Simon Bolivar - the liberator of Latin America.
Simon Bolivar freed no fewer than what were to become six countries—a vast domain some 800,000 square miles in extent—from Spanish colonial rule in savage wars against the Spanish empire in South America. Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios y Blanco, or just Simon Bolivar, was a Venezuelan military and political leader in the 1820s who played a leading role in the overthrow of the Spanish Empire rule in Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Panama and turning those countries into sovereign, self ruling states, independent of Spanish rule. Bolívar was born into a wealthy, aristocratic Creole family and, like others of his day, was educated abroad at a young age. While in Europe he was introduced to the ideas of Enlightenment philosophers, which gave him the ambition to replace the Spanish empire as rulers of south American countries. Taking advantage of the disorder in Spain prompted by the Peninsular War, Bolívar began his campaign for independence in 1808. Despite a number of hindrances, including the arrival of an unprecedentedly large Spanish expeditionary force, the revolutionaries eventually prevailed, culminating in a patriot victory at the Battle of Carabobo in 1821, which effectively made Venezuela an independent country.
Simon Bolivar.
Following his triumph over the Spanish empire , Bolivar participated in the foundation of the first union of independent nations in Latin America, Gran Colombia, of which he was president from 1819 to 1830. Through further military campaigns, he ousted Spanish rulers from Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia (which was named after him). Despite his desire to create a union of states similar to that which created the United States of America, Bolivar faced opposition from internal factions throughout the huge Gran Colombia, with there being a push to form single nations. As a temporary measure, Bolivar declared himself dictator in 1828, though in September of the same year he escaped an assassination attempt with aid from his mistress and fellow revolutionary Manuela Sáenz. He resigned this post in 1830 and made plans to sail for exile in Europe. On December 17, 1830, however, Simon Bolivar died in Santa Marta, Colombia, after a battle with what may have been tuberculosis. The federation finally dissolved in the closing months of 1830 and was formally abolished in 1831.
The South American countries Bolivar helped liberate.
To this day Simon Bolivar, who's also known as “the liberator”, is regarded as a hero, visionary, revolutionary, and liberator in South America. Although he's considered as the creator of the northern half of Latin America, Bolivar inspired the whole continent to rise up in revolt and fight against other European Empires which colonised South America at that time, and eventually free the whole of South America from their grasp.
