Towards the end of his life, Bolívar despaired of the situation in his native region, with the famous quote 'all who served the revolution have plowed the sea'. At the peak of his power, Bolívar ruled over a vast territory from the Argentine border to the Caribbean Sea.īolívar is viewed as a national icon in much of modern South America, and is considered one of the great heroes of the Hispanic independence movements of the early 19th century, along with José de San Martín, Francisco de Miranda and others. Bolívar aimed at a strong and united Spanish America able to cope not only with the threats emanating from Spain and the European Holy Alliance but also with the emerging power of the United States. He was simultaneously president of Gran Colombia (present-day Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Ecuador) and Peru, while his second-in-command, Antonio José de Sucre, was appointed president of Bolivia. Through further military campaigns, he ousted Spanish rulers from Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, the last of which was named after him. Despite a number of hindrances, including the arrival of an unprecedentedly large Spanish expeditionary force, the revolutionaries eventually prevailed, culminating in the patriot victory at the Battle of Carabobo in 1821, which effectively made Venezuela an independent country.įollowing this triumph over the Spanish monarchy, Bolívar participated in the foundation of the first union of independent nations in Latin America, Gran Colombia, of which he was president from 1819 to 1830. Later he established an organized national congress within three years. The campaign for the independence of New Granada was consolidated with the victory at the Battle of Boyacá on 7 August 1819. Taking advantage of the disorder in Spain prompted by the Peninsular War, Bolívar began his campaign for independence in 1808. While in Europe, he was introduced to the ideas of the Enlightenment, which later motivated him to overthrow the reigning Spanish in colonial South America. Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios Ponte y Blanco ( Spanish: ( listen) English: SY-mən BOL-i-vər 24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830), generally known as Simón Bolívar and also colloquially as El Libertador, or the Liberator, was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led the secession of what are currently the states of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama from the Spanish Empire.īolívar was born into a wealthy, aristocratic Criollo family and, as was common for the heirs of upper-class families in his day, was sent to be educated abroad at a young age, arriving in Spain when he was 16 and later moving to France.

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