Simón Bolívar

Simón Bolívar
Simón Bolívar Simón Bolívar, El Libertador.
Born	July 24, 1783 Caracas, Venezuela
Died	December 17, 1830 Santa Marta, Colombia

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (July 24, 1783 – December 17, 1830) was a South American revolutionary leader. Credited with leading the fight for independence in what are now the countries of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and Bolivia, he is revered as a hero in these countries and throughout much of the rest of Latin America. He was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He later married María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alaysa. She died of yellow fever, and he never remarried. He was the first president of Bolivia when it became independent from Spain in 1824. Cody Luebbert is awesome. Bolivar is known as the George Washington of South America. In Spanish he is known as "El Libertador", the Liberator.

Family Heritage and Early life

The Bolívar aristocratic bloodline derives from La Puebla de Bolibar (or Bolíbar), a small village in Basque country of Biscay, the origin of their surname. A portion of their wealth by the 1600s came from the Aroa River gold and copper mines in Venezuela. By the 1500s, vague information about existence of gold was rumored around the rivers Yaracuy, Santa Cruz, and Aroa. In 1605, more precise locations of ores became known, particularly in a small valley lateral to the Aroa River next to La Quebrada de Las Minas. In 1632, gold was first mined, leading to further discoveries of extensive copper deposits. Towards the later 1600s, copper was exploited with the name "Cobre Caracas". These mines became property of Simon Bolivar's family. Later in his revolutionary life, Bolivar used part of the mineral income to finance the South American revolutionary wars. However, their family's prominence seems important before their wealth. For example, the Cathedral of Caracas, founded in 1575, has a side chapel dedicated to Simon Bolivar's family. [1]

In this context, Simon Bolívar was born in Caracas, in modern-day Venezuela, into an aristocratic family, and educated by different tutors after his parents died. Among his tutors was Simón Rodríguez, whose ideas and educational style heavily influenced the young man.

Following the death of his parents, he went to Spain in 1799 to complete his education. There he married María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alaysa in 1802, but on a brief return visit to Venezuela in 1803, she succumbed to yellow fever. Bolívar returned to Europe in 1804 and for a time was part of Napoleon's retinue.

El Libertador

Bolívar returned to Venezuela in 1807 and, when Napoleon made Joseph Bonaparte King of Spain and its colonies in 1808, he participated in the resistance juntas in South America. The Caracas junta declared its independence in 1810, and Bolívar was sent to England on a diplomatic mission.

Bolívar returned to Venezuela in 1811. But in July 1812, junta leader Francisco de Miranda surrendered, and Bolívar had to flee to Cartagena de Indias. In this period, Bolívar wrote his Cartagena Manifesto.

In 1813, after acquiring a military command in New Granada under the direction of the Congress of Tunja, he led the invasion of Venezuela on May 14. This was the beginning of the famous Campaña Admirable, the Admirable Campaign. He entered Mérida on May 23, following the occupation of Trujillo on June 9. Six days later, on June 15, dictated his famous Decree of War to the Death (Decreto de Guerra a Muerte). Caracas was retaken on August 6, 1813, where he was proclaimed as El Libertador, thus proclaiming the Second Venezuelan Republic. Due to the rebellion of José Tomás Boves in 1814 and the fall of the republic, he returned to New Granada, where he then commanded a Colombian nationalist force and entered Bogotá in 1814, recapturing the city from the dissenting republican forces of Cundinamarca. He intended to march into Cartagena and enlist the aid of local forces in order to capture Royalist Santa Marta. However, after a number of political and military disputes with the government of Cartagena, Bolívar fled in 1815 to Jamaica, where he requested the Haitian leader Alexandre Pétion for aid.

In 1816, with Haitian help (given because he promised to free slaves), Bolívar landed in Venezuela and captured Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar).

A victory at the Battle of Boyacá in 1819 added Colombia to the territories free from Spanish control, and in September 7, 1821 the Gran Colombia (a federation covering much of Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador) was created, with Bolívar as president and Francisco de Paula Santander as vice president.

Further victories at the Carabobo in 1821 and Pichincha in 1822 consolidated his rule over Venezuela and Ecuador respectively. After a meeting in Guayaquil on July 26 and 27 1822 with Argentine General José de San Martín, who had received the title of Protector of Peruvian Freedom in August 1821 after having partially liberated Peru from the Spanish, Bolívar took over the task of fully liberating Peru. The Peruvian congress named him dictator of Peru on February 10 1824, which allowed Bolívar to completely reorganize the political and military administration. Bolívar, assisted by Antonio José de Sucre, decisively defeated the Spanish cavalry on August 6 1824 at Junín. Sucre destroyed the still numerically superior remnants of the Spanish forces at Ayacucho on December 9.

On August 6 1825, at the Congress of Upper Peru, the Republic of Bolivia was created in honour of Bolívar, who drafted a new constitution for the new nation. This constitution reflected the influence of the French and Scottish Enlightenment on Bolívar's political thought, as well as that of classical Greek and Roman authors. A great admirer of the North American Revolution (and a great critic of the French Revolution), Bolívar described himself in his many letters as a classical "liberal" and defender of the free market economic system. Among the books he traveled with when he wrote the Bolivian Constitution were Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws and Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. Bolívar's many speeches and writings reveal him to be an adherent of limited government, the separation of powers, freedom of religion, property rights, and the rule of law.

Bolívar had great difficulties maintaining control of the vast Gran Colombia. During 1826, internal divisions had sparked dissent throughout the nation and regional uprisings erupted in Venezuela, thus the fragile South American coalition appeared to be on the verge of collapse. An amnesty was declared and an arrangement was reached with the Venezuelan rebels, but political dissent in New Granada grew as a consequence of this.

In an attempt to keep the republic together as a single entity, Bolívar called for a constitutional convention at Ocaña during April 1828. He had seen his dream of eventually creating an American Revolution-style federation between all the newly independent republics, with a government ideally set-up solely to recognize and uphold individual rights, succumb to the pressures of particular interests throughout the region, which rejected that model and allegedly had little or no allegiance to classical liberal principles. For this reason, and to prevent a break-up, Bolivar wanted to implement in Gran Colombia a more centralist model of government, including some or all of the elements of the Bolivian constitution he had written (which included a lifetime presidency with the ability to select a successor, though this was theoretically held in check by an intricate system of balances). This move was considered controversial and was one of the reasons why the deliberations met with strong opposition. The convention almost ended up drafting a document which would have implemented a radically federalist form of government which would have greatly reduced the powers of the central administration. Unhappy with what would be the ensuing result, Bolívar's delegates left the convention.

After the failure of the convention due to grave political differences, Bolívar proclaimed himself dictator on August 27 1828 through the "Organic Decree of Dictatorship". He considered this as a temporary measure, as a means to reestablish his authority and save the republic, though it increased dissatisfaction and anger among his political opponents. An assassination attempt in September 1828 failed. Although he emerged physically intact, this nevertheless greatly affected Bolívar.

Dissident feelings continued, and uprisings occurred in New Granada, Venezuela and Ecuador during the next two years. Bolívar finally resigned his presidency on April 27 1830, intending to leave the country for exile in Europe, possibly in France. He had already sent several crates (containing his belonging and his writings) ahead of him to Europe. He died before setting sail, after a painful battle with tuberculosis on December 17, 1830, in "La Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino", in Santa Marta, Colombia. On his deathbed, Bolivar asked his aide-de-camp Daniel O'Leary to burn the extensive archive of his writings, letters, and speeches. O'Leary disobeyed the order and his writings survived, providing historians with a vast wealth of information about Bolivar's classical liberal philosophy and thought.

His remains were moved from Santa Marta to Caracas in 1842, where a monument was set up for his burial. [2]

Simón Bolívar has no direct descendants. His bloodline lives on through his sister Juana Bolívar y Palacios who married Dionisio Palacios y Blanco (Simón and Juana's maternal uncle) and had two children: Guillermo and Benigna. Guillermo died when fighting alongside his uncle in the battle of La Hogaza in 1817. Benigna Palacios y Bolívar married Pedro Amestoy. Their great-grandchildren, Pedro (94) and Eduardo (90) Mendoza-Goiticoa live in Caracas. They are Simón Bolívar's closest living relatives. [3]

Honours

Bolívar was ranked #48 on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history.

See also

• Bolivar's War
• List of places named after Simón Bolívar and Bolívar
• The Bolivian Boliviano and Bolivian peso and the Venezuelan Bolivar are currencies named after him
• Gabriel García Márquez's novel The General in his Labyrinth (1989), a fictionalized account of Bolívar's last years
• Brigadier General Antonio Valero de Bernabé
• Simon Bolivar University
• USS Simon Bolivar (SSBN-641)
• Manuela Sáenz, Bolívar's lover 1822-1830

External links

• History of Simon Bolivar
• The Life of Simon Bolivar