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where and when he was born
Simon Bolivar was born on July 24, 1783 in Caracas, Venezuela. His parents were María de la Concepción Palacios y Blanco and Juan Vicente Bolívar y Ponte. Simon Bolivar didn’t have any siblings. -
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Then on December 5, at dawn, Bolivar's 3,000 attacked 5,000 Spanish forces under General Monteverde, who were on in the hills near Araure. The patriot's advance unit was immediately wiped out, but while Monteverde was reinforcing his flanks where he expected the next assault, rebels armed mostly with knives and sticks overran the center. After fierce hand-to-hand combat, Bolivar himself led the charge which scattered the Spanish. He gave chase until 2 a.m. -
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Miranda and Bolivar had been having an increasing number of serious disagreements, from how to treat counterrevolutionary conspirators to whether those born in Spain should be allowed to stay Meanwhile, on the political front the republicans were suffering from lack of governing experience. Within a few months, the captured royal treasury was spent and a Spanish blockade led to a worsening economic situation. -
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Although he had no formal military training and no battlefield experience, Bolivar was made Lieutenant Colonel serving under Miranda. He participated in his first engagement on July 19, an assault on the Spanish stronghold of Valencia in which he distinguished himself, but the rebel forces were repelled. A siege forced capitulation on August 19th after heavy losses on both sides. It was a harbinger of things to come. -
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In March 1811, a national congress met in Caracas. Though not a delegate, Bolivar gave his first public speech to the group, saying, "Let us lay the cornerstone of American freedom without fear. To hesitate is to perish." The First Republic was declared July 5, Venezuela becoming the first colony anywhere in the Spanish empire to attempt to break free. -
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Simón Bolívar penned two political treatises the Manifiesto de Cartagena and the Carta de Jamaica encouraging the people of South America to rebel against Spanish colonial rule. Bolívar himself led multiple expeditionary forces against the Spaniards, and between 1819 and 1822 he successfully liberated three territories—New Granada , Venezuela, and Quito from Spanish rule. With the help of Argentine revolutionary Jose de San Martín, Bolívar freed Peru and what was to become Bolivia too. -
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The Spanish leaders also began recruiting the fierce llaneros, nomadic cattle-raising horsemen of the Amazon grasslands. They appointed Jose Tomas Boves, a former rebel embittered by having been imprisoned by his comrades, to head them. Known as the Legion of Hell, it consisted of as many as 10,000 riders using spears, knives, and bolos, easily superior to better-armed republicans, who were almost entirely infantry. They began waging an even more savage war. -
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There in 1812, he wrote the first of his many eloquent political manifestos, saying, "Not the Spanish, but our own disunity led us back into slavery. A strong government could have changed everything." He began championing a political system in which the nobility played a strong role, led by a president for life. He condemned the leniency against crime in general and against the state in particular that he felt had contributed to the fall of the First Republic. -
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Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan soldier and statesman who played a central role in the South American independence movement. Bolívar served as president of Gran Colombia (1819–30) and as dictator of Peru (1823–26). The country of Bolivia is named for him. -
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There is some controversy surrounding Simón Bolívar’s death. According to official reports, Bolívar died of tuberculosis on December 17, 1830, at age 47. Some people believe Bolívar was assassinated. In 2010 Hugo Chávez, then president of Venezuela, ordered the exhumation of Bolívar’s body for investigation of the cause of death. The results were inconclusive.
