On July 24, 1783, Latin American revolutionary and liberator Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas, in what is now
Venezuela then a Spanish Colony. During his lifetime, Bolivar
became known as ‘
El Libertador’ or the Liberator through big instrumental in helping countries such as
Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia all achieve independence.
Bolivar acted as a political dictator, but to some extent helped lay
the foundations of democracy in Latin America. From 1819 to 1830 he
served as president of the Hispanic-American republic known as Gran
Colombia.
His family came from a long line of wealthy Spanish aristocrats and
businessmen on both sides. His father, Colonel Juan Vicente Bolívar y
Ponte, and his mother, Doña María de la Concepción Palacios y Blanco,
inherited vast swaths of land, money, and resources. The Bolívar family
fields were labored over by the Native American and African slaves that
they owned.
Little Simón Bolívar was petulant and spoiled , though in fairness he had suffered
great personal tragedy. His father died of tuberculosis when he was three, and
his mother died from the same disease about six years later. Because of
this, Bolívar was mostly cared for by his grandfather, aunts and uncles,
and the family’s longtime slave, Hipólita.
Hipólita was doting and patient with the mischievous Bolívar, and
Bolívar unabashedly referred to her as the woman “whose milk sustained
my life” and “the only father I have ever known.”
Soon after his mother died, Simón Bolívar’s grandfather passed away,
too, leaving Bolívar and his older brother, Juan Vicente, to inherit the
enormous fortune of one of Venezuela’s most prominent families.
His grandfather’s will appointed Bolívar’s uncle Carlos as the boy’s
new guardian, but Carlos was lazy and ill-tempered, unfit to raise
children or command such a mountain of wealth.
Without adult supervision, Bolívar had the freedom
to do as he pleased. He subsequently ignored his studies and spent much of his time
roaming around Caracas with other children his age.
At the time, Caracas was on the cusp of a serious upheaval.
Twenty-six thousand more black slaves were brought to Caracas from
Africa, and the city’s mixed-race population was growing as a result of
the inevitable intermingling of white Spanish colonizers, black slaves,
and native peoples.
There was growing racial tension in the South American colonies,
since the color of one’s skin was deeply tied to one’s civil rights and
social class. By the time Bolívar reached his teens, half of Venezuela’s
population was descended from slaves.
Underneath all of that racial tension, a yearning for freedom began
to simmer. South America was ripe for rebellion against Spanish
imperialism.
Bolívar’s family, although one of the wealthiest in Venezuela, was
subject to class-based discrimination as a result of being “Creole” — a
term used to describe those of white Spanish descent who were born in
the colonies.
By the late 1770s, Spain’s Bourbon regime had enacted several
anti-Creole laws, robbing the Bolívar family of certain privileges only
afforded to Spaniards born in Europe.
Still, being born into an upper-crest family, Simón Bolívar had the
luxury of travel. At age 15, the heir apparent to his family’s
plantations, he went to Spain to learn about empire, commerce, and
administration.
In Madrid, Bolívar first stayed with his uncles, Esteban and Pedro Palacios.
“He has absolutely no education, but he has the will and intelligence
to acquire one,” Esteban wrote of his new charge. “And even though he
spent quite a bit of money in transit, he landed here a complete mess….I
am very fond of him.”
Bolívar wasn’t the most considerate guest, to say the least; he
burned through his uncles’s modest pensions. And so he soon found a more
suitable patron, the marquis of Uztáriz, another Venezuelan who became
young Bolívar’s de facto tutor and father figure and taught Bolívar math, science, and philosophy.
In 1803, Simón Bolívar returned to Europe and witnessed the coronation
of Napoleon Bonaparte as the King of Italy. The history-making event
left a lasting impression on Bolívar and gave rise to his interest in
politics.
For three years,, with his most trusted tutor Don Simon Rodriguez, who
taught the young Bolivar about the ideals of liberty, enlightenment and
freedom.He also studied the works of European political thinkers, from liberal
Enlightenment philosophers like John Locke and Montesquieu to the
Romantics, namely Jean-Jacques Rousseau. When he was 14, his mentor Rodriguez had to flee the country
because he was under suspicion of plotting against the Spanish rulers.
Bolivar entered the military academy Milicias de Veraguas, where he
developed a passion for military strategy.
In 1799, he travelled to Europe to complete his education. Whilst in
Madrid, he met María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y
Alayza, a half-Spanish, half-Venezuelan woman two years Bolívar’s
senior.
They had a passionate, two-year courtship in Madrid before finally
getting married in 1802. The newly wed Simón Bolívar, 18 and ready to
take over his rightful inheritance, returned to Venezuela with his new
bride in tow.
But the quiet family life he envisioned would never become. Just six
months after arriving in Venezuela, María Teresa succumbed to a fever
and died.
Bolívar was devastated. Though he enjoyed many other lovers in his
lifetime after María Teresa’s death,,most notably Manuela Sáenz who would later save him from an assassination attempt. María
Teresa would be his only wife.
Later, the renowned general credited his career change from
businessman to politician to the loss of his wife, as many years later
Bolívar confided to one of his commanding generals: “If I were not widowed, my life would have maybe been different; I would not be the General Bolívar nor the Libertador….When
I was with my wife, my head was filled only with the most ardent love,
not with political ideas….The death of my wife placed me early in the
road of politics, and caused me to follow the chariot of Mars.”
Bolivar moved to Paris, where he continued to read the great enlightenment thinkers of Europe, which had an important influence on his political beliefs.Through his own unique interpretations of all of these writings,
Bolívar became a Classical Republican, believing that the interests of
the nation were more important than the interests or rights of the
individual (hence his dictatorial leadership style later in life). He alo became
enamoured of the ideals and vision of the American and French
revolutions. Also, it was in Europe, that the idea of gaining
independence for Latin American countries became an aspiration. He met
Alexander von Humboldt who had recently spent five years in south
America, he remarked to Bolivar:
“I believe that your country is ready for its independence. But I can not see the man who is to achieve it.”
This
thought stayed with Bolivar and on a visit to Rome, at the top of
Aventine Hill, he made a celebrated vow that he would not rest until his
fatherland had been liberated from Spain.
Whilst in Paris he witnessed the coronation of Napoleon..
Bolivar was mostly impressed with Napoleon and felt that Latin America
needed a similar strong leader. Unlike the United States, he worried
that Latin America lacked the education and strength to cope with full
liberty.
In 1807, Bolivar returned to Venezuela via the United States. He
found that the Spanish colonies were increasingly agitating for
independence. When a triumphant Napoleon deposed the Spanish Royal
family from political power, people in south America saw it as an
opportunity to assert their independence from Spain. Bolivar became
heavily involved in the movement for independence and in 1810, he was
chosen to go on a mission to Britain to seek military and financial
support in their campaign for independence but his mission was a failure. He returned to Venezuela, " Let us banish fear and
lay the foundation stone of American liberty. To hesitate is to perish,”
he proclaimed on July 4, 1811, America’s independence day.
Venezuela declared independence the next day but the republic would be short-lived.
Perhaps counter-intuitively, many of Venezuela’s poor and non-white
people hated the republic. The nation’s constitution kept slavery and a
strict racial hierarchy completely intact, and voting rights were
confined to property owners. Plus, the Catholic masses resented the
Enlightenment’s atheistic philosophy.
On top of public resentment toward the new order, a devastating
series of earthquakes toppled Caracas and Venezuela’s coastal cities, quite literally. A massive uprising against the junta of Caracas spelled the end for the Venezuelan republic.
Simón Bolívar fled Venezuela , earning safe passage to Cartagena by
turning in Francisco de Miranda to the Spanish, an act that would
forever live in infamy.
From his tiny post on the Magdalena River, in the words of historian
Emil Ludwig, Bolívar began “his march of liberation there and then, with
his troop of two hundred half-caste Negroes and Indios…without any
certainty of reinforcement, without guns…without orders.”
He followed the river, recruiting along the way, taking town after
town mostly without combat, and eventually gained full control of the
waterway. Simón Bolívar continued his march, leaving the river basin to
cross the Andes mountains to take back Venezuela.
On May 23, 1813, he entered the mountain city of Mérida, where he was greeted as El Libertador, or The Liberator.
In what is still considered one of the most remarkable and dangerous
feats in military history, Simón Bolívar marched his army over the
highest peaks of the Andes, out of Venezuela and into modern-day
Colombia.
It was a gruelling climb that cost many lives to bitter cold. The army
lost every horse it had brought, and much of its munitions and
provisions. One of Bolivar’s commanders, General Daniel O’Leary,
recounted that after descending the far side of the highest summit “the
men saw the mountains behind them…they swore of their own free will to
conquer and die rather than retreat by the way they had come.”
Bolívar also sought to unify Peru and Bolivia, which was named after
the great general, into Gran Colombia through the Confederation of the
Andes. But after years of political infighting, including a failed
attempt on his life, Simón Bolívar’s efforts to unify the continent
under a single banner government collapsed.
With his soaring rhetoric and unflappable energy, Simón Bolívar had
roused his army to survive the impossible march. O’Leary writes of the
“boundless astonishment of the Spaniards when they heard that an enemy
army was in the land. They simply could not believe that Bolivar had
undertaken such an operation.”
But though he had earned his stripes on the battlefield, Bolívar’s
wealthy status as a white Creole at times worked against his cause,
especially compared to the fierce Spanish cavalry leader named José
Tomás Boves who successfully amassed support from native Venezuelans to
“squelch the people of privilege, to level the classes.”
Those loyal to Boves only saw that “the Creoles who lorded over them
were rich and white…they hadn’t understood the true pyramid of
oppression,” beginning at the top with imperial colonialism. Many
natives were against Bolívar due to his privilege, and in spite of his
efforts to liberate them.
In December 1813, Bolívar defeated Boves in an intense battle at
Araure, but “simply couldn’t recruit soldiers as quickly and effectively
as [Boves],” according to biographer Marie Arana. Bolívar lost Caracas
soon afterward, and fled the continent.
He went to Jamaica, where he wrote his famous political manifesto
known simply as the Jamaica Letter. Then, after surviving an
assassination attempt, Bolívar fled to Haiti, where he was able to raise
money, arms, and volunteers.
In Haiti, he finally realized the necessity of attracting poor and
black Venezuelans to his side of the fight for independence. As
Cañizares-Esguerra points out, “this isn’t due to principle, it’s his
pragmatism that is moving him to undo slavery.” Without the support of
slaves, he had no chance of ousting the Spanish.
In 1816, he returned to Venezuela, with support from the Haitian
government, and launched a six-year campaign for independence. This
time, the rules were different: All slaves would be liberated and all
Spaniards would be killed.
Thus, Bolívar liberated enslaved people by destroying the social
order. Tens of thousands were slaughtered and the economies of Venezuela
and modern-day Colombia crumbled. But, in his eyes, it was all worth
it. What mattered was that South America would be free from imperial
rule.
He pushed on to Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bolivia (which is named
after him), and dreamt of uniting his newly liberated territory,
essentially all of northern and western South America ,as one massive
country ruled by him. But, once again, the dream would never fully
materialize.
On Aug. 7, 1819, Bolívar’s army descended the mountains and defeated a
much larger, well-rested, and utterly surprised Spanish army. It was
far from the final battle, but historians recognize Boyaca as the most
essential victory, setting the stage for the future victories by Simón
Bolívar or his subordinate generals at Carabobo, Pichincha, and Ayacucho
that would finally drive the Spanish out of the Latin American western
states.
Having reflected and learned from earlier political failures, Simón
Bolívar began to piece together a government. Bolívar arranged for the
election of the Congress of Angostura and was declared president. Then,
through the Constitution of Cúcuta, Gran Colombia was established on
Sept. 7, 1821.
Gran Colombia was a united South American state that included the
territories of modern-day Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, parts of
northern Peru, western Guyana, and northwestern Brazil.
On Jan. 30, 1830, Simón Bolívar made his last address as president of
Gran Colombia in which he pled with his people to maintain the union:
“Colombians! Gather around the constitutional congress.
It represents the wisdom of the nation, the legitimate hope of the
people, and the final point of reunion of the patriots. Its sovereign
decrees will determine our lives, the happiness of the Republic, and the
glory of Colombia. If dire circumstances should cause you to abandon
it, there will be no health for the country, and you will drown in the
ocean of anarchy, leaving as your children’s legacy nothing but crime,
blood, and death.”
Gran Colombia was dissolved later that year and replaced by the
independent and separate republics of Venezuela, Ecuador, and New
Granada. The self-governing states of South America, once a unified
force under the leadership of Simón Bolívar, would be fraught with civil
unrest through much of the 19th century. More than six rebellions would
disrupt Bolívar’s home country of Venezuela.
As for Bolívar, the former general had planned to spend his last days
in exile in Europe, but passed away before he could set sail. Simón
Bolívar died of tuberculosis on Dec. 17, 1830, in the coastal city of
Santa Marta in present-day Colombia . He was only 47 years old.
Bolivar had wished to be buried in
Caracas. But the new leaders of Venezuela called him a tyrant and
refused his body. He was buried in
Colombia, abandoned by friends and
hated by enemies. Most of his enlightened reforms were soon forgotten.
This rejection of the Liberator
did not last long. In 1842, he was
reburied in Caracas.
Simón Bolívar is often referred to as the “George Washington of South
America” because of the similarities the two great leaders shared. They
were both rich, charismatic, and were key figures in the fight for
freedom in the Americas. But the two were very different.
“Unlike Washington, who suffered excruciating pain from rotten
dentures,” says Cañizares-Esguerra, “Bolívar kept to his death a
wholesome set of teeth.”
But more importantly, “Bolívar did not end his days revered and
worshiped like Washington. Bolívar died on his way to self-imposed
exile, despised by many.”
He thought that a single, centralized,
dictatorial government was what South America needed to survive
independent from European powers ,not the decentralized, democratic
government of the United States. But it didn’t work.
During his lifetime, he was both revered for his firebrand rhetoric
promoting a free and united Latin America, and reviled for his
tyrannical proclivities. Despite his notoriety, Bolívar did have a leg up on the U.S. in at
least one respect: He freed South America’s slaves nearly 50 years
before Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Jefferson wrote that
“all men are created equal” while owning dozens of slaves, whereas
Bolívar set all of his slaves free.
While Bolívar didn't act alone, he was clearly the catalyst and "cult of
personality" behind the 19th-century liberation movement that won
independence for six Latin American nations:Venezuela , Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Bolivia.
Unlike Washington, Bolívar died a failure. In 1830, deprived of his
office and military commission, Bolívar was about to go into
self-imposed exile when he succumbed to tuberculosis. His political
enemies, then in charge of Venezuela, outlawed even the mention of his
name.
And that's the way it remained until the 1870s, when a new generation of Venezuelan elites went looking for political
symbols that would rally supporters to their cause. The late 19th-century Venezuelan President Antonio Guzmán Blanco is credited with
reviving the " cult of Bolivar."
Guzmán
Blanco created the modern Venezuelan currency and named it the bolívar.
He also built the National Pantheon of Venezuela and had Bolívar's
remains reinterred in its hall of heroes.
Simón Bolívar remains the most celebrated historical figure in South
America today, particularly in the countries he liberated. As a result,
the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Plurinational State of
Bolivia both bear his name, as do their Bolívar and Boliviano currencies
as well as an endless array of parks and plazas throughout the
continent and 24th July is celebrated as Simon Bolivar day across Latin America.
His fame has continued to grow to mythical proportions and continues to inspire millions in Latin America, especially the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as well as Colombian revolutionary Simon Trinidad currently political prisoner of the U.S held in solitary confinement in the "Guanantanemo of the Rockies" or Florence Colorado Supermax Prison.
Bolivar maintained the fight against Spain when all appeared hopeless and he did not give up until he had overcome all the obstacles on the road to liberation and independence, He called himself "the man of difficulties ," and in truth he was that. Bolivar's greatest political mistake was hi failure to recognise the forces of nationalism which were soon to vitalize the Latin American countries. His desire to give his world a firm and stable foundations were justified even if his methods were erroneous, Latin America has continued to foster pronunciamentos and revolutions in confirmation of Bolivar's mot sombre apprehensions, Since Bolivar passed into history, South America has not produced his equal.
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