Dying for your ideas like Simon Bolivar
When Simon Bolivar died in 1830 of the tuberculosis who had been killing him little by little for years, he was a lonely man, without a title, a fortune, or a name. And yet, we are talking about the same Simon Bolivar who freed 5 Latin American countries 20 years earlier, who gave his name to one of these countries, and who is still today unanimously adulated by the inhabitants of South America.
Known as “El Libertador” and self-proclaimed “the man of difficulties”, the Venezuelan revolutionary has experienced everything, from wealth to misery, from glory to ridicule.
His portrait is today romanticized and what is left are only the great liberations and his attraction for democracy. But Bolivar’s life has long been that of a loser who suffered from failures throughout his career.
The hopes of a free Venezuela
After two trips in Europe on behalf of the army, Bolivar returned to Venezuela in 1805 with political ideas in his head. He was very inspired by the French revolution and by Napoleon’s coronation, which he attended, and decided to join the discussion circles of Caracas. At the same time, he was managing the family business. He became the owner of the latter because of his parents’ death during his childhood who left behind a huge inheritance.
When the French emperor invaded Spain in 1808, Bolivar was 25 years old. Since the Spanish crown was very weakened, juntas multiplied in Venezuela and in all of South America where the governments in place fell one after the other. Bolivar soon joined the ranks of one of the juntas and was appointed Lieutenant General. Unfortunately, Miranda’s incompetence as head of this political assembly and the overall inexperience of the republic led to the fall of the regime in 1812, to the benefit of the Spanish crown, which recovered control of the country.
In 1813, he returned triumphantly to Caracas after sowing discord inland and defeating the Spanish troops with only an army of 1000 men. Once again, his dream will be short-lived. After massive requisitions, particularly against the clergy, and the cold executions of hundreds of Spaniards and Canary Islanders, Simon Bolivar will be ousted from power by Spanish militia and will be forced to exile.
El Libertador took refuge to Jamaica, then to Haiti. He took a step back on all of his failures but refused to give up: his wish is to free Venezuela and put an end to Spanish royalism in Latin America. With the support of Haiti, a country newly independent of the French crown thanks to a civil war, he led three expeditions in four years in Caracas, all of which proved bitter failures.
El Libertador
In 1819, he took the most important decision of his life. He decided to tackle Comlombia’s liberation by targeting Bogota. The operation was strictly confidential. With 2500 men, Bolivar made his way up the Colombian Andes through the mountains. They crossed 1500 kilometers of wilderness in 15 days, sometimes without even passable paths. The revolutionary army put the Spanish army to flight and continued relentlessly upwards by attacking towns by surprise along the way. Barely six weeks after the start of the operation, Simon Bolivar and his troops triumphantly took Bogota.
The following two years were calmer. The mistakes of the past were not to be repeated, so El Libertador and his entourage took the time to stabilize the new Republic of Colombia, to secure the support of the population and to achieve total independence. The reality was different. Simon Bolivar had big dreams and spent all his time in Colombia preparing the new plan for the liberation of Venezuela.
Bolivar was in no hurry. He had power, men, a large estate inherited from his parents, but above all he had the good fortune of seeing the Spanish crown weaken once again. Chile and Argentina had declared their independence, and the ranks of the royalists were thinning year after year. On June 24, 1821, he won the battle of Carabobo, then entered Caracas, once again triumphant, five days later.
Gran Colombia was officially founded, uniting Venezuela and Colombia. A few weeks later, it was the generals and troops of Gran Colombia who liberated Ecuador in response to a request for help from local independence fighters.
That same year, Peru was also partially liberated by General San Martin and declared its independence. Simon Bolivar was greatly inspired by the United States model, and dreamed of a free Pan-American union. He visited Peru for the first time in 1823 to meet San Martin and organize the end of the Peruvian War of Independence. Antonio José de Sucre, Bolivar’s main general, was commissioned to liberate Upper Peru. On December 9, 1824, after a year of fighting, Sucre finally won the war.
Upper Peru was separated from its neighbor and became Bolivia, in homage to Bolivar. The capital would be named Sucre, and he would become the country’s president.
After 5 years and 5 campaigns, El Libertador finally liberated South America.
The shattered dreams of union from an absent president
Simon Bolivar’s wars of independence came at a price: he was completely absent from Gran Colombia, where local leaders were regaining power. Gradually, as tuberculosis began to seriously weaken the revolutionary, he continued to prepare a major meeting in Panama for the union of South American states. This meeting took place in 1826, and instantly became his most resounding failure. Some countries did not even send representatives, and none signed the treaty.
When he returned home, he was no longer the great and beloved liberator of yesteryear. In fact, he had been completely forgotten, and his popularity had plummeted as a result of his many absences. Depressed by his repeated failures to unite, and weakened by tuberculosis, he struggled in politics, losing his leadership titles one by one.
A man of difficulties
Simon Bolivar died in 1830 at the age of 47 in sad circumstances. Forgotten, ruined, depressed and gravely ill, the great liberator ended his life judging it useless and synonymous with defeat.
Like most historical figures, he suffered from a host of shortcomings. From his altered vision of democracy to his highly ambiguous stance on slavery, Bolivar is the typical profile of a man who lived between two eras.
In spite of this, he is the liberator of 5 countries, the man who sacrificed everything for his dreams of independence and democratic union, who thwarted the Spanish crown over half a continent and who never served his own interests, squandering his entire fortune financing his wars.
