Simon Bolivar Born On 24 July 1783

Simon Bolivar (1783-1830) was the greatest leader of Latin America's independence movement from Spain. A superb general and a charismatic politician, he not only drove the Spanish from northern South America but also was instrumental in the early formative years of the republics that sprang up once the Spanish had gone. His later years are marked by the collapse of his grand dream of a united South America. He is remembered as "The Liberator," the man who liberated his home from Spanish rule.
Born: 24 July 1783
Birthplace: Caracas, Venezuela
Best Known As: el Libertador of 19th century South America
Venezuelan-born Simón Bolívar liberated much of South America from Spanish rule in the 19th century and became one of Latin America's greatest heroes. Born to a privileged family, he was orphaned as a child and raised by tutors, among them Simon Rodriguez, who emphasized the Enlightenment and, especially, works by Jean Jacques Rousseau. Bolívar travelled to Europe (1799-1802 and 1804), where he witnessed the coronation of Napoleon and gradually became drawn to the idea of revolution. He joined the Venezuelan revolution in 1810 and gained military victories and independence (1813), but in the civil war that followed his forces were defeated by a royalist army (1815). After exile in Jamaica, he returned to lead rebel forces based in Orinoco.
In 1819 he defeated the Spanish and established the republic of Greater Colombia, a federation that included present-day Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Ecuador. Further victories in Peru, at Junin and Ayacucho (1824) spelled the end of Spanish rule and Bolívar was the most powerful man on the continent. His vision of a united South America was never realized; various separatist movements and resentment toward his dictatorial methods prevented political stability and Bolívar resigned as president of Greater Colombia in 1830, just months before dying from tuberculosis. Bolivia is named for Bolívar.
Simon Bolivar was one of South America's greatest generals. His victories over the Spaniards won independence for Bolivia, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. He is called El Liberator (The Liberator) and the "George Washington of South America." Bolivar was born in July 24, 1783, at Caracas, Venezuela. His parents died when he was a child and he inherited a fortune. As a young man, he traveled in Europe.
As he returned to Venezuela, Bolivar joined the group of patriots that seized Caracas in 1810 and proclaimed independence from Spain. He went to Great Britain in search of aid, but could get only a promise of British neutrality. When he returned to Venezuela, and took command of a patriot army, he recaptured Caracas in 1813 from the Spaniards. The Spaniards forced Bolivar to retreat from Venezuela to New Granada (now Colombia), also at war with Spain. He took command of a Colombian force and captured Bogota in 1814. The patriots, however, lacked men and supplies, and new defeats led Bolivar to flee to Jamaica. In Haiti he gathered a force that landed in Venezuela in 1816, and took Angostra (now Ciudad Bolivar). He also became dictator there.
Bolivar marched into New Granada in 1819. He defeated the Spaniards in Boyar in 1819, liberating the territory of Colombia. He then returned to Angostura and led the congress that organized the original republic of Colombia (now Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela). Bolivar became its first president on December 17, 1819.
Bolivar crushed the Spanish army at Carabobo in Venezuela on June 24, 1821. Next, he marched into Educador and added that territory to the new Colombian republic. After a meeting in 1822 with another great liberator, Bolivar became dictator of Peru. His army won a victory over the Spaniards at Auacucho in 1824, which needed Spanish power in South America. Upper Peru became a separate state, named Bolivia in Bolivar's honor, in 1825. The constitution, which he drew up for Bolivia, is one of his most important political pronouncements.