Simón Bolívar Palacios, liberator of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, and creator of the Federation of the Andes . Son of Juan Vicente Bolívar y Ponte and María de la Concepción Palacios y Sajo, Simón Bolívar was born on July 24, 1783 and died on December 17, 1830 . From a very wealthy family but orphaned at an early age, Simón Rodríguez, a well-known character with liberal ideas and a follower of the ideology of Rousseau and the French encyclopedists, who modeled his brilliant personality, took charge of his education.
| Data on Simón Bolívar | |
|---|---|
| Birth | July 24, 1783 in Captaincy General of Venezuela, Spanish Empire |
| Death | December 17, 1830 in Santa Marta Province, Gran Colombia |
| Full name | Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios |
| Conflicts | Spanish American Wars of Independence |
Simón Bolívar's trip to Spain
Bolívar left for Spain with him (1799). After visiting Madrid, Toledo, Bilbao and Paris, he returned to the peninsula and married María Teresa de Toro (1802). He returned to Caracas and was prematurely widowed, a fact that marked his life (1803). Back in Europe, he visited Spain and in Paris he witnessed the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte (1804). He toured Italy and, while in Rome with his tutor Rodríguez, from the Monte Sacro he swore to free America:
After having been in Austria, Germany, France and the United States, he returned to Venezuela, where he was appointed chief justice of Yare and colonel of the royal armies, dedicating himself to agriculture until the Junta de Caracas sent him to England next to the Andrés Bello to get the help of that government for the independence of his country (1810). He returned to Venezuela to take part in the fight against the royalists but fails.
Beginning of the independence of Latin American countries
He wanted to attack Caracas from the Viceroyalty of New Granada but was defeated in the Battle of the Gate (1814). He took refuge in Jamaica, the island where he saved from death and from which he wrote his famous Letter from Jamaica (1815), oriented to indicate the errors of the patriotic revolution and to point out the way to obtain victory. He went to Haiti and then, with the help of England, entered the territories of his homeland and took the city of Angostura, organizing an army on the Orinoco (1817). He convened a congress in Angostura and before it he renounced command of the nation delivering the famous Angostura Speech (1819). His resignation was not accepted and, as President of the Republic in command of an army, he set out to liberate the nations.
The independence of New Granada (today Colombia) was obtained in the battle of Boyacá (August 8, 1819); that of his homeland, Venezuela, in the battle of Carabobo (June 24, 1821); and the freedom of Quito (today Ecuador) in the Battle of Pichincha (May 24, 1822); In the latter, a Peruvian battalion of 2,000 soldiers under the command of Andrés de Santa Cruz and Miguel de San Román acted. , future presidents of Peru. In Guayaquil he received General José de San Martín, Protector of Peru , and in an interview he opposed the monarchist plans of him denying him any military aid.
Arrival in Peru of Simón Bolívar
Bolívar, at the request of Congress, arrived in Peru in the brig Chimborazo and landed in Callao (September 1, 1823). He fought Riva-Agüero and Torre Tagle for his presumed monarchical projects with Viceroy La Serna. Congress, not believing the powers conferred upon him to be sufficiently ample, invested him with the sum of public power, consequently placing himself in recess (February, 1824). Meanwhile, Bolívar had fallen ill in Pativilca and, after recovering, went to Trujillo (there he founded a university), Huaraz and Pasco organizing the patriot army, always at the side of his top general Antonio José de Sucre , and appointed as his secretary general, the republican ideologue José Faustino Sánchez Carrión . In the battle of Junín (August 6, 1824) he defeated the royalist cavalry, tactically pursuing the remaining enemy troops through Apurímac, Huamanga, Huancavelica, Huancayo, Jauja, Tarma, Canta and Chancay. He recovered Lima and obtained the final defeat of the royalists in the battle of Ayacucho, drafting the Capitulation of Ayacucho, signed by Sucre and Canterac, which sealed the independence of Peru and America (December 9, 1824). He laid siege to the Plaza del Callao where Rodil refused any settlement (January 1825) and visited lca, Arequipa, Cuzco, Pucará and Puno.
Creation of the Republic of Bolivia
He went to Upper Peru where he decided to found, before an assembly in Chuquisaca , the Republic of Bolivia and the Life Constitution was sworn in for the first time . He returns to Lima and Congress ratifies his dictatorial powers (February 1826). He appointed the Peruvian representatives to the congress of Panama to define the project of the Federation of the Andes ; Said project implied the federal union of Peru, Bolivia and Greater Colombia (today Panama, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador) under the lifetime presidency of Bolívar, as a means of strengthening independence and stopping any foreign claim that could damage it.
He undertook his return to Colombia (October 1826) leaving a government council chaired by Andrés de Santa Cruz. In his absence, he was proclaimed president for life and had the Constitution for Life promulgated and sworn to. (December 1826). It didn't last long. In January 1827 the people of Lima pronounced en masse against the Bolivarian project, a fact that provoked Bolivar's declaration of war against Peru; this war against Gran Colombia culminated in the battle of Portete de Tarqui and the signing of the Larrea-Gual treaty (1829). Bolivar had settled in Bogotá and faced the intrigues of his collaborators; in said city he was saved from an attack thanks to the attitude of his companion Manuelita Sáenz (September 1828). He had to endure the division of Gran Colombia into Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador , and suffered for the murder of his collaborator Sucre (May 1830). Given this, he moved to his villa in Santa Marta and declined all political responsibility to discard the monarchical pretensions attributed to him by his enemies. There he died after a painful illness.