Simón Bolívar

Early life

Following the death of his parents, he went to Spain in 1799 to complete his education. In Spain 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 1811.
But in July 1812, junta leader Francisco de Miranda surrendered, and Bolívar had to flee to Cartagena de Indias. From there, Bolívar wrote his Cartagena Manifesto.

In 1813 he led the invasion of Venezuela. He entered Merida on May 23 and was proclaimed El Libertador ("liberator"). Caracas was recaptured on August 6, 1813, and the second Venezuelan republic was proclaimed. He then commanded a Colombian nationalist force and captured Bogotá in 1814. However, after a number of military setbacks, Bolívar fled in 1815 to Jamaica, where he petitioned the Haitian leader Alexandre Pétion for aid.

In 1816, with Haitian help, Bolívar returned to the fight, landing in Venezuela and capturing Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar).

A victory at Boyacá in 1819 added Colombia to the territories free of Spanish control, and in December Bolívar created Gran Colombia (a federation covering much of Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador) with himself as president.

Further victories at Carabobo in 1821 and Pichincha in 1822 consolidated his rule.
In 1822 he took over Peru, after Argentine General José de San Martín resigned from the title Protector of Peruvian Freedom in July 1821, having partially liberated Peru from the Spanish. Bolívar was named president on September 10, 1821. Bolívar, assisted by Antonio José de Sucre decisively defeated the Spanish in August 1824 at Junín. Sucre destroyed the remnants of the Spanish forces at Ayacucho in December.

In August 1825, at the Congress of Upper Peru the Republic of Bolivia was created in honour of Bolívar. But at home, Bolivar had great difficulties maintaining control of the vast Gran Colombia. By 1827, internal divisions had sparked wars, and the fragile South American coalition collapsed. Bolívar resigned his presidency in 1828 and died from tuberculosis on December 17, 1830, in "La Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino", in Santa Marta, Colombia.

See also