Simon Bolivar

Simon Bolivar (http://www.info-regenten.de/regent/regent-d/pictures/bolivia-bolivar.jpg)

Freedom is all he desired. And he stopped at nothing to achieve this. Leader of the uprising against the Spanish in South America, Simon Bolivar was a brilliant man and is often dubbed as “The George Washington of South America.” As a brilliant general, he led his troops and defeated one of the best trained armies in the world. Liberating five countries was one of his many accomplishments, showing that he is also a great politician, he established the governments of these countries and got their economy going. This man truly was an “all in one.”

Simon Bolivar with his sword (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3CV8SXd7-xY/SxMPUi3A6FI/AAAAAAAAL3g/Fhes8yikptA/s1600/dibujos+simon-bolivar.jpg)

Simon Bolivar was born on July 24, 1783 in Caracas, Venezuela. He was born into a life of privilege and wealth, and had a good sum of money in a trust fund for him. But that all soon changed. When he was a small child, his parents died and he was educated by many tutors. One of them was Simon Rodriguez, and he influenced Bolivar greatly throughout his life. In 1799, he went to Spain and married Maria Rodriguez, but she was taken by the horrible disease yellow fever on the way back to Caracas. Bolivar returned to Europe in 1804 and was part of Napoleon's mammoth army to learn about military tactics and how to fight in a war.

Portrait of Simon Bolivar (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gfXupHOEhH0/ShBTdn3lg3I/AAAAAAAAE9o/cNQZ9NorlqU/s400/Sim%C3%B3n+Bol%C3%ADvar.jpg)

It was the year 1812, and Spanish rule was worse than ever before. The people of South America wanted freedom but didn’t want to fight back in fear of being hung. But then, Simon Bolivar stepped up to the plate. As a general, Bolivar managed to raise an army and beat the nearly invincible Spanish in many decisive battles all throughout South America. It all started on 1813, after acquiring a military command in New Granada; he led the invasion of Venezuela. After many weeks of bloody fighting, they managed to take Caracas and uproot the Spanish from Venezuela. The next year, he launched another campaign to capture Bogota deep in Spanish Peru. He was nearly unstoppable, crushing the Spanish stronghold here in a matter of weeks and capturing Bogota. After many more campaigns, in 1821, he marched his army into Ecuador and crushed the remaining Spanish Army. This however wasn’t enough to have the Spanish throne give up their prospects in South America.

Peace Treaty talks (http://www.aceros-de-hispania.com/image/simon-bolivar-sword/simon-bolivar-sword.gif)

With nearly no more Spanish opposition left in the territories, Bolivar wanted the freedom of the territories. To do this, he hunted down the remaining Spanish strongholds littered throughout lands. As a liberator, he liberated more than five countries in South America from Spanish rule. In Colombia, he found the last bits of the Spanish and quickly squashed them at the battle of Boyaca and forcing the oppressive Spanish rule in Columbia to stop. Later that year, Columbia declared independence from Spain. He used the same tactics in Ecuador. On May 24th 1822, he beat the Spanish at the battle of Pichincha, liberating yet another country from Spanish rule. After liberating two more territories, he marched his army into Peru on August 6th 1824, and on December 9th, he defeated the Royal Army and liberates Peru. With that, he freed every territory from the Spanish and each one became part of his empire.

Memorial for Simon Bolivar (http://www.mrfs.net/trips/2006/Ecuador/Quito/simon_bolivar.jpg)

With the big part of his plan done, there was still something to be done about his newly acquired empire. He needed to set up a government for his empire, and again, his brilliance showed like a star. After the war, he went to European countries for help and money. Luckily, with lots of convincing, he finally convinced a couple of the countries to lend him money to jumpstart his economy. When he came back in 1825, he takes office as the first emperor of his new empire (Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia and Bolivia). On June 1825, he wrote a treaty that is considered to be the South American version of the American Constitution. In 1826, the Venezuelan people revolted against the new government, but after a month of peaceful talks in Caracas, he managed to stop the uproar that almost destroyed Venezuela. He resigned on 1829 due to health problems.

In 1830, he developed tuberculosis and died soon after. His legacy is still here even though almost two centuries have passed. Without his help, these countries might have still been under Spanish control for a longer time. His brilliant military knowledge helped shape South America to what it is today. Simon Bolivar will be always remembered as a visionary with a dream to live freely, and with many years of persistence, it came true for him and all of South America.