his men uncovered a plan to release the royalists imprisoned in La Guaira, and to incite an uprising to overthrow the government in Caracas. Bolívar responded by ordering the execution of more than 1,000 Spanish prisoners over the course of four days in February 1814. Bolívar's brutality did nothing to prevent Boves'success, and he ordered the evacuation of Caracas on the 7th of July. Mourinho had promised the port of Barcelona on the east coast would be a safe haven, but it proved nothing of the sort. as the Royalists encroached on the port. Bolívar led an army of 6,000 men to defend the town of Aragua on the road leading to Barcelona, but was decisively defeated by a larger Royalist army. By the end of August, the two Venezuelan leaders attempted to sail away to safety, but were accused of cowardice by their respective deputies and were subsequently deposed. In the meantime, Boves had taken over in Caracas, refusing to give up control to his nominal superiors and proceeded to overturn the centuries-old social hierarchy by placing blacks and mixed-race Karakans in positions of power. He then attempted to eliminate the remnants of the Republican armies, but was killed at the Battle of Urika on the 5th of December, even as his army triumphed. By the end of 1814, Boves and Bolivar had killed more than 10,000 people between them. As if retracing his steps two years earlier, Bolívar returned to Cartagena, offered his services to the central government of New Granada and successfully subdued its unruly capital of Bogotá, for which he was appointed as governor. he was appointed commander-in-chief. With this new authority, he led an army to recapture the port of Santa Marta at the mouth of the Magdalena River from the Spanish, but instead found himself in conflict with his old rival, Colonel Castillo, who had taken control of Cartagena, allowing the Spanish to reconquer the river, undoing the work of Bolívar's lightning campaign a couple of years earlier. On the 24th of April, News reached him that a Spanish expeditionary force of 14,000 men and more than 60 ships under the command of General Pablo Murillo had landed in Venezuela. Finding himself in an impossible situation, Bolivar resigned his command and set sail for Jamaica, staying for four months begging for support from Britain and the United States before leaving for Haiti, where he met with President Alexandre Pétillan. who finished him with a fleet of seven ships and ample personnel and supplies to launch a new invasion of South America. On the 2nd of May 1816 Bolívar landed on the island of Margarita, the only Republican stronghold that remained in Venezuela, which had held out under the tenacious Juan Bautista Arismendi, the same man who had carried out Bolívar's orders to execute the Spanish prisoners at La Guaira. Receiving a welcome from his subordinate, Bolívar proclaimed the Third Republic and was installed as its Supreme Chief. He announced an end to the war to the death and soon declared that slavery would be abolished in the Republic, recognizing that the support of the black population was crucial to any hope of success, while fulfilling his promise to President Petillon to liberate the slaves in South America, despite the grandiose proclamations. The Republicans were hardly in a position to threaten Murillo's control of Venezuela, and the campaign that Bolivar planned ended in failure when the valuable supply of arms he had received from Haiti was captured by the Spanish at the port of Ocumare. When Bolivar sailed to the eastern port of Guiria hoping to reunite with General Marinho, the latter turned against him, and the former narrowly escaped with his life, although he escaped to Haiti again. with promises of further support from Pétion. By January 1817 Bolívar was back in Venezuela after receiving pleas from the revolutionaries in Caracas to retake control. When Bolívar landed in Barcelona, Mourinho and other leaders who had previously abandoned him once again rallied to his aid. Although Murillo appeared invincible, the republicans hatched an ambitious plan to march deep into the Venezuelan interior of the country. To join up with General Manuel Piar, they also hoped to obtain the support of José Antonio Paez, a defector from the royalists whose army included many veterans of Boves'legions of hell. Bolívar hoped to lure Murillo into an expensive chase while his fleet under Admiral Luis Brion blockaded the coast to starve the Spaniard of supplies. When Bolívar marched to join Piar, the latter had already seen considerable success fighting off the Spanish, and taking control of the province of Guayana, but the ambitious Piar did not wish to share his spoils and was soon executed before refiring the squad for undermining his commander. Bolivar considered Piar's execution as a regrettable and necessary deed, which would encourage other warlords under his authority to remain loyal to him. While Bolivar was campaigning in the west, Marinho tried once again to establish himself as an independent leader. in the east, but his government soon collapsed and many of his accomplices defected to Bolívar, and several months later he was persuaded to join Bolívar once again. Bolívar had long dreamed of a united Latin America and welcomed news that José de San Martín, the general who liberated Argentina from Spanish rule, scored a series of successes throughout 1817 in Chile. alongside the Irish Chilean general Bernardo O'Higgins, and was now heading for Peru. Bolívar wrote to the Argentine government and proposed pushing south to meet up with San Martín and create a unified Latin American republic. In order to do so, Bolívar still had to win over nearby warlords including Paez, who defeated Murillo the previous year at the Battle of Mucuritas and turned the tide in favour of the republican cause. Although both Bolívar and Paez were ambitious men with their own agendas, the meeting on the 30th of January 1818 proved a success, as he pondered how to cross the Apure river. Bolívar was amazed when his new ally sent 15 horsemen across the river to overcome the Spanish sentries and capture four Spanish ships to ferry Bolívar's army to the other side. Bolívar obtained a further success on the 12th of February when his army surprised Murillo at Calaboso and captured the Spanish army's supplies, but the Spanish general escaped during the night and Bolívar's efforts to catch up with him were in vain. He turned his attention to Caracas, but on the 16th of March he was defeated by the Spanish with the loss of more than a thousand men. With Mourinho losing ground in the east, Bolivar's only secure base was the province of Guayana, and he established his government in its capital city of Angostura. For the remainder of 1818, Bolivar turned his attention towards political activities by founding a newspaper to serve as the mouthpiece of his government, and finally Choosing to share power by establishing a Congress, which opened on the 15th of February 1819. As he unveiled the new constitution, he continued to stress the need for unity, but acknowledged the need for more democratic institutions. Whereupon he relinquished his powers as Supreme Chief, only to be elected President the following day. Nevertheless, his main priority was in military matters, and he labored to ensure that his army was well maintained. purchasing shiploads of arms and ammunition from New York and London. From London, Bolivar also received a contingent of British officers who had been demobilized after the Napoleonic Wars, and within the next five years, over 5,000 British and Irish soldiers would join Bolivar's cause. While Bolivar was attending to political matters, Paez had been fighting an effective guerrilla campaign against Murillo. launching frequent attacks to keep the enemy busy without being entangled in a pitched battle. When he received permission from Bolivar to take on the Spanish general on the 2nd of April, Pais led 150 horsemen over the river Arauca and defeated a thousand Spaniards under Murillo. By the time Bolivar arrived with his men to pursue the Spanish, the plains were being flooded and the Patriot armies were obliged to retire to higher ground. Bolivar knew staying on the plains invited starvation and disease, and devised an ambitious strategy to cross the Andes and attack Spanish possessions in New Granada. After receiving the support of his generals, Bolivar's army set out on the 4th of June and arrived at the foot of the mountains on the 1st of July. Over the next five days, he led his men over the Paramo de Pisba, an icy mountain pass that the Spanish had left undefended. believing that it was impossible to cross. Although hundreds of men died during the crossing, the survivors were enthusiastically welcomed by the local Grenadan population. By the 25th of July, Bolívar's army met the Spanish at the Battle of Pantano de Vargas, 120 miles from the capital Bogotá. The royalists occupied the higher ground and had the upper hand for most of the battle. But a fearless cavalry charge by Colonel Juan José Rondón, Paesi's most talented subordinate, caused the enemy to run away in fear. A couple of weeks later, on the 7th of August, Bolívar defeated the Spanish brigadier José María Barreiro once again at the decisive Battle of Boyacá, where Rondón's horsemen once again played a crucial role in charging into the royalist formation. When Bolívar entered Bogotá in triumph on the 10th of August, the Spanish officials had already left. Upon learning the news, Murillo reported to Madrid, in just one day Bolivar has undone all we have accomplished in five years of this campaign. Although the capture of Bogotá was an incredible triumph, in Bolivar's mind the war was far from over, while his native Caracas and other parts of the continent remained in Spanish hands. After setting up the essential government institutions in Bogotá, He left political matters in the hands of his vice president and loyal subordinate, General Francisco de Paulo Santander, who was a lawyer by profession. For two months, Bolívar journeyed across New Granada in a triumphant progress, while at the same time recruiting more men to confront Murillo in Venezuela. By the time he crossed into his native country, he received reports that the warlords whom he thought he had tamed were defying him again. Bolívar's vice-president Francisco Antonio Zeya, whom he had left in charge in Angostura, had been deposed by Arismendi, who appointed the insubordinate Marinho as commanding general of the east. However, when Bolívar returned to to the Venezuelan capital on the 11th of December 1819. He returned Arismendi to his old post as governor of Margarita and reinstated Zer as vice president. On the 14th of December Bolívar proposed the union of Venezuela and New Granada as part of the greater nation he called Greater Colombia, which was agreed by Congress on the 17th. The President and Liberator now planned a final offensive to rid the continent of Borrillo and his army. King Ferdinand had promised to send a fresh expedition to South America, but as they prepared to set sail, the men mutinied at Cadiz on the 1st of January 1820, and called for the restoration of the liberal constitution of 1812, which the king had repealed after returning to the throne. The king reluctantly agreed, depriving his general of any hope. of re-establishing Spanish rule in the Americas. Murillo proposed peace negotiations, signaling that he was prepared to recognize the independence of Colombia. After a six-month armistice was signed on the 25th of November at the town of San Fernando de Apure, on the 27th Bolivar and Murillo met at the village of Santa Ana, greeting each other as if they were old comrades in arms and vowing an end to Blanchet. In spite of these promises and attempts to end the war peacefully, the conflict resumed at the end of April 1821, but while the Republican forces gained in confidence, the Royalists were exhausted and disillusioned. On the 24th of June, Bolívar led 6,500 men to attack Spanish General Miguel de la Torre at Carabobo, where Paez's horsemen and the British Legion carried the day, forcing what remained of the Spanish army to flight. The victorious Bolívar rode in triumph through the streets of his native Caracas on the 29th of June 1821. On the 7th of September, Bolívar learned that the Congress of Cúcuta, which met to determine the constitution of Greater Colombia, had elected him president. He reluctantly accepted the post in the belief that only his name could hold his new republic together. The federation would grow larger in November 1821, when Panama declared enthusiastically for Bolívar and joined Greater Colombia. Although he had thought hard about politics and how to govern the peoples of South America, the liberator was far more comfortable in his military uniform than in that of a politician. He set his sights on the conquest of the colonies Quito, modern-day Ecuador, and Peru, both of which remained under Spanish rule. For over a year, the Argentine liberator San Martín had been fighting in Peru. and on the 12th of July he captured its capital Lima after a long siege. Bolívar congratulated his fellow liberator on the success, while observing that the rest of Peru remained unconquered. Several months earlier Bolívar sent the 27-year-old General Antonio José de Sucre, his young protégé and minister of war, to the port city of Guayaquil, which had independently liberated itself from Spanish rule. Although he gathered 3,000 men under his command, Sucre's attempts to move south against Quito were easily repulsed. Bolívar's efforts to join up with his Minister of War in early 1822 also met with fierce resistance, but a desperate battle at Bomboná on the 7th of April distracted the Spanish enough for Sucre to march south. On the 24th of May, his men descended from the slopes of the Pichincha volcano. and defeated the Spanish army, allowing him to capture Quito on the 25th. The final royalist stronghold of Pasto soon fell to Bolivar's men, and on the 16th of June, the liberator entered Quito in triumph, with the whole of Greater Colombia under his command. Three days later, Greater Colombia received diplomatic recognition from the United States, which Bolivar had desperately sought for the past four years, while in Quito, Bolívar met Manuela Sainz, a beautiful 25-year-old revolutionary activist married to an Englishman. The pair soon became lovers, and the liberator would keep Manuela as his mistress for the remainder of his life. Bolívar's success at Guayaquil and Quito alarmed San Martín, who hoped to claim those territories for Peru, when the latter sailed into Guayaquil on the 25th of July in an attempt to stake his claim. He was dismayed to find Bolivar there waiting for him. When they met the following day, they greeted each other enthusiastically, but disagreed on almost every subject. Bolivar had offered San Martin support, in his conquest of Peru, but the latter was incensed when he learned that the assistance would only amount to a few hundred Colombian soldiers. Bolívar was equally infuriated when he heard that San Martín planned to establish a monarchy in Peru, and was searching for a European prince to take the throne. During one of their meetings, Bolívar informed the Argentine that the trusted deputy he left to take care of affairs in Lima had been overthrown in a coup. Upon hearing the unexpected news, San Martín decided to resign his position in Lima and sailed into exile, leaving Bolívar a free hand in Peru. Although San Martín had come to be despised in Peru, his swift departure created a political vacuum and the politicians who sought to fill it were unable to prevent the Spanish from recapturing Lima on the 18th of June. Hearing the Peruvian capital was in danger, Bolívar sent Sucre with an army of 6,000 men to reinforce the city, but by the time he arrived, he could do little more than evacuate Congress, which promptly elected him president. Within a few weeks, Sucre resigned the post in frustration at the impossible task of keeping the Peruvian elites in check. Successive Peruvian republican governments begged Bolívar for assistance, and when the liberator received permission from the Colombian Congress on the 7th of August, he immediately set sail from Guayaquil. On the 1st of September, he arrived in Lima, which was temporarily back in Republican hands, and on the following day accepted the post of Supreme Commander. He soon became familiar with the anarchy of Peruvian politics, and languished in despair as the Chilean and Argentinian soldiers who fought under San Martin withdrew from the campaign after taking a tour of the Peruvian interior. In late 1823, he was struck down by a grave illness, and a worse blow would follow on the 27th of February 1824, when President Torre Tagle defected to the royalists alongside his government ministers and 350 officers, bringing Lima back under Spanish rule. When Bolívar heard the shocking news in March, he had recovered from his illness. Over the course of his career, the liberator suffered many disastrous setbacks, only to emerge triumphant at the end. As his experiences in Venezuela and Quito had shown him, it was the countryside rather than the city that mattered. His spirits were boosted by the company of his mistress Manuela Sainz, who complained so bitterly about his frequent absences on campaign that she offered to join his staff as a secretary while also serving in the cavalry. He established his headquarters in the city of Trujillo. dedicated himself to preparing for a new campaign, while urging his subordinates in Bogota to send him more troops. While Bolivar was gathering an army full of fighting spirit, the Spanish generals were fighting among themselves. Bolivar seized the opportunity and joined up with Sucre's men, who had been up in the mountains shadowing the Spanish and determining the best routes for travel. Bolivar's army of 9,000 scaled the frozen heights of the Cerro de Pasco, and sought out the Spanish army. On the afternoon of the 6th of August, Bolivar defeated the previously invincible General José de Cantaraque at the Battle of Junín, a fierce skirmish decided by the superiority of the Colombian cavalry. The demoralized royalists fled back to their stronghold in Cuzco, leaving behind valuable supplies in the process. Upon learning of Cantaraque's defeat, the Spanish evacuated Lima for the last time. By October, as bad weather prevented further campaigning, Bolívar resolved to return to Lima to re-establish his authority in the capital, leaving Sucre in charge of the army. On 24th October, the liberator received news from Vice President Santander in Bogotá that Congress had stripped him of his extraordinary powers and instructed him to relinquish command of his army to Sucre. The leadership in Bogotá had run out of patience with Bolívar's constant demands for men and money for his army in Peru. In spite of the outrage at the injustice shown to him, Bolívar informed Sucre of these instructions and dutifully relinquished his command. He entered Lima on the 5th of December, where he was greeted enthusiastically and set about organizing an army of 3,000 men to defend the capital from further Spanish attacks. In the meantime, Sucre proved equal to the task of completing the liberation of Peru. On the 9th of December 1824, his army of 5,700 men met a slightly larger royalist force on the plains of Ayacucho. Although the royalists were not so much in power as the Ayacuchos, they were still While the Allies gained the upper hand and succeeded in breaking the Patriots'formation, a frenzied counterattack by Sucre's infantry carried the day on the points of their bayonets. Cantorac agreed to surrender unconditionally, and the last bastion of Spanish rule in South America had fallen. With the liberation of Peru and the expulsion of Spain from the continent, Bolivar considered his revolution at an end. When he declared his intention to resign, from the presidency of Greater Colombia, Congress responded by confirming him in the post. As he set about reorganizing the government in Peru, he offered to give up his dictatorial powers, only to be granted them for another year. He used this opportunity to eliminate the last vestiges of resistance to his rule, sending Sucre and his army to La Paz in Upper Peru, in pursuit of the renegade royalist General Pedro Olañeta. The liberator set out for La Paz himself. But by the time he arrived in August, Olaneta had already been killed in a skirmish, and his army immediately surrendered to Sucre. The province of Upper Peru had been subject to both Argentine and Peruvian influence, and Bolívar was opposed to the idea of the newly liberated territory joining Argentina. He favoured an autonomous republic within his, and on the 6th of August the Assembly of Upper Peru declared independence and changed its name to the Republic of Bolivia, electing its namesake as president. For all his triumphs, Bolívar's attention was again being diverted to political troubles back home. In Colombia, Vice President Santander reminded the liberator that expenditures for the army alone amounted to more than twice the revenue the state was receiving, while in Venezuela General Paez urged him to establish a monarchy and crown himself king. to bring some order to the political chaos in Caracas. For the time being, Bolívar remained in Peru where he worked on the Constitution of Bolivia, a document that reflected Republican principles by establishing freedom of speech and equality before the law and abolishing slavery and all forms of social privilege, while at the same time creating a presidency for life to limit the anarchic tendencies of South American politics. Bolivar believed that such a constitution was the answer to all his political problems, and hoped it would be adopted by all the states under his influence. While the Venezuelans welcomed the strong presidency, the Colombians saw it as opening the path for tyranny. After considerable debate, the Bolivian Congress approved the constitution, and while Bolivar was expected to remain as president, he was happy enough to leave the post to Sucre, who accepted for a two-year term. Bolivar turned his attention to his dream of a united Latin America. But the Congress of Panama, which opened in June 1826 to consider the question, soon broke up without any progress. Meanwhile, the longer he stayed in Lima, the more unpopular he became, and a foiled assassination plot in July prompted him to leave Peru in early September. He was also troubled by news that Paez had declared Venezuela's independence from Colombia. frustrated by Bogota's efforts to undermine Bolivar's authority. As he made his way to Bogota, the liberator began to realize the degree of his unpopularity. This demonstrated the difference in opinion between Bolivar and Santander, with the former being increasingly inclined to exercise dictatorial authority, while the latter championed the rule of law to protect the liberties of the people. Although Bolivar initially managed to placate both Santander and Paez, While he was taking care of matters in Caracas, he heard news of a coup in Peru, carried out by the Colombian soldiers he left in Lima, who then proceeded to stake Peru's old claim to Guayaquil. Bolivar considered Santander the instigator, and headed to Bogota to restore order. When his vice-president stripped him of his extraordinary powers in June 1827, the liberator gathered his loyal troops and marched on Bogota. In advance of his arrival in the Colombian capital on the 10th of September, Bolívar insisted that he would assume supreme dictatorial powers as president. The liberator's arrival was peaceful but muted, and as he addressed Congress, he announced that there would be a constitutional convention six months later to discuss the question of presidential authority. While Bolívar considered it beneath his dignity to canvass for support, Santander mounted an effective political campaign to encourage delegates to support his cause. By the end of May 1828, Santander's supporters agreed on a draft that would severely limit the president's powers and create a federal nation of 20 provinces. On the 10th of June, Bolivar's supporters withdrew from the convention, leaving it one short of a quorum and dissolving the body. During the impasse, one of Bolivar's generals staged a demonstration with 800 men and forced the Council of Ministers into giving Bolivar dictatorial powers, which he assumed in early September to popular acclaim. The office of Vice President was abolished, and Santander was sent away. as ambassador to the United States. Despite Santander's absence, his supporters remained a thorn in the Liberator's side, and Bolivar survived two assassination attempts against him. During the second attempt, on the 25th of September, his mistress Manuela Sainz helped him to escape out of a window, before leading the conspirators on a futile search, emerging from the experience badly beaten. Although the Liberator had survived the assassin's bullet, By hiding under a bridge for three hours, his already frail health continued to deteriorate. The man who had liberated half a continent from Spanish rule found himself denounced as a tyrant, while the wars he fought to achieve its liberation resulted in populations halved and economies devastated. Although slavery was abolished on paper, the racial hierarchy was little changed, and Creoles continued to function as the political and social elite. Bolivar's dream of a united continent remained a distant aspiration amidst feuding warlords and national rivalries inherited from the colonial era. While he recovered from the assassination attempt, Bolivar received news of a rebellion in the province of Ecuador, formerly the colony of Quito. In December, he gathered up all his strength to lead an army 600 miles over the Andes and dispatched his young subordinate General José María Córdova to suppress the rebellion. At the same time, a Peruvian army had taken Guayaquil and threatened to make further progress before it was defeated by General Sucre at the Battle of Tarqui, who had accepted command of southern Colombia after being ousted as President of Bolivia in April 1828. While negotiating a peace treaty with Peru, Bolivar learned that Córdova had turned against him, although the rebellion was suppressed and its leader killed. The disheartened Liberator vowed to resign the presidency at the Constitutional Congress scheduled for January 1830. In advance of the Congress, Paez declared independence for Venezuela from the Federation, prompting an exhausted Bolivar to recommend that the Greater Colombia be divided into three states Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. When the Congress met on the 20th of January, Bolivar announced his resignation from the presidency. though this was not accepted until the 27th of April. He was intent on going into exile in Europe, but throughout his career he refused to take any salary and gave away any monetary rewards, while his extensive estates had been ruined by a decade of war. His old comrades-in-arms in Venezuela stripped him of citizenship and his remaining property, while the new constitution established a minimum age of 40 for the new president. Barring Bolivar's preferred successor Sucre from running for the office, Bolivar left Bogota on the 8th of May and struggled to find a ship that would take him across the Atlantic. As he waited, he received news that Sucre had been assassinated on the 4th of June while on his way from Bogota to Quito, and his grief over the death of his loyal friend further damaged his health. By October, he had trouble leaving his bed. though he was able to sail to Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast. With several doctors attending to him, he was moved to the nearby estate of a local Spanish landowner, where he died of tuberculosis on the 17th of December at the age of 47. During his final months, Bolivar had received invitations to return to Bogota to retake control. He refused, not only on account of his poor physical health, but also the recognition that the country he established was impossible to govern, and the Republic of Greater Colombia would be dissolved in November 1831. Six new independent nations of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Bolivia, would emerge from the territories that he liberated from Spain. The liberator left behind a mixed legacy, combining military success with political failure. Over time, The people of South America forgot his political failure and his widespread unpopularity in his final years, and instead celebrated his exploits in liberating half a continent from Spanish colonial rule while promising liberty and social and racial equality. He was forced to compromise on these ideals by the military and political reality he faced, which prompted him to declare a war to the death against Spain and to exercise dictatorial powers to maintain political order. Generations of South American leaders have attempted to claim Bolivar's legacy over the centuries, starting with President Páez of Venezuela, who ordered the liberator's body to be transferred from Santa Marta to the United States. to the Cathedral in Caracas in 1842. Three decades later, President Antonio Guzmán Blanco ordered for his remains to be reburied once again in the newly completed National Pantheon. More recently, in 1982, the Socialist Army officer Hugo Chávez founded the Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement, and despite a failed coup attempt in 1992, he swept to power in the presidential election of 1998. The following year, Chavez declared the Bolivarian Revolution, issuing a new constitution which renamed the state the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. What do you think of Simón Bolívar? Was he a great liberator, visionary leader, and military genius who enabled the peoples of South America to throw off Spanish colonial rule through a combination of inspired strategy, idealistic appeals, and sheer determination? Or was he a ruthless tyrant and dictator who violated his own laws, mishandled political disputes and denied his subjects the very liberties he had promised them? Please let us know in the comment section and in the meantime, thank you very much for watching.

de Bolivar was able to ensure that he and his descendants would become the richest landowners in the colony, using the labor of Indian and African slaves, working in mines and plantations to deliver great wealth to the Spanish crown. When Simon Bolivar's father, Don Juan Vincente, was asked what name he would like to give his fourth child, he gestured to a portrait of his illustrious ancestor, Simon Bolivar's mother. Doña María de la Concepción Palacios y Blanco was 14 years old when she married her husband in 1773, who was 32 years her senior. It was common practice at the time for women to be married at such a young age, though the large age gap between the couple would have raised some eyebrows.

The Palacios were part of the same colonial elite as the Bolivars, and the two families were close neighbors in Caracas. The family had been in the Americas even longer than the Bolivars, as Doña Concepción was descended from the Tzedlas. The young bride would give her husband four children between 1777 and 1783, of whom Simón was the youngest, and it was into this family that the man who would liberate much of South America from Spanish rule was born. They were one of the richest and most powerful families in Venezuela. and his birth was celebrated by gathering of Caracas'oldest and most distinguished families, though his childhood would prove a difficult one.

Although Don Juan Vincente had been a loyal servant of the Spanish crown for most of his life, a series of reforms introduced by the Bourbon monarchy in Madrid in the 1770s were threatening his political and commercial interests. In 1777, The Captaincy General of Venezuela was established in order to strengthen Madrid's control over the colony and its economic output, resulting in higher taxes and greater restrictions on local business practices. For two centuries, Creole families such as the Bolivars had held the highest political offices in the land.

But under this new arrangement, the Spanish government appointed Spanish-born officials while dismissing Creoles. For Don Juan Vincente and his fellow Creoles, these new replacements were typically seen as men of lesser ability and intellect, chosen only for their closer connection to the home country. Similar complaints had motivated the likes of George Washington to raise the flag of rebellion against their British colonial masters in North America a decade earlier, and by the year of Simon Bolivar's birth, the United States of America had won the American Revolutionary War.

Motivated by this spirit of rebellion and the desire to throw off what they considered a tyrannical regime, in 1782 the elder Bolivar wrote to Francisco de Miranda, a Venezuelan colonel and revolutionary adventurer, who advocated breaking with Spain, asking for his advice in rising up against the Spanish crown. These plans for insurrection did not materialize, however, and Don Juan Vincente would die of tuberculosis in January 1786 at the age of 59. His 27-year-old widow, Doña Concepción, labored to get family affairs into order and soon recognized that of all her children, Simón was the most troublesome. He had been raised by a black wet nurse named Hipólita, who adored him but was unable to keep him under control. In the end, she chose the distinguished lawyer.

José Miguel Sanz to serve as Simón's governor and administrator of the vast fortune he had inherited from his father. Despite an intimidating reputation, Sanz was no more than a more successful in disciplining the young child. From the age of six, Simon lived at the lawyer's house, but by the time he was eight, he had moved back home to his family mansion, where his mother's health was rapidly failing. She died on the 6th of July 1792 of tuberculosis, the same disease that had carried her husband to the grave six years earlier. A few weeks shy of his ninth birthday, Simon Bolivar was now an orphan.

and he and his siblings passed into the care of his maternal grandfather, the elderly Don Feliciano Palacios, who would himself die the following year. Despite possessing a vast fortune, the 10-year-old Simón and his 12-year-old brother Juan Vincente had endured a troubled childhood. Following their grandfather's death, they were transferred to the care of maternal uncles, who neglected them and squandered the Bolívar fortune.

The unruly Simón took the opportunity to escape to the back streets of Caracas, where he befriended children of far lesser means, most of whom were black or mixed race. In June 1795, while his uncle Carlos was away, he ran away to the house of his sister Maria Antonia and her husband Pablo Clemente. A custody battle ensued for the 12-year-old child. who stubbornly refused to comply with the court's ruling for him to return to his uncle's house.

But he eventually did so after two months living with his elementary school teacher, Don Feliciano's former secretary, Simón Rodríguez. Under a new arrangement, from October 1795, Rodríguez became Bolívar's personal tutor, responsible for reading and grammar. His duties were supplemented by Andrés Bello, who taught him literature. while Francisco de Adujar, a priest who earlier served as the child's moral tutor in Sanz House, instructed him in mathematics and science.

More than anyone else, the 25-year-old Rodríguez accepted the boy's nature and encouraged his sense of adventure, teaching him outdoors on horseback and inspiring his charge with a love of ideas and free thinking. Rodríguez was an admirer of the Enlightenment ideas of freedom and equality. And it was these beliefs which caught him up in a conspiracy to overthrow the Spanish authorities in 1797. He escaped conviction, but was forced to go into exile, where he would later cross paths with his former pupil. Deprived of his tutor and as a condition of his inheritance, Simón Bolivar enrolled into the White Volunteers of the Valley of Aragua, a military corps founded by his grandfather. and commanded by his father.

He spent a year learning the basics of military service and was promoted to second lieutenant. Once he was 15, his uncle Esteban Palacios sent him to Spain to continue his education in Madrid. On the 19th of January 1799, he left aboard the San Ildefonso, arriving in northern Spain more than four months later after a perilous journey which witnessed a significant delay, owing to a British blockade and a terrible storm that diverted the vessel from its intended destination of Cádiz.

Within months of his nephew's arrival in Madrid, Esteban Palacios arranged for the Marcos of Ustariz to take charge of the teenager's education. A native of Caracas and a member of the Spanish Supreme Council of War, the Marcos enthusiastically accepted Simón and provided him with a structured course of education encompassing both intellectual subjects and physical activities, including fencing and dancing. On occasion, Simón and his uncles Esteban and Pedro would attend court, notorious for its corruption and debauchery. King Carlos IV was weak and ineffectual, and during the 1790s, political power was in the hands of the Prime Minister Manuel Godoy, who also managed to find his way into the bedroom of Queen María Luisa.

By the end of the decade, Godoy's unpopularity resulted in his dismissal from office and the royal bedchamber, and not long afterwards the queen took a new lover in the form of Manuel Mayo, who happened to be Esteban Palacio's close friend and roommate. Although this connection to the new royal favourite did nothing to advance the careers of Bolivar's uncles, it did allow them a look behind the curtain of the Spanish court, despite its wealth and ostentation. The young Simon could see that the Spanish monarchy rested on weak foundations during an era of revolutionary turmoil.

By the beginning of 1800, In the year 1900, Bolivar's two uncles moved from Madrid, sensing a change in the political winds which would soon see Godoy return to his previous position of influence. In the meantime, the 17-year-old Simón set his eyes on María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro, the 19-year-old daughter of rich Venezuelan parents born in Spain. Although his prospective father-in-law was taken aback by the swiftness of the courtship and had reservations about Bolivar's youth.

The couple were eventually married in Madrid on the 26th of May 1802. Three weeks later, they departed to Venezuela, aboard the same San Ildefonso that had carried Bolívar across the Atlantic three years earlier. Although she had family members in Caracas, this was the first time the bride had seen the colonies for herself. The newlyweds dreamed of a long and happy existence together, but María Teresa contracted yellow fever.

and her health deteriorated rapidly, dying at the age of 21. On the 22nd of January 1803, the heartbroken widower vowed never to remarry, a promise that he would keep, despite taking many lovers over the course of his lifetime. Seeking a new purpose for his life, Bolívar returned to Europe and arrived in Cadiz at the end of 1803, a two-month stay in Madrid, with all the reminders of his dead wife, prompted him to cross the Pyrenees into France in the company of Fernando del Toro, a childhood friend and his late wife's cousin. In May 1804, the two arrived in Paris, which Bolivar had briefly visited previously in early 1802, and became great admirers of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, the brilliant young general who had taken power in the coup of 18 Brumaire.

in November 1799, bringing to an end the political instability of the previous decade while seeking to create a meritocratic society, rewarding individuals of high ability rather than those of high birth. Although Napoleon would be proclaimed emperor on the 18th of May 1804, Bolivar still considered him the hero of the republic and an inspiration for his own future. While Bolivar would change his mind later that year, When Napoleon was crowned in a grand ceremony at Notre Dame on the 2nd of December, the example of a military commander overthrowing a corrupt government and championing the cause of liberty would remain with him. In Paris, Bolivar set aside his grief and found consolation in the arms of several lovers, while also creating for himself a circle of male friends.

One of these was the German scientist Alexander von Humboldt. who had traveled to Latin America between 1799 and 1804 and met Bolivar's family and friends while in Venezuela. However, by the end of the year, the winter chill and the anger over Napoleon's coronation caused him to be unwell and in April 1805 he and del Toro left Paris for Italy, traveling alongside his former tutor Simon Rodriguez, who had been based in the French capital since 1801. and spared nothing to come to the assistance of his former pupil.

The three witnessed Napoleon's coronation as King of Italy in Milan, before travelling onward to Rome. On the 15th of August, Bolivar and his two companions climbed up Mount Sacro, where Rodriguez spoke of the poor plebeians of ancient Rome, who in 494 BC climbed up the mountain to denounce the rule of the wealthy patrician class, falling to his knees, Bolivar clasped the hands of the two men, spoke of the injustices inflicted on his homeland, and vowed to avenge them. From then onwards, the 21-year-old Bolivar made it his mission to liberate South America from Spanish imperial rule.

As the Napoleonic Wars raged in Europe, the budding revolutionary vowed to return home, and by June 1807 he was back in Caracas. He gathered a number of friends and family members, who, despite being privileged members of the local aristocracy, were also openly supportive of Bolívar's revolutionary ideas. However, for all the talk of sedition, the conspirators had no plans and recognized how difficult it would be to overthrow the Spanish state.

It was only in the previous year that the adventurer Francisco de Miranda The same man who Bolivar's father had asked for advice about insurrection two decades earlier, landed a small number of men in an attempt to provoke an uprising in Venezuela, only to find no support at all, eventually being forced into an embarrassing death. retreat. The opportunity the young revolutionaries were looking for was provided by the Emperor Napoleon, who invaded Portugal in the autumn of 1807 in order to force the country into his continental system. The economic process he set up the previous year to ban British ships from trading in continental European ports in an attempt to starve the British government of trade revenues. He received permission from his Spanish ally, to march an army through Spain on its way to Portugal.

But Napoleon's force of 100,000 was far larger than the Spanish government anticipated, and their presence left the country under effective French occupation. In March 1808, an angry mob rose up and forced the pro-French Manuel Godoy, first Secretary of State, from office, obliging King Charles IV to abdicate in favour of his son, who was proclaimed Ferdinand de Pau. VII. In the political turmoil that followed, both father and son appealed to Napoleon to support their claim to the throne. After inviting them both to the French city of Bayonne, just across the border from Spain, under the pretext of mediating the crisis, on the 7th of May 1808, the emperor forced both men to abdicate and installed his elder brother Joseph Bonaparte as king of Spain.

days after his brother-in-law, Marshal Joaquim Murat, brutally suppressed the 2nd of May uprising in Madrid. Napoleon's actions in Spain triggered a civil war which would see opponents of the new Bonapartist regime form a junta in Seville, which remained loyal to King Ferdinand. The junta received military support from Britain, whose armies were in the process of wresting control of Portugal away from Napoleon's men, during the opening stages of a six-year conflict known as the Peninsular War. When the news reached Venezuela in July 1808, the Caracas City Council took advantage of the weakness of the mother country and established its own government and followed the example of Seville in professing loyalty to King Ferdinand, who was, at the time, languishing as Napoleon's prisoner. Bolívar, who despised Ferdinand from his earlier acquaintance with him in Madrid, was not even prepared to make a token gesture of loyalty to the powerless king.

By May 1809, the Junta appointed a new Captain General, Field Marshal Vincente Emperan, whose Inspector General happened to be Bolivar's friend, Fernando del Toro. Emperan's authority was limited, especially after news reached Caracas that the central Junta was forced to flee to Cadiz in 1810, where it dissolved itself and established a new government called the Regency. On the 19th of April, the Creoles staged a coup against the Captain General and removed him from power, establishing the Supreme Junta of Caracas, while continuing to declare loyalty to King Ferdinand.

Several other colonies soon followed suit, with Buenos Aires, Bogota, Quito, and Mexico establishing their own juntas. Bolivar had been reluctant to support the coup due to the Junta's continued allegiance to King Ferdinand, but offered his services as an envoy to the British government in London. The Junta reluctantly accepted the offer, appointed him to the rank of colonel, and sent his brother Juan Vincente on a similar mission to the United States.

While carrying out his diplomatic mission, the headstrong and inexperienced Bolivar informed British Foreign Secretary Lord Richard Wellesley that the Venezuelans had risen up against the oppression of the Spanish crown and were intent on full independence, while accidentally handing him his instructions from the Junta, which stated the exact opposite. In spite of this blunder and the British minister's steadfast commitment to his Spanish ally, Wellesley was moved by Bolivar's impassioned pleas and invited him to further talks. In the meantime, once again in defiance of the Junta's orders, The Venezuelan envoys met with Francisco de Miranda, who was then living in London. Bolívar and Miranda had lengthy discussions, not only about revolution, but the practicalities of political administration and economic development.

Bolívar returned to Venezuela on the 5th of December 1810, with Miranda arriving five days later. Although Bolívar had tried to persuade the older man that he would be greeted enthusiastically, and welcomed as the leader of the new government, the latter received a cold welcome and realized that Bolívar was far more radical than anyone on the junta. The two men turned their attention to political organization, taking over a political party called the Patriotic Society and establishing a newspaper, and Miranda successfully won election to Congress.

Over time, these efforts helped them win the support of the non-Creole races. Shifting popular support in Miranda's favour, calls for independence grew louder in July 1811, after a member of Congress was unmasked as an agent of the Regency. On the 5th of July, Miranda gave a report to Congress reporting on the most recent news from the Peninsular War. Marshal André Masséna had been defeated by Lord Wellington's British Army in his second invasion of Portugal, and he suggested that Napoleon would soon be defeated.

giving Spain a free hand to crack down on the rebellious colonies. Sensing that there was no time to lose, Congress voted in favor of independence. Although the newly independent Venezuela proclaimed a democratic government, political power remained in the hands of the whites, and royalist sympathizers took advantage of this to incite rebellion among the disadvantaged classes.

When an uprising occurred in the city of Valencia on the 19th of July, The government force under the Marquis del Toro proved ineffective. When Congress turned to Miranda to take over command, he agreed under the condition that Bolívar would not accompany him. The younger man was infuriated by this snub, by his political ally, but was instead given an appointment on del Toro's staff. Miranda's army duly took control of Valencia and Bolívar distinguished himself in the process during the two battles for control of the city. The battle would establish Bolívar's credentials as a soldier, but by early 1812, the Republican government faced a new enemy.

In the form of an army led by Domingo de Monteverde, that sought to restore Spanish rule. On the 26th of March 1812, a series of earthquakes ripped through South America, devastating Caracas and encouraging the belief that the revolutionaries were being punished for defying God and the Spanish crown. In response to the desperate situation, the Venezuelan Congress appointed Miranda dictator and the old general engaged in a series of battles with Monteverde's army without taking the offensive. Bolívar was given the task of defending the town of Puerto Cabelo, but was not given authority over the fort, which not only contained valuable Spanish prisoners, but also a vast store of weapons.

On the 30th of June, the second in command at the fort released all the prisoners and declared for King Ferdinand, placing Bolívar in an impossible position. After begging Miranda for reinforcements that would not materialize, Bolívar fled for Caracas. not realizing that Miranda was in the process of surrendering to Monteverde. Miranda's eagerness to surrender could be explained by his reluctance to fight a bloody civil war, or his belief that Venezuela might be better off back under Spanish rule, now that the regency had adopted a liberal constitution in 1812. The enraged Bolivar learned that the defeated dictator was seeking to escape to England from the port of La Guaira. and plotted with the port's governor Manuel de las Casas to arrest him.

Although the arrest was carried out, Las Casas had also been in contact with Monteverde and Miranda was delivered to Spanish authorities, never to see the light of day again. While Monteverde cracked down on the Republicans, Bolívar escaped to Caracas where, thanks to his connections with old royalist friends, he obtained a passport and escaped to the port of Curaçao, then under British control. After a few months, he moved on to the port of Cartagena in New Granada, which remained independent from Spain, but had broken up into a number of competing governments.

After offering his services to the independent government of Cartagena, Bolivar issued a call to arms, addressing the citizens of New Granada. In this Cartagena Manifesto, he argued that the Venezuelan Republic had been defeated by inviting and weak government. and that in order to overthrow Spanish rule, the whole of South America must unite and act as one.

In the meantime, Bolívar made his way to the small town of Barranca on the banks of the Magdalena River, the remote outpost he had been assigned to by President Manuel Toríces of Cartagena. After making sure to win the support of the area's local landowners, he recruited a small band of men and launched daring attacks against Spanish positions. winning more men over to his cause and being welcomed as a hero in Republican strongholds.

In the 15 days between 21 December and 8 January 1813 Bolivar and his men took control of the entire 300-mile length of the river. In the meantime, Monteverde consolidated his hold on Venezuela by waging a brutal pacification campaign against the Creoles. In early 1813, His army was preparing to invade the Grenadan province of Pamplona, whose commander, Colonel Manuel del Castillo, had only 300 men.

He requested assistance from Bolívar, who was given permission by the Cartagena authorities to lead his army of 400 men to reinforce Castillo and attack the Spanish. On the 28th of February, the combined force attacked a Spanish army twice their size and captured the border town of Cúcuta. with minimal casualties, further increasing the fame of the Venezuelan, who was appointed Brigadier General by President Torrises.

Fresh from his latest success, Bolivar was granted permission to invade his native Venezuela despite having only 500 men under his command after the jealous Castillo decided to quit the army. Despite leading a small and ill-equipped army, Bolivar's aggressive strategy once again proved successful. Capturing the undefended city of Merida on the 23rd of May, where he was proclaimed liberator and won 600 more men to his cause.

On the 14th of June, he had liberated the province of Trujillo. Although he had been incredibly successful, Bolivar knew from his earlier experience serving the First Venezuelan Republic that it was much harder to hold territory than to take it. In his Cartagena Manifesto, he made it clear that he believed Miranda's weakness and leniency towards the Spanish had been the cause of the defeat of the Venezuelan Republic. He now put his words into action.

Issuing an uncompromising decree, Spaniards and Canary Islanders, count on death, even if you have been indifferent. Americans, count on life, even if you have been guilty. This controversial decree had an immediate effect, prompting hundreds of royalist troops to join the Republican cause, but would cause widespread bloodshed in the longer term. Although he had been given explicit orders not to march on Caracas, Bolívar remained true to his character and defied them, leading an army of little more than a thousand men and fighting a series of skirmishes against the larger but less agile Spanish forces.

Within the space of ten days, at the end of June and the beginning of July, they had overcome 5,000 enemy troops, some of whom were recruited into the liberating army. Soon after celebrating his 30th birthday, Bolivar's 1,500 men met Monteverde on the plain outside Valencia. Bolivar outmaneuvered Monteverde by having his infantrymen jump onto the horses of his cavalry which charged deep into the enemy lines, before the foot soldiers dismounted to attack the Spanish from the rear.

A few days later, Bolivar accepted the surrender of Caracas and proclaimed a new Venezuelan republic. on the 6th of August 1813. Bolívar had been proclaimed liberator and dictator by his fellow Caracans, but his authority did not extend across the whole of Venezuela. General Santiago Marino had conquered eastern Venezuela from Monteverde, and was in no mood to submit to Bolívar's authority. Meanwhile, Bolívar's regime was under simultaneous attack from slave insurrections and Spanish royalists.

who once again mobilized the non-white population, which saw the Creoles rather than the royalists as their oppressors. With Spain liberated from Napoleonic rule in 1813, the Spanish authorities in Madrid could now devote their attentions to taking back their colonial possessions in South America. Bolívar's most formidable foe was José Tomás Bóves, the commander of a fearsome army of cavalrymen from the plains nicknamed the Legions of Hell.

professing outward loyalty to the Spanish crown, but answering to no one. Though Bolívar and Boves traded victories, the royalists were more successful in recruiting men to their cause. As Bolívar put his uncompromising authoritarian ideas into practice, the conflict devolved into a brutal race war with countless atrocities committed by all parties.

When his men uncovered a plan to release the royalists imprisoned in La Guaira, and to incite an uprising to overthrow the government in Caracas. Bolívar responded by ordering the execution of more than 1,000 Spanish prisoners over the course of four days in February 1814. Bolívar's brutality did nothing to prevent Boves'success, and he ordered the evacuation of Caracas on the 7th of July. Mourinho had promised the port of Barcelona on the east coast would be a safe haven, but it proved nothing of the sort. as the Royalists encroached on the port. Bolívar led an army of 6,000 men to defend the town of Aragua on the road leading to Barcelona, but was decisively defeated by a larger Royalist army.

By the end of August, the two Venezuelan leaders attempted to sail away to safety, but were accused of cowardice by their respective deputies and were subsequently deposed. In the meantime, Boves had taken over in Caracas, refusing to give up control to his nominal superiors and proceeded to overturn the centuries-old social hierarchy by placing blacks and mixed-race Karakans in positions of power. He then attempted to eliminate the remnants of the Republican armies, but was killed at the Battle of Urika on the 5th of December, even as his army triumphed. By the end of 1814, Boves and Bolivar had killed more than 10,000 people between them.

As if retracing his steps two years earlier, Bolívar returned to Cartagena, offered his services to the central government of New Granada and successfully subdued its unruly capital of Bogotá, for which he was appointed as governor. he was appointed commander-in-chief. With this new authority, he led an army to recapture the port of Santa Marta at the mouth of the Magdalena River from the Spanish, but instead found himself in conflict with his old rival, Colonel Castillo, who had taken control of Cartagena, allowing the Spanish to reconquer the river, undoing the work of Bolívar's lightning campaign a couple of years earlier.

On the 24th of April, News reached him that a Spanish expeditionary force of 14,000 men and more than 60 ships under the command of General Pablo Murillo had landed in Venezuela. Finding himself in an impossible situation, Bolivar resigned his command and set sail for Jamaica, staying for four months begging for support from Britain and the United States before leaving for Haiti, where he met with President Alexandre Pétillan. who finished him with a fleet of seven ships and ample personnel and supplies to launch a new invasion of South America.

On the 2nd of May 1816 Bolívar landed on the island of Margarita, the only Republican stronghold that remained in Venezuela, which had held out under the tenacious Juan Bautista Arismendi, the same man who had carried out Bolívar's orders to execute the Spanish prisoners at La Guaira. Receiving a welcome from his subordinate, Bolívar proclaimed the Third Republic and was installed as its Supreme Chief. He announced an end to the war to the death and soon declared that slavery would be abolished in the Republic, recognizing that the support of the black population was crucial to any hope of success, while fulfilling his promise to President Petillon to liberate the slaves in South America, despite the grandiose proclamations. The Republicans were hardly in a position to threaten Murillo's control of Venezuela, and the campaign that Bolivar planned ended in failure when the valuable supply of arms he had received from Haiti was captured by the Spanish at the port of Ocumare. When Bolivar sailed to the eastern port of Guiria hoping to reunite with General Marinho, the latter turned against him, and the former narrowly escaped with his life, although he escaped to Haiti again.

with promises of further support from Pétion. By January 1817 Bolívar was back in Venezuela after receiving pleas from the revolutionaries in Caracas to retake control. When Bolívar landed in Barcelona, Mourinho and other leaders who had previously abandoned him once again rallied to his aid.

Although Murillo appeared invincible, the republicans hatched an ambitious plan to march deep into the Venezuelan interior of the country. To join up with General Manuel Piar, they also hoped to obtain the support of José Antonio Paez, a defector from the royalists whose army included many veterans of Boves'legions of hell. Bolívar hoped to lure Murillo into an expensive chase while his fleet under Admiral Luis Brion blockaded the coast to starve the Spaniard of supplies.

When Bolívar marched to join Piar, the latter had already seen considerable success fighting off the Spanish, and taking control of the province of Guayana, but the ambitious Piar did not wish to share his spoils and was soon executed before refiring the squad for undermining his commander. Bolivar considered Piar's execution as a regrettable and necessary deed, which would encourage other warlords under his authority to remain loyal to him. While Bolivar was campaigning in the west, Marinho tried once again to establish himself as an independent leader.

in the east, but his government soon collapsed and many of his accomplices defected to Bolívar, and several months later he was persuaded to join Bolívar once again. Bolívar had long dreamed of a united Latin America and welcomed news that José de San Martín, the general who liberated Argentina from Spanish rule, scored a series of successes throughout 1817 in Chile. alongside the Irish Chilean general Bernardo O'Higgins, and was now heading for Peru. Bolívar wrote to the Argentine government and proposed pushing south to meet up with San Martín and create a unified Latin American republic.

In order to do so, Bolívar still had to win over nearby warlords including Paez, who defeated Murillo the previous year at the Battle of Mucuritas and turned the tide in favour of the republican cause. Although both Bolívar and Paez were ambitious men with their own agendas, the meeting on the 30th of January 1818 proved a success, as he pondered how to cross the Apure river. Bolívar was amazed when his new ally sent 15 horsemen across the river to overcome the Spanish sentries and capture four Spanish ships to ferry Bolívar's army to the other side. Bolívar obtained a further success on the 12th of February when his army surprised Murillo at Calaboso and captured the Spanish army's supplies, but the Spanish general escaped during the night and Bolívar's efforts to catch up with him were in vain. He turned his attention to Caracas, but on the 16th of March he was defeated by the Spanish with the loss of more than a thousand men.

With Mourinho losing ground in the east, Bolivar's only secure base was the province of Guayana, and he established his government in its capital city of Angostura. For the remainder of 1818, Bolivar turned his attention towards political activities by founding a newspaper to serve as the mouthpiece of his government, and finally Choosing to share power by establishing a Congress, which opened on the 15th of February 1819. As he unveiled the new constitution, he continued to stress the need for unity, but acknowledged the need for more democratic institutions. Whereupon he relinquished his powers as Supreme Chief, only to be elected President the following day.

Nevertheless, his main priority was in military matters, and he labored to ensure that his army was well maintained. purchasing shiploads of arms and ammunition from New York and London. From London, Bolivar also received a contingent of British officers who had been demobilized after the Napoleonic Wars, and within the next five years, over 5,000 British and Irish soldiers would join Bolivar's cause.

While Bolivar was attending to political matters, Paez had been fighting an effective guerrilla campaign against Murillo. launching frequent attacks to keep the enemy busy without being entangled in a pitched battle. When he received permission from Bolivar to take on the Spanish general on the 2nd of April, Pais led 150 horsemen over the river Arauca and defeated a thousand Spaniards under Murillo.

By the time Bolivar arrived with his men to pursue the Spanish, the plains were being flooded and the Patriot armies were obliged to retire to higher ground. Bolivar knew staying on the plains invited starvation and disease, and devised an ambitious strategy to cross the Andes and attack Spanish possessions in New Granada. After receiving the support of his generals, Bolivar's army set out on the 4th of June and arrived at the foot of the mountains on the 1st of July. Over the next five days, he led his men over the Paramo de Pisba, an icy mountain pass that the Spanish had left undefended. believing that it was impossible to cross.

Although hundreds of men died during the crossing, the survivors were enthusiastically welcomed by the local Grenadan population. By the 25th of July, Bolívar's army met the Spanish at the Battle of Pantano de Vargas, 120 miles from the capital Bogotá. The royalists occupied the higher ground and had the upper hand for most of the battle. But a fearless cavalry charge by Colonel Juan José Rondón, Paesi's most talented subordinate, caused the enemy to run away in fear. A couple of weeks later, on the 7th of August, Bolívar defeated the Spanish brigadier José María Barreiro once again at the decisive Battle of Boyacá, where Rondón's horsemen once again played a crucial role in charging into the royalist formation.

When Bolívar entered Bogotá in triumph on the 10th of August, the Spanish officials had already left. Upon learning the news, Murillo reported to Madrid, in just one day Bolivar has undone all we have accomplished in five years of this campaign. Although the capture of Bogotá was an incredible triumph, in Bolivar's mind the war was far from over, while his native Caracas and other parts of the continent remained in Spanish hands. After setting up the essential government institutions in Bogotá, He left political matters in the hands of his vice president and loyal subordinate, General Francisco de Paulo Santander, who was a lawyer by profession. For two months, Bolívar journeyed across New Granada in a triumphant progress, while at the same time recruiting more men to confront Murillo in Venezuela.

By the time he crossed into his native country, he received reports that the warlords whom he thought he had tamed were defying him again. Bolívar's vice-president Francisco Antonio Zeya, whom he had left in charge in Angostura, had been deposed by Arismendi, who appointed the insubordinate Marinho as commanding general of the east. However, when Bolívar returned to to the Venezuelan capital on the 11th of December 1819. He returned Arismendi to his old post as governor of Margarita and reinstated Zer as vice president.

On the 14th of December Bolívar proposed the union of Venezuela and New Granada as part of the greater nation he called Greater Colombia, which was agreed by Congress on the 17th. The President and Liberator now planned a final offensive to rid the continent of Borrillo and his army. King Ferdinand had promised to send a fresh expedition to South America, but as they prepared to set sail, the men mutinied at Cadiz on the 1st of January 1820, and called for the restoration of the liberal constitution of 1812, which the king had repealed after returning to the throne.

The king reluctantly agreed, depriving his general of any hope. of re-establishing Spanish rule in the Americas. Murillo proposed peace negotiations, signaling that he was prepared to recognize the independence of Colombia.

After a six-month armistice was signed on the 25th of November at the town of San Fernando de Apure, on the 27th Bolivar and Murillo met at the village of Santa Ana, greeting each other as if they were old comrades in arms and vowing an end to Blanchet. In spite of these promises and attempts to end the war peacefully, the conflict resumed at the end of April 1821, but while the Republican forces gained in confidence, the Royalists were exhausted and disillusioned. On the 24th of June, Bolívar led 6,500 men to attack Spanish General Miguel de la Torre at Carabobo, where Paez's horsemen and the British Legion carried the day, forcing what remained of the Spanish army to flight.

The victorious Bolívar rode in triumph through the streets of his native Caracas on the 29th of June 1821. On the 7th of September, Bolívar learned that the Congress of Cúcuta, which met to determine the constitution of Greater Colombia, had elected him president. He reluctantly accepted the post in the belief that only his name could hold his new republic together. The federation would grow larger in November 1821, when Panama declared enthusiastically for Bolívar and joined Greater Colombia. Although he had thought hard about politics and how to govern the peoples of South America, the liberator was far more comfortable in his military uniform than in that of a politician. He set his sights on the conquest of the colonies Quito, modern-day Ecuador, and Peru, both of which remained under Spanish rule.

For over a year, the Argentine liberator San Martín had been fighting in Peru. and on the 12th of July he captured its capital Lima after a long siege. Bolívar congratulated his fellow liberator on the success, while observing that the rest of Peru remained unconquered.

Several months earlier Bolívar sent the 27-year-old General Antonio José de Sucre, his young protégé and minister of war, to the port city of Guayaquil, which had independently liberated itself from Spanish rule. Although he gathered 3,000 men under his command, Sucre's attempts to move south against Quito were easily repulsed. Bolívar's efforts to join up with his Minister of War in early 1822 also met with fierce resistance, but a desperate battle at Bomboná on the 7th of April distracted the Spanish enough for Sucre to march south.

On the 24th of May, his men descended from the slopes of the Pichincha volcano. and defeated the Spanish army, allowing him to capture Quito on the 25th. The final royalist stronghold of Pasto soon fell to Bolivar's men, and on the 16th of June, the liberator entered Quito in triumph, with the whole of Greater Colombia under his command.

Three days later, Greater Colombia received diplomatic recognition from the United States, which Bolivar had desperately sought for the past four years, while in Quito, Bolívar met Manuela Sainz, a beautiful 25-year-old revolutionary activist married to an Englishman. The pair soon became lovers, and the liberator would keep Manuela as his mistress for the remainder of his life. Bolívar's success at Guayaquil and Quito alarmed San Martín, who hoped to claim those territories for Peru, when the latter sailed into Guayaquil on the 25th of July in an attempt to stake his claim. He was dismayed to find Bolivar there waiting for him.

When they met the following day, they greeted each other enthusiastically, but disagreed on almost every subject. Bolivar had offered San Martin support, in his conquest of Peru, but the latter was incensed when he learned that the assistance would only amount to a few hundred Colombian soldiers. Bolívar was equally infuriated when he heard that San Martín planned to establish a monarchy in Peru, and was searching for a European prince to take the throne.

During one of their meetings, Bolívar informed the Argentine that the trusted deputy he left to take care of affairs in Lima had been overthrown in a coup. Upon hearing the unexpected news, San Martín decided to resign his position in Lima and sailed into exile, leaving Bolívar a free hand in Peru. Although San Martín had come to be despised in Peru, his swift departure created a political vacuum and the politicians who sought to fill it were unable to prevent the Spanish from recapturing Lima on the 18th of June. Hearing the Peruvian capital was in danger, Bolívar sent Sucre with an army of 6,000 men to reinforce the city, but by the time he arrived, he could do little more than evacuate Congress, which promptly elected him president.

Within a few weeks, Sucre resigned the post in frustration at the impossible task of keeping the Peruvian elites in check. Successive Peruvian republican governments begged Bolívar for assistance, and when the liberator received permission from the Colombian Congress on the 7th of August, he immediately set sail from Guayaquil. On the 1st of September, he arrived in Lima, which was temporarily back in Republican hands, and on the following day accepted the post of Supreme Commander.

He soon became familiar with the anarchy of Peruvian politics, and languished in despair as the Chilean and Argentinian soldiers who fought under San Martin withdrew from the campaign after taking a tour of the Peruvian interior. In late 1823, he was struck down by a grave illness, and a worse blow would follow on the 27th of February 1824, when President Torre Tagle defected to the royalists alongside his government ministers and 350 officers, bringing Lima back under Spanish rule. When Bolívar heard the shocking news in March, he had recovered from his illness. Over the course of his career, the liberator suffered many disastrous setbacks, only to emerge triumphant at the end. As his experiences in Venezuela and Quito had shown him, it was the countryside rather than the city that mattered.

His spirits were boosted by the company of his mistress Manuela Sainz, who complained so bitterly about his frequent absences on campaign that she offered to join his staff as a secretary while also serving in the cavalry. He established his headquarters in the city of Trujillo. dedicated himself to preparing for a new campaign, while urging his subordinates in Bogota to send him more troops. While Bolivar was gathering an army full of fighting spirit, the Spanish generals were fighting among themselves. Bolivar seized the opportunity and joined up with Sucre's men, who had been up in the mountains shadowing the Spanish and determining the best routes for travel.

Bolivar's army of 9,000 scaled the frozen heights of the Cerro de Pasco, and sought out the Spanish army. On the afternoon of the 6th of August, Bolivar defeated the previously invincible General José de Cantaraque at the Battle of Junín, a fierce skirmish decided by the superiority of the Colombian cavalry. The demoralized royalists fled back to their stronghold in Cuzco, leaving behind valuable supplies in the process.

Upon learning of Cantaraque's defeat, the Spanish evacuated Lima for the last time. By October, as bad weather prevented further campaigning, Bolívar resolved to return to Lima to re-establish his authority in the capital, leaving Sucre in charge of the army. On 24th October, the liberator received news from Vice President Santander in Bogotá that Congress had stripped him of his extraordinary powers and instructed him to relinquish command of his army to Sucre.

The leadership in Bogotá had run out of patience with Bolívar's constant demands for men and money for his army in Peru. In spite of the outrage at the injustice shown to him, Bolívar informed Sucre of these instructions and dutifully relinquished his command. He entered Lima on the 5th of December, where he was greeted enthusiastically and set about organizing an army of 3,000 men to defend the capital from further Spanish attacks.

In the meantime, Sucre proved equal to the task of completing the liberation of Peru. On the 9th of December 1824, his army of 5,700 men met a slightly larger royalist force on the plains of Ayacucho. Although the royalists were not so much in power as the Ayacuchos, they were still While the Allies gained the upper hand and succeeded in breaking the Patriots'formation, a frenzied counterattack by Sucre's infantry carried the day on the points of their bayonets. Cantorac agreed to surrender unconditionally, and the last bastion of Spanish rule in South America had fallen.

With the liberation of Peru and the expulsion of Spain from the continent, Bolivar considered his revolution at an end. When he declared his intention to resign, from the presidency of Greater Colombia, Congress responded by confirming him in the post. As he set about reorganizing the government in Peru, he offered to give up his dictatorial powers, only to be granted them for another year. He used this opportunity to eliminate the last vestiges of resistance to his rule, sending Sucre and his army to La Paz in Upper Peru, in pursuit of the renegade royalist General Pedro Olañeta.

The liberator set out for La Paz himself. But by the time he arrived in August, Olaneta had already been killed in a skirmish, and his army immediately surrendered to Sucre. The province of Upper Peru had been subject to both Argentine and Peruvian influence, and Bolívar was opposed to the idea of the newly liberated territory joining Argentina. He favoured an autonomous republic within his, and on the 6th of August the Assembly of Upper Peru declared independence and changed its name to the Republic of Bolivia, electing its namesake as president. For all his triumphs, Bolívar's attention was again being diverted to political troubles back home.

In Colombia, Vice President Santander reminded the liberator that expenditures for the army alone amounted to more than twice the revenue the state was receiving, while in Venezuela General Paez urged him to establish a monarchy and crown himself king. to bring some order to the political chaos in Caracas. For the time being, Bolívar remained in Peru where he worked on the Constitution of Bolivia, a document that reflected Republican principles by establishing freedom of speech and equality before the law and abolishing slavery and all forms of social privilege, while at the same time creating a presidency for life to limit the anarchic tendencies of South American politics.

Bolivar believed that such a constitution was the answer to all his political problems, and hoped it would be adopted by all the states under his influence. While the Venezuelans welcomed the strong presidency, the Colombians saw it as opening the path for tyranny. After considerable debate, the Bolivian Congress approved the constitution, and while Bolivar was expected to remain as president, he was happy enough to leave the post to Sucre, who accepted for a two-year term. Bolivar turned his attention to his dream of a united Latin America. But the Congress of Panama, which opened in June 1826 to consider the question, soon broke up without any progress.

Meanwhile, the longer he stayed in Lima, the more unpopular he became, and a foiled assassination plot in July prompted him to leave Peru in early September. He was also troubled by news that Paez had declared Venezuela's independence from Colombia. frustrated by Bogota's efforts to undermine Bolivar's authority.

As he made his way to Bogota, the liberator began to realize the degree of his unpopularity. This demonstrated the difference in opinion between Bolivar and Santander, with the former being increasingly inclined to exercise dictatorial authority, while the latter championed the rule of law to protect the liberties of the people. Although Bolivar initially managed to placate both Santander and Paez, While he was taking care of matters in Caracas, he heard news of a coup in Peru, carried out by the Colombian soldiers he left in Lima, who then proceeded to stake Peru's old claim to Guayaquil. Bolivar considered Santander the instigator, and headed to Bogota to restore order. When his vice-president stripped him of his extraordinary powers in June 1827, the liberator gathered his loyal troops and marched on Bogota.

In advance of his arrival in the Colombian capital on the 10th of September, Bolívar insisted that he would assume supreme dictatorial powers as president. The liberator's arrival was peaceful but muted, and as he addressed Congress, he announced that there would be a constitutional convention six months later to discuss the question of presidential authority. While Bolívar considered it beneath his dignity to canvass for support, Santander mounted an effective political campaign to encourage delegates to support his cause. By the end of May 1828, Santander's supporters agreed on a draft that would severely limit the president's powers and create a federal nation of 20 provinces.

On the 10th of June, Bolivar's supporters withdrew from the convention, leaving it one short of a quorum and dissolving the body. During the impasse, one of Bolivar's generals staged a demonstration with 800 men and forced the Council of Ministers into giving Bolivar dictatorial powers, which he assumed in early September to popular acclaim. The office of Vice President was abolished, and Santander was sent away. as ambassador to the United States.

Despite Santander's absence, his supporters remained a thorn in the Liberator's side, and Bolivar survived two assassination attempts against him. During the second attempt, on the 25th of September, his mistress Manuela Sainz helped him to escape out of a window, before leading the conspirators on a futile search, emerging from the experience badly beaten. Although the Liberator had survived the assassin's bullet, By hiding under a bridge for three hours, his already frail health continued to deteriorate. The man who had liberated half a continent from Spanish rule found himself denounced as a tyrant, while the wars he fought to achieve its liberation resulted in populations halved and economies devastated.

Although slavery was abolished on paper, the racial hierarchy was little changed, and Creoles continued to function as the political and social elite. Bolivar's dream of a united continent remained a distant aspiration amidst feuding warlords and national rivalries inherited from the colonial era. While he recovered from the assassination attempt, Bolivar received news of a rebellion in the province of Ecuador, formerly the colony of Quito. In December, he gathered up all his strength to lead an army 600 miles over the Andes and dispatched his young subordinate General José María Córdova to suppress the rebellion. At the same time, a Peruvian army had taken Guayaquil and threatened to make further progress before it was defeated by General Sucre at the Battle of Tarqui, who had accepted command of southern Colombia after being ousted as President of Bolivia in April 1828. While negotiating a peace treaty with Peru, Bolivar learned that Córdova had turned against him, although the rebellion was suppressed and its leader killed.

The disheartened Liberator vowed to resign the presidency at the Constitutional Congress scheduled for January 1830. In advance of the Congress, Paez declared independence for Venezuela from the Federation, prompting an exhausted Bolivar to recommend that the Greater Colombia be divided into three states Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. When the Congress met on the 20th of January, Bolivar announced his resignation from the presidency. though this was not accepted until the 27th of April. He was intent on going into exile in Europe, but throughout his career he refused to take any salary and gave away any monetary rewards, while his extensive estates had been ruined by a decade of war. His old comrades-in-arms in Venezuela stripped him of citizenship and his remaining property, while the new constitution established a minimum age of 40 for the new president.

Barring Bolivar's preferred successor Sucre from running for the office, Bolivar left Bogota on the 8th of May and struggled to find a ship that would take him across the Atlantic. As he waited, he received news that Sucre had been assassinated on the 4th of June while on his way from Bogota to Quito, and his grief over the death of his loyal friend further damaged his health. By October, he had trouble leaving his bed. though he was able to sail to Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast. With several doctors attending to him, he was moved to the nearby estate of a local Spanish landowner, where he died of tuberculosis on the 17th of December at the age of 47. During his final months, Bolivar had received invitations to return to Bogota to retake control.

He refused, not only on account of his poor physical health, but also the recognition that the country he established was impossible to govern, and the Republic of Greater Colombia would be dissolved in November 1831. Six new independent nations of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Bolivia, would emerge from the territories that he liberated from Spain. The liberator left behind a mixed legacy, combining military success with political failure. Over time, The people of South America forgot his political failure and his widespread unpopularity in his final years, and instead celebrated his exploits in liberating half a continent from Spanish colonial rule while promising liberty and social and racial equality. He was forced to compromise on these ideals by the military and political reality he faced, which prompted him to declare a war to the death against Spain and to exercise dictatorial powers to maintain political order.

Generations of South American leaders have attempted to claim Bolivar's legacy over the centuries, starting with President Páez of Venezuela, who ordered the liberator's body to be transferred from Santa Marta to the United States. to the Cathedral in Caracas in 1842. Three decades later, President Antonio Guzmán Blanco ordered for his remains to be reburied once again in the newly completed National Pantheon. More recently, in 1982, the Socialist Army officer Hugo Chávez founded the Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement, and despite a failed coup attempt in 1992, he swept to power in the presidential election of 1998. The following year, Chavez declared the Bolivarian Revolution, issuing a new constitution which renamed the state the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

What do you think of Simón Bolívar? Was he a great liberator, visionary leader, and military genius who enabled the peoples of South America to throw off Spanish colonial rule through a combination of inspired strategy, idealistic appeals, and sheer determination? Or was he a ruthless tyrant and dictator who violated his own laws, mishandled political disputes and denied his subjects the very liberties he had promised them? Please let us know in the comment section and in the meantime, thank you very much for watching.

Transcript for:Life and Legacy of Simón Bolívar

Transcript for:
Life and Legacy of Simón Bolívar