Simon Bolivar

Bolivar, leader of the War of Independence in the South American colonies. Born in 1783 in Caracas, Venezuela, to a family of wealthy Spanish immigrants. His father was a colonel in the army. When he was a teenager, he studied under the famous scholar Simon Rodriguez and was deeply influenced by the European Enlightenment. After studying in Spain, Italy, France and other places. At the age of 24, he returned to China and participated in the Caracas Uprising of 1810, establishing the First Republic of Venezuela. Soon the revolution failed and he moved to New Granada. In 1813, he led an army to invade Venezuela and occupied Caracas. In January of the following year, he announced the establishment of the Second Republic and was named the head of the country. In July of the same year, he was defeated by the Spanish colonial army and went into exile in Jamaica and Haiti. In 1816, he returned to Venezuela and announced reforms such as the liberation of slaves and the allocation of land to In 1819, he led his army across the Andes into Nuevo Granada, defeated the main force of the Western army at Poyaca, established Gran Colombia, and was elected president. In 1821, he entered northern Venezuela and established the Third Republic after winning the Battle of Carabobo. In 1822, he liberated the province of Quito (now Ecuador). In 1824, he defeated the Western army in the two battles of Junin and Ayacucho and liberated the whole territory of Peru. In 1825, the Republic of Bolivia (named after his surname) was established in Upper Peru, ending Spanish rule in South America. In 1826, the first Pan-American Conference was held in Panama to advocate the establishment of an alliance of Latin American countries, but it failed. In March 1830, when Gran Colombia fell into division, he was forced to resign and died in Santa Marta on December 17 of the same year.

Bolívar in military uniform