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SIMON BOLIVAR

Simon Bolivar ('The Liberator') was a Venezuelan patriot. He was born in 1783 at Caracas and died in 1830. Educated at Madrid, after travelling in Europe he returned to Caracas in 1801 and lived there until 1804 before, upon the death of his wife, revisiting Europe before returning to Venezuela via the USA in 1809 determined to make Venezuela an independent republic. Having joined the patriotic party among his countrymen he shared in the first unsuccessful efforts to throw off the Spanish yoke. In 1812 he joined the patriots of New Granada in their struggle, and having defeated the Spaniards in several actions he led a small force into his own country of Venezuela, and entered the capital, Caracas, as victor and liberator, on August the 4th, 1813.

But the success of the revolutionary party was not of long duration. Simon Bolivar was beaten by General Boves, and before the end of the year the royalists were again masters of Venezuela. Simon Bolivar next received from the Congress of New Granada the command of an expedition against Bogota, and after the successful transfer of the seat of government to that city retired to Jamaica.

Having again returned to Venezuela he was able to rout the royalists under Morillo, and, after a brilliant campaign, effected in 1819 a junction with the forces of the New Granada republic. The battle of Bojaca which followed gave him possession of Santa Fe and all New Granada, of which he was appointed president and captain-general. A law was now passed by which the Republics of Venezuela and New Granada were to be united in a single state, as the Republic of Colombia, and Bolivar was elected the first president.

In 1822 he went to the aid of Peru, and was made dictator, an office held by him until 1825, by which time the country had been completely freed from Spanish rule. In 1825 he visited Upper Peru, which formed itself into an independent republic named Bolivia, in honour of Simon Bolivar. In Colombia a civil war arose between his adherents and the faction opposed to him, but Simon Bolivar was confirmed in the presidency in 1826, and again in 1828, and continued to exercise the chief authority until May, 1830, when he resigned. He died at Carthagena on the 17th December, 1830. One of the departments of Colombia is named after him, as are also a state of the republic Venezuela, and the town Ciudad Bolivar.
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