Simón Bolívar's Birthday

24th July is celebrated in Bolivia and much of the rest of South America each year in remembrance of Simón Bolívar, whose birthday it is.

Simón Bolívar was one of South America's greatest Generals, arguably one of the greatest soldiers of all time. His victories over the Spanish won independence not just for Bolivia, which was named after him, but Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, as well. His inspiration to others through what is often referred to as "Bolívar's War" also led to several more countries being freed from their colonial masters.

To this day, Bolívar is called "El Liberator" (The Liberator) and "the George Washington of South America." Yet he achieved all this with armies of rarely more than 1,000 men.

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios was born on 24th July 1783 in Caracas, Venezuela to don Juan Vicente Bolívar y Ponte and doña Maria de la Concepción Palacios y Blanco.

The family had an aristocratic background. The Bolívar aristocratic bloodline derived from a small village in the Basque Country called Bolibar, which is the origin of the surname. The Bolívars settled in Venezuela in the 16th century.

A portion of their wealth came from the Aroa River gold and copper mines in Venezuela. Gold was first mined there in 1632, leading to further discoveries of extensive copper deposits. Towards the latter part of the 17th Century, copper was exported under the name "Cobre Caracas". The mines became the property of Simón Bolívar's family. Later in his revolutionary life, Bolívar used part of the mineral income to finance the South American revolutionary wars.

There is good reason to believe that his family grew to prominence before gaining great wealth - the Cathedral of Caracas, founded in 1575, has a side chapel dedicated to Simón Bolívar's family.

Simón Bolívar received an excellent education from his tutors, especially Simón Rodríguez. Thanks to his tutors, Bolívar became familiar with the works of the Enlightenment as well as those of classical Greece and Rome. His tutors are believed to have influenced him greatly, despite his tender years.

By the age of nine, however, Bolívar had lost both his parents and was left in the care of his uncle, don Carlos Palacios. At the age of fifteen, (in 1799) don Carlos sent him to Spain to continue his education.

Bolívar left for Spain in 1799 with his friend, Esteban Escobar. En route he stopped in Mexico City, where he met with the Viceroy of New Spain, who was alarmed when the young Bolívar argued with confidence on behalf of Spanish-American independence.

Bolívar arrived in Madrid on June of that same year and stayed with his uncle, Esteban Palacios. Also with him in Europe was his favourite tutor, Simon Rodriguez, a noted philosopher who was respected among the scholars of Europe - and who was suspected of "radical leanings" as he was in sympathy with the teachings of the great French philosophers of the 18th century. Naturally, these teachings were held in abhorrence by the overly nice people of Spain, France, Italy and the ruling class of his native land – the exploiting class.

In Spain, Bolívar married María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alaysa in 1802. He now had an income of $20,000 a year – a very large income for that period – and was the husband, at the age of nineteen, of a rich woman who had attained her sixteenth year. Social attentions were showered on young Bolívar by the courts of Europe, and by the great and the near great, much of which he regarded with disdain.

While in Madrid, he was presented to Their Majesties the King and Queen, with a condescension which his keen sense of such relations perceived as empty social etiquette, extended to a rich young colonial purely on account of his noble blood.

When in Rome, he was presented to the Pope, as one could expect for someone of his social standing. But Bolívar refused to conform to one age-old custom at the Holy See, always expected of visitors at such audiences, that of kissing the Pope's foot. This he would not do, "looking the other way." Asked by the Spanish Ambassador, who had taken him to the Vatican, why he had not conformed to the custom, he replied that his respect for the high office of the Pontiff should not be measured by an act of servility.

Like Thomas Jefferson, who had also visited Europe, Bolívar saw much, and reflected much on the causes of the despair, squalor and degradation of the masses in Rome and the larger cities of France, Italy and Spain, where Romanism so largely prevailed.

Having observed the same conditions in his own country, a few mornings after his audience with the Pope, he climbed to the top of Mount Aventin with his faithful Rodriguez. While meditating amidst the ruins caused by people defying the power of aristocracy, Bolívar suddenly saw a great light and, throwing his hands heavenward, is said to have taken a vow to devote his life to freeing his own land from the oppressive power of Spain.

Wishing to show his bride his homeland, Bolívar and his wife made what was meant to be a brief return visit to Venezuela in 1803. But Maria succumbed to Yellow Fever. Her death greatly affected Bolívar and he vowed never to marry again. It was a vow which he kept for the rest of his life, although many years later he had a stunning lover, who once saved his life.

After losing his wife, Bolívar returned to Spain with his tutor and friend, Simón Rodríguez. While in Europe he witnessed the proclamation of Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor of France, and later the coronation of Napoleon as King of Italy in Milan. Some say that for a time Bolívar was travelling in Napoleon's retinue and, thus, presumably in his employ or extremely close to one of his personal aides. It was around this point in time that Bolívar lost respect for Napoleon, whom he considered to have betrayed the republican ideals.

Bolívar returned to Venezuela in 1807, after a brief visit to the United States.

In 1808 Napoleon installed his brother, Joseph, as King of Spain and its colonies. This launched a great popular revolt in Spain known as the Peninsular War. In the Americas, as in Spain, regional juntas were formed to resist the new king. Unlike the Spanish junta, however, most of the American juntas fought against the power of the Spanish king, not only the person of Joseph Bonaparte.

In some ways, this situation actually helped the patriots seeking independence for the colonies. Many members of the Spanish forces occupying their lands and fighting for Spain had little stomach for Joseph Bonaparte either, and so were sympathetic to the patriot cause, at least in that respect.

Bolívar participated in the resistance junta in Venezuela and when, on 19th April 1810, the Caracas junta declared its independence from Spain, Bolívar was sent to England on a diplomatic mission, along with Andrés Bello and Luis López Mendez. He went to Great Britain in search of aid, but could only get a promise of British neutrality. But he did persuade General Francisco de Miranda (who lived in London and had a British wife) to return to his native land, where he was made a General in the revolutionary army. Miranda was familiar with patriot causes, as he had fought under George Washington in the American War of Independence and later distinguished himself in the French Revolution.

Bolívar returned to Venezuela on 3rd June 1811 and delivered his discourse in favour of independence to the Patriotic Society. On 13th August 1811 patriot forces under the command of General Francisco de Miranda won a victory in Valencia.

However, on 24th July 1812, Miranda surrendered to the Spanish after several military setbacks. Bolívar and other revolutionaries believed Miranda's surrender was treasonous; they thwarted Miranda's attempt to escape, and in one of Bolívar's most morally dubious acts he handed him over to the Spanish Royal Army. Miranda never saw freedom again. He was spared execution, but died in a prison cell in Cádiz, Spain, in 1816.

An oil painting by the Venezuelan artist Arturo Michelena titled, Miranda en la Carraca (1896), which portrays the hero in the Spanish jail where he died, has become a graphic symbol of Venezuelan history, and has immortalised the image of Miranda for generations of Venezuelans.

After Miranda's "capture" Bolívar himself soon had to flee and went Cartagena de Indias. While there, Bolívar wrote his famous "Cartagena Manifesto" (Manifiesto de Cartagena) in which he argued that New Granada should help liberate Venezuela because their cause was the same, and Venezuela's freedom would secure that of New Granada. After acquiring a military command in New Granada under the direction of the Congress of Tunja, Bolívar led the invasion of Venezuela on 14th May 1813. This was the beginning of the famous "Campaña Admirable" - the Admirable Campaign.

He entered Merida on 23rd May and was proclaimed "El Libertador" by the people. On 8th or 9th June, he took Trujillo. Six days later Bolívar proclaimed the "war to the death" (Decreto de Guerra a Muerte) in favour of liberty. Bolívar captured Caracas on 6th August, and two days later proclaimed the Second Venezuelan Republic. His army consisted of only 500 men.

Due to the rebellion of José Tomás Boves in 1814 and the fall of the Republic, he returned to New Granada, where he then commanded a Colombian nationalist force and entered Bogotá in 1814, recapturing the city from the dissenting Republican forces of Cundinamarca. He intended to march into Cartagena and enlist the aid of local forces in order to capture Royalist Santa Marta. However, after a number of political and military disputes with the government of Cartagena, Bolívar fled, in 1815, to Jamaica, where he petitioned the Haitian leader Alexandre Pétion for aid.

In 1817, with Haitian help (given because he promised to free slaves), Bolívar landed in Venezuela and captured Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar).

Bolívar's wider vision took him beyond Venezuela for two years. A victory at the Battle of Boyacá on 7th August 1819 added New Granada to the territories free from Spanish control.

That year – 1819 - Bolívar created the Angostura Congress which eventually founded Gran Colombia. Royalist opposition was eliminated during the following years.

On 7th September 1821 Gran Colombia (Greater Colombia - a federation covering much of modern Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador) was created, with Bolívar as president and Francisco de Paula Santander as vice president.

Further victories at the Carabobo on 25th June 1821 and Pichincha consolidated his rule over Venezuela and Ecuador respectively.

The victory of Antonio José de Sucre over the Spanish forces at the Battle of Pichincha on 23rd May 1822 meant that all of Northern South America was liberated.

After a meeting in Guayaquil, on 26th & 27th July 1822, with Argentine General José de San Martín, (who had received the title of Protector of Peruvian Freedom in August 1821, after having partially liberated Peru from the Spanish), Bolívar took over the task of fully liberating Peru. The Peruvian congress named him Dictator of Peru, on 10th February 1824, which allowed Bolívar to completely reorganise the political and military administration. Bolívar, assisted by Antonio José de Sucre, decisively defeated the Spanish cavalry, on 6th August 1824, at Junín.

Junín was unusual in that, for once, Bolívar had significant forces at his command, although the numbers – 5,000 in his army plus 4,000 Peruvians he had trained – seem excessive, especially as accounts say either that the two sides were equally matched or that the Spanish had superior numbers. Junín is also unusual in that accounts say that it was purely a cavalry battle – mounted men fighting with sabres – and not one single shot was fired!

Sucre destroyed the still numerically superior remnants of the Spanish forces at Ayacucho on 9th December 1824.

Having planned these battles with General Sucre, Bolívar went to Lima to organize a civic government and to call a constitutional convention. When, on 8th February 1825, he had effected the new government, he resigned the supreme power in Colombia and Peru. Declining a gift of 1,000,000 pesos (about US$200,000 or GBP£50,000) from Peru, and having "attended to some civic matters in upper Peru" (which is what he is reported to have told a friend), Bolívar left General Sucre in charge and headed for Bogota, Colombia, to quiet civil strife which had arisen between his former comrades.

Those "civic matters" reflected the man. On 6th August 1825, at the Congress of Upper Peru, the Republic of Bolivia was created. Simon Bolívar is thus one of the few men to have a country named after him. The constitution reflected the influence of the French and Scottish Enlightenment on Bolívar's political thought, as well as that of classical Greek and Roman authors.

After arriving in Bogota in November 1826, he soon travelled on to Venezuela, calling a constitutional convention en route to meet at Valencia on 15th January 1827. Though he had not been able to adjust the disaffection, he entered Caracas in triumph. Finally, after fourteen years in supreme command, Bolívar's resignation was accepted by the Congress at his request, in the face of the intrigue and abuse of his enemies, who were hungry for power.

Bolívar had great difficulties maintaining control of the vast Gran Colombia. During 1826, internal divisions had sparked dissent throughout the nation and regional uprisings erupted in Venezuela. The fragile South American coalition appeared to be on the verge of collapse.

An amnesty was declared and an arrangement was reached with the Venezuelan rebels, but political dissent in New Granada grew as a consequence of this. In an attempt to keep the federation together as a single entity, Bolívar called for a constitutional convention at Ocaña during April 1828. He had dreamed of eventually creating an American Revolution-style federation between all the newly independent republics, with a government ideally set up solely to recognise and uphold individual rights, but he had seen that dream succumb to the pressures of particular interests throughout the region, which rejected that model, and had little or no interest in liberal principles.

For this reason, and to prevent a break-up, Bolívar wanted to implement a more centralist model of government in Gran Colombia, including some or all of the elements of the Bolivian constitution he had written (which included a lifetime Presidency with the ability to select a successor, though this was theoretically held in check by an intricate system of balances).

This move was considered controversial and was one of the reasons why the deliberations met with strong opposition. The convention almost ended up drafting a document which would have implemented a radically federalist form of government, which would have greatly reduced the powers of the central administration.

Unhappy with what would be the ensuing result, Bolívar's delegates left the convention. After the failure of the convention due to grave political differences, Bolívar proclaimed himself dictator on 27th August 1828 through the "Organic Decree of Dictatorship". He considered this as a temporary measure, as a means to re-establish his authority and save the republic, though it increased dissatisfaction and anger among his political opponents. An assassination attempt on 25th September 1828 failed, in part thanks to the help of his lover, Manuela Sáenz, according to popular belief.

Although Bolívar emerged physically intact from the event, this nevertheless greatly affected him. Dissident feelings continued, and uprisings occurred in New Granada, Venezuela and Ecuador during the next two years.

Trouble then broke out in Peru, which, with the help of Sucre, was quieted in 1829, but dissent resumed in Venezuela and Colombia and, though he was recovering from a critical illness at Guayaquil, he returned to Bogota. His convention having failed of organisation, the disaffection between his old followers not having been settled, and being in ill health, he finally again resigned the supreme power on 27th April 1830.

Bolívar left Bogota, feted and honoured as he went from place to place on his way to Cartagena. There he learned of the murder of his most trusted and efficient General Sucre, on 4th June 1830, the effect of which, together with his advanced state of tuberculosis, caused his death on 17th December 1830, at the age of forty-seven, at a country place - "La Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino" - a few miles from Santa Marta, Colombia, from where he issued his last proclamation.

Intrepid, hopeful, farsighted, indomitable, and profound in his thinking for the welfare of mankind, Bolívar proclaimed, the following Masonic principles to those who had the vision to see, as his life ebbed to the shores beyond: "All of you must work for the inestimable good of the Union; the people obeying the government in order to avoid anarchy; the ministers praying to heaven for guidance; and the military using its sword in defence of social guaranties… If my death contributes to the end of partisanship and the consolidation of the Union, I shall be lowered in peace into my grave."

Bolívar had intending to leave the country for exile in Europe, possibly in France. He had already sent several crates containing his belongings and his writings ahead of him.

His remains were moved from Santa Marta to Caracas in 1842, where a monument was set up for his burial. The 'Quinta' near Santa Marta has been preserved as a museum, with numerous references to his life.

Bolívar must have been a remarkable man. He was President of five (some may argue six, if you include Ecuador, or seven, if both it and Panama are included) different countries, being invited to take over as Dictator in one! And he had a country named after him, which should mean his name lasts forever:

2nd President of Venezuela
1st President of Colombia
3rd President of Venezuela
1st President of Greater Colombia
1st President of Bolivia
9th President of Peru

On his deathbed, Bolívar asked his aide-de-camp, General Daniel Florencio O'Leary to burn the extensive archive of his writings, letters, and speeches. Thankfully, O'Leary disobeyed the order, and his writings have survived, providing historians with a vast wealth of information about Bolívar's liberal philosophy and thought.

There are streets and avenues, boulevards and plazas named after him across South America, and it is said that every village, town and city in Venezuela has a central square named after him and bearing some form of statue.

Bolívar, however, is not forgotten elsewhere. Apart from the public holidays in his honour, there are many mementos of his life and tributes to him.

Although he never lived in Britain and his visits were fleeting, there is a statue of Bolívar in Belgrave Square, London. He was a great admirer of the American Revolution, and so it is no surprise that in Missouri there is a town called Bolívar and, in 1948 this was written about an event there: "THE NEW AGE - SEPTEMBER 1948: The minds of liberty-conscious souls of North and South America turned to the beautiful little city, Bolívar, Missouri, on July 5, 1948. There the imposing 7-foot bronze figure of Simon Bolívar, South America's Liberator and a Mason, standing on a marble base 11 feet high, the gift of Venezuela, was unveiled. There the life, the character and achievements of the George Washington of six countries of South America were fittingly commemorated in the speeches of President Harry S. Truman, President Romulo Gallegos of Venezuela, and the Governor of Missouri, Philip M. Donnelly, and by the presence of Sr. Gonzalo Carnevali, Venezuelan Ambassador, other notables and thousands of plain American citizens."

It has been said that "Bolívar's life presents one of history's most colorful personal canvases of adventure and tragedy, glory and defeat." It is not just South America that holds him in high esteem.

The US Navy named a submarine after him. Other statues or busts are to be found in Washington DC, UN Plaza in San Francisco, Mexico City, Ottawa, Quebec City, Cairo and Sydney. There is a statue of Bolívar mounted on horseback at the 6th Avenue entrance to New York's Central Park.

In Turkey, one of the main avenues in Ankara bears his name.

Caracas has a university bearing Bolívar's name. The Bolívarian Games is a multi-sport event which takes place with competitors from those countries he liberated. There are even currencies named after him and bearing his image.

If you're looking for a way to commemorate this event, you might be interested in this article: Commemorations with Cross Stitch

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