Simon Bolivar - the Liberator

From about the year 1500, Spain began to build an empire in South America, sending priests, soldiers, farmers and businessmen to create the new Spanish America. By the late 1700s, Spanish America had industry, agriculture, cities and ports. Some of the Spanish immigrants had done so well that their children and grandchildren were very rich and powerful. They lived in large houses and had many slaves.

However, because they were not born in Spain, they were not allowed to do the most important jobs. They could be in the army but not above the rank of captain; they could work in the government but only at the lower levels. These Spaniards born in the Americas were called 'creoles'. The Spanish-born governors and generals were known as 'peninsulares'. Often, the creoles were more practical and capable than the peninsulares and they knew the local society far better. However, the peninsular officials protected the black slaves and native Indians from the cruelty of the creole businessmen. Naturally, this was resented by the creoles who felt the Americas and their peoples were theirs to exploit as they liked. Some began to feel that they would be better off independent from Spain and able to do as they pleased and trade with anyone, not just Spain.

In 1776, the British Americans won their fight against rule from London and set up their own republic. These events became the talk of Spanish America where many, especially rich whites, wanted the same. It was into this world that Simon Bolivar was born on 24th July, 1783 to a rich and powerful creole family living in Caracas (now the capital of Venezuela). The Bolivar family had become very rich from farming and mining using African and native Indian slaves. Simon Bolivar's father died when he was two and his mother when he was nine. He was raised by a black slave woman and educated by a political radical called Don Simon Rodriguez.

Rodriguez had many revolutionary ideas that he passed on to the young Simon. Later, Rodriguez was sent into exile for his political activities and Simon Bolivar was sent to an Army academy where he showed great talent. When Bolivar was in his early twenties, Napoleon invaded Spain which left Spanish America without political direction from Madrid. Without Spain, many creole groups had to set up political leadership to avoid anarchy in their colonies or becoming part of the British or French empires.

This unofficial independence, and the example of the United States to the north, convinced more and more creoles they could and should have their own nation. From Mexico to Argentina, creole groups declared their independence from Spain and set up new national governments for their colonies.

It was around this time of confusion and unrest caused by Spanish America being cut off from Spain, that the young Simon Bolivar, now a trained officer, was sent to be the governor of Tunja, a city in the northern Andes. He was not long in this post when the independence movement began to fight the Spanish forces. In 1815, Napoleon was finally sent to a prison island in the Atlantic, St Helena. Freed from the French, the Spanish king in Madrid decided to take the colonies in the Americas again. It was too late. The creole whites in the Americas were now used to making their own decisions and resented the return of the Spanish. All across Latin America the war would continue for nearly twenty years. Some countries quickly threw the Spanish forces out and established independent republics. Others were loyal to the Spanish crown and the 'liberators', such as Bolivar, had to force them to join the liberation.

Bolivar was the main player in the independence struggles in northern Latin America playing an important military and political role in the establishment of such modern day republics as Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia. Indeed Bolivia is named after Simon Bolivar, one of the few countries in the world to use a person's name. However, Bolivar's main project was the establishment of a country called Gran Colombia which comprised modern day Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia along with a part of northern Peru. He tried hard to make it work as a nation but the in-fighting between the different creole elites first led to his exile in Jamaica and Haiti. He returned with the help of the Haitians on the condition that he banned slavery. Bolivar, the son of slave owners and technically a slave owner at one time himself, was willing to do this but it was something hated by the creoles, many of whom earnt their great riches from slave labour in their mines and fields.

In the end, Bolivar was highly effective at throwing out the Spanish, most notably with his victory at Boyaca, but was unable to unite the black, white and brown peoples of Latin America or even the different creole interests. He was forced, once again, to leave his native land when the power politics in Caracas and Bogota went against him. He died in 1830 of TB (tuberculosis) and his body was returned to Santa Marta and then to Caracas. However, the bad feeling and suspicions of the early 19th century in northern South America remain even to the present: only a few years ago, the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, ordered Bolivar's body to be examined to see if he had been poisoned. The autopsy found no evidence of poisoning.

Simon Bolivar remains the great hero of Spanish America's liberation from the Spanish empire even today.