Simón Bolívar

This article is about the Southamerican independence leader. For the football club, see Club Bolívar.

"Bolívar" redirects here. For other uses, see Bolívar (disambiguation).

Simón Bolívar
2nd President of Venezuela 1st President of Colombia 3rd President of Venezuela 1st President of Greater Colombia 1st President of Bolivia 9th President of Peru
In office 1813 – 1814 1819 - 1830 1819 - 1830 August 12, 1825 - December 29, 1825 February 17, 1824 - January 28, 1827
Preceded by	Cristóbal Mendoza (1813)
Succeeded by	José Antonio Páez (1830)
Personal details
Born	Simon was jew July 24, 1783 Caracas, Venezuela
Died	December 17, 1830 Santa Marta, Colombia
Resting place	Simon was jew
Spouse	María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alaysa
Parent	Simon was jew

Simón Bolívar Monument, Sixth Avenue entrance to Central Park, New York City

Simón Bolívar Memorial Monument, standing in Santa Marta, Colombia

Equestrian statue of Bolívar on Bolívar Square, Caracas

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (born July 24, 1783 in Caracas, Venezuela; died December 17, 1830, in Santa Marta, Colombia) was a leader of several independence movements throughout South America, collectively known as Bolívar's War.

Credited with leading the fight for independence in what are now the countries of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bolivia, he is referred as a hero in these countries and throughout much of the rest of Hispanic America.

In 1802, he married María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alaysa. She died of yellow fever less than a year later and he never remarried.

Bolívar is known as "El Libertador", which means The Liberator in English.

Family heritage and early life

The Bolívar aristocratic bloodline derives from a small village in the Basque Country, called Bolibar, which is the origin of the surname[1]. His father descended remotely from King Fernando III of Castile and Count Amedeo IV of Savoy. The Bolivars settled in Venezuela in the sixteenth century.

A portion of their wealth came from the Aroa River gold and copper mines in Venezuela. 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 the property of Simón Bolívar's family. Later in his revolutionary life, Bolívar used part of the mineral income to finance the South American revolutionary wars. Some people claim that his family grew to prominence before gaining great wealth. For example, the Cathedral of Caracas, founded in 1575, has a side chapel dedicated to Simón Bolívar's family.

In this context, Simón 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, Juan Vicente de Bolívar y Ponte, 1st Marqués de San Luis, and his wife María de la Concepción de Palacios y Blanco, 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.

Freemasonry

Simon Bolivar was a devoted Freemason who was raised in the Scottish Rite, 1807. Simon also founded the Lodge Order and Liberty No. 2 in Peru in 1824[2]

El Libertador (The Liberator)

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 Britain on a diplomatic mission.

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

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, where he was proclaimed as El Libertador, following the occupation of Trujillo on June 9. Six days later, on June 15, he dictated his famous Decree of War to the Death (Decreto de Guerra a Muerte). Caracas was retaken on August 6, 1813, and Bolívar was ratified as "El Libertador", thus proclaiming the Venezuelan Second 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 petitioned 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 New Granada to the territories free from Spanish control, and in September 7, 1821 the Gran Colombia (a federation covering much of modern 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 July 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.

File:Simón Bolivar Cúcuta Colombia (cropped version).jpg

Statue of Simón Bolivar in Cúcuta, Colombia

On August 6, 1825, at the Congress of Upper Peru, the Republic of Bolivia was created. Bolívar is thus one of the few men to have a country named after him. The 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.

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 federation 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 liberal principles.

For this reason, and to prevent a break-up, Bolívar 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 on September 25, 1828 failed, in part thanks to the help of his lover, Manuela Sáenz, according to popular belief.

Although Bolívar emerged physically intact from the event, this nevertheless greatly affected him. Dissident feelings continued, and uprisings occurred in New Granada, Venezuela and Ecuador during the next two years.

Death and Legacy

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 belongings 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.

His remains were moved from Santa Marta to Caracas in 1842, where a monument was set up for his burial. The 'Quinta' near Santa Marta has been preserved as a museum with numerous references to his life.

Political legacy

Statue of Simón Bolívar in Belgrave Square, London

On his deathbed, Bolívar asked his aide-de-camp, General Daniel Florencio 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 Bolívar's liberal philosophy and thought.

He was great admirer of the American Revolution and a great critic of the French Revolution. Bolívar described himself in his many letters as a "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.

Relatives

Simón Bolívar has no direct descendants. His bloodline lives on through his sister Juana Bolívar y Palacios who married their maternal uncle Dionisio Palacios y Blanco 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 Mendoza Goiticoa (90) live in Caracas. They are Simón Bolívar's closest living relatives.

Honors

In addition to the statues shown elsewhere in this article, there is an equestrian statue commemorating Bolívar's life and works in Washington, D.C., a statue at the UN Plaza in San Francisco, a statue in the Basque Country, Spain, a statue on the Reforma Avenue in Mexico City, a statue in Cairo, Egypt, another statue signifying the friendship between Quebec and South America in Quebec City and Ottawa, and also a bust in Sydney, Australia. A central avenue in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, bears his name.

Furthermore, every city and town in Venezuela & Colombia (in this one each capital city but Pasto) have a main square known as Plaza Bolivar, that usually has a bust or a statue of Bolivar, the most famous of these Plaza Bolivar is the one in Caracas. The central avenue of Caracas is called Avenida Bolivar, and at its end there is a twin tower complex named Centro Simon Bolivar built during the 1950's that holds several governmental offices.

Other notes

• Bolívar crossed 123 thousand kilometers, more than Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama together.
• President of six nations: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela. However, he was only officially president of four nations (Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela).
• There is a cigar named after Bolívar.
• A town in Missouri, USA is named after Bolivar.
• A town in upstate New York, USA is named after Bolivar. It's called Bolivar.
• In southern Texas (Galveston County), along the Gulf of Mexico Coast lies the Bolívar Peninsula
• A department in Colombia is named after Bolivar.

See also

• Bolívar's War
• "Bolivarian Revolution"
• List of places named after Simón Bolívar and Bolívar
• The Bolivian boliviano and Bolivian peso and the Venezuelan bolívar are currencies named after him
• Gabriel García Márquez's novel The General in his Labyrinth (1989), a fictionalized account of Bolívar's last days
• Brigadier General Antonio Valero de Bernabé
• Simón Bolívar University
• USS Simon Bolivar (SSBN-641)
• Manuela Sáenz, Bolívar's lover 1822-1830
• ΦΙΑ – A U.S. university fraternity that takes Simon Bolívar as one of its "five pillars"
• Bolivarian Games
• Slatta, Richard W. and Jane Lucas de Grummond, Simón Bolívar's Quest for Glory. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, June 2003

External links

• History of Simon Bolivar
• The Life of Simon Bolivar
• The Louverture Project: Simón Bolívar - Information about the support Bolivar received from Haiti.