ABSTRACT
Known as “El Liberator,” Simon Bolivar led the battle against Spanish imperialism in South America, liberating five nations on that continent in the nineteenth century. Orphaned at a young age, he nonetheless received a solid education in Europe, where he learned about the new ideologies of freedom, liberty, democracy, and republican (as opposed to monarchical) government, arising from the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. In 1810 the colonial governor of Venezuela was deposed and a junta (“governing body”) was formed. Bolivar was sent to London to seek an alliance with Britain. Although Britain refused to give the rebellion direct aid, Venezuela formally declared independence on July 5, 1811. Bolivar went to Haiti to refurbish his army, changing his strategy to attack the royalists within Venezuela from the interior. By 1822 both Venezuela and New Granada were liberated; Bolivar continued into Peru, which finalized the royalist defeat in 1825.
