Simón Bolívar

I

Introduction

Simón Bolívar (1783-1830), South American revolutionary, military leader, and politician known as the Liberator for his leading role in the wars of Spanish American Independence. More than anyone else, Bolívar was responsible for the independence of five countries: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Despite his success in leading these nations to independence, Bolívar never achieved his goal of creating a federation of Spanish American nations, and he died an unpopular figure because of his attempts to establish strong central governments in the nations he led to independence. Today most Spanish Americans hold Bolívar in high regard for his role as a leader of independence (see Latin American Independence).

II

Childhood and Education

Bolívar was born Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar on July 24, 1783 in Caracas, which was then the capital of the Spanish colony of Venezuela. The Bolívars were creoles, Spaniards born in the colonies. They had been in Venezuela since the 16th century, amassing a large fortune based on landed estates, mines, and urban property. Although born to great advantage, Simón Bolívar was not destined to live a charmed life. His father died when he was only three years old, and his mother died when he was nine. Relatives raised the orphaned Bolívar and provided him with tutors to oversee his education.

During his early years, Bolívar had remarkable tutors. The most influential was Simón Rodríguez, who instilled in him the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, which placed great emphasis on reason, science, and a respect for humanity. In 1799 his family sent Bolívar to Spain to complete his education. He was in Spain only a short while before he fell in love with María Teresa Rodríguez de Toro. They were married in 1802 and took up residence on one of Bolívar's estates in Venezuela, the hacienda at San Mateo. There he spent the happiest days of his life, but these were to be only a few, because María Teresa died of a fever in January 1803. Simón Bolívar would never marry again.

After the death of his bride, Bolívar returned to Spain and then on to France. In Paris Bolívar met his former tutor, Simón Rodríguez. While there, he witnessed the coronation of French emperor Napoleon I, which marked the end of France’s first attempt at republican government. Disgusted with the elaborate coronation ceremony, Bolívar journeyed to Italy with Rodríguez. In Rome he vowed to liberate Venezuela from Spanish rule. Bolívar then traveled to France and the United States, arriving back in Venezuela in February 1807. He was 23 years old. During the next several years Simón Bolívar lived the life of a wealthy colonial aristocrat, tending to his estates and other investments. Nevertheless, he spoke openly and often about the need and benefits of independence from Spain.

---

---

III

First Attempts at Independence

The movement for independence in Spain’s American colonies gained strength as a result of developments in Europe. In 1808 Napoleon ousted and imprisoned King Ferdinand VII of Spain. Colonial leaders in Caracas formed a junta—a governing council—to rule Venezuela in the name of the deposed king. However, for all practical purposes, the junta functioned as an independent government. Its members refused to recognize the authority of Napoleon’s colonial administrators or of a regent council that royalists in Spain created to govern Ferdinand’s empire.

The junta granted Bolívar the rank of lieutenant colonel in the militia and sent him to Britain in an unsuccessful attempt to win British support for the junta. In Britain, Bolívar met with Francisco de Miranda, a Venezuelan who was the most widely known advocate of independence for Spain’s American colonies. Bolívar invited Miranda back to Venezuela. They arrived at the end of 1810. Miranda quickly became the leading figure of the independence movement.

On July 5, 1811, Venezuela became the first of Spain’s American colonies to declare its independence. Despite calls from Miranda and Bolívar for the creation of a strong central government, the Republic’s new constitution adopted a federalist approach, granting considerable autonomy to local governments within the nation. It also divided executive authority among three men. Venezuela's First Republic lasted only one year. In March 1812 royalists—Venezuelan supporters of King Ferdinand—began a revolt in the west. The junta gave Bolívar command of the strategic coastal town of Puerto Cabello, which he lost in early July. Revolutionary forces surrendered to the royalists later in the month.

A

Defeat and Exile

In defeat, Bolívar made his way to Cartagena in New Granada (now Colombia), where he issued the Cartagena Manifesto (1812), a public statement giving his views on how to achieve independence. Bolívar argued the need for a professional military in place of the more informal militia units. He also advocated strong central governments. Bolívar attributed the fall of Venezuela's First Republic partly to its federalist constitution, which he felt had given too much power to regional governments at the expense of the central government. Forever after he would favor strong central governments.

In New Granada, independence leaders appointed Bolívar an officer in the army. In early 1813, at the head of a small army, he set out to retake Caracas. On August 6, 1813, Bolívar entered the city in triumph, establishing Venezuela’s Second Republic with himself as dictator. A congress named Bolívar El Libertador (the Liberator).

Bolívar’s forces controlled only a small portion of Venezuela surrounding Caracas. Various factions controlled the rest of the country. The most powerful opposition came from a royalist, José Tomás Boves, who controlled the central plains of Venezuela with the support of the llaneros, the rugged cowboys who lived on the plains. In June 1814 Boves roundly defeated Bolívar’s forces and took Caracas. Bolívar fled to Cartagena. Determined to continue the struggle for independence, he led a military expedition that captured Bogotá, the current capital of Colombia, in December 1814.

At this juncture events in Spain greatly altered the direction of Spanish American struggle for independence. In February 1814 Ferdinand VII regained the throne of Spain, and a year later he sent a large army to Venezuela. The royalist army entered Caracas in May 1815. Bolívar fled to a self-imposed exile in Jamaica.

	More from Encarta
	•  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain