SIMON BOLIVAR
The Liberator of South America

Marino Hidalgo

Simon Bolivar, the liberator of five nations: Bolivia, Colombia, Edcuador, Peru and Venezuela, was born on July 24, 1783 in Caracas, Venezuela. His father died in 1786, when he was only three years old, and his mother died in 1792, when he was nine years old. Young Bolivar spent his orphaned childhood undeer the guardianship of his maternal uncle, Carlos Palacios, who took care of Bolivar's extensive properties and provided him with tutors for his education. He was sent in 1799 to Madried to complete his education, visiting France in 1802. He married in Madrid in the same year and returned to Caracas where his wife, Maria Teresa, died of yellow fever after only eight months of marriage. Late in 1803 he returned to Spain, traveling next to Paris where he witnessed the coronation of Napoleon, and to Italy, where, on August 15, 1800, he swore to dedicate himself to the cause of Venezuelan independence. He made a vow to liberate Venezuela: "... I swear by the God of my forefathers, I swear by my native country, that I shall never give rest to my arm nor my soul until I have broken the shackles which chain us to Spain."

In Paris, he felt the currents ofnew freedom and lively cultural activities. He also read extensively Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Locke, Condillac, Buffon, D'Alembert, Helvetius, Hobbes, and Spinoza. He studied the Anglo-American French Revolution. His future endeavors were influenced by his acquisition of knowledge from all these philosophers, especially Jacques Rousseau's philosophy, which helped him assume the gigantic task of liberating half of the countries of South America. After revisiting Paris, he sailed from Hamburg to Charleston, South Carolina, spending five months in the United States before he returned to Caracas in June 1807, a man who was now widely traveled for his day and who had been deeply impressed by the French Revolution and the example of the United States. He was also very much influenced by the exploits of Napoleon. He didn't admire Napoleon as the crowned Emperor for he hated the pomp of royalty, which was contrary to his liberal principles. But he admired Napoleon the warrior. He adapted the tactics and strategy of Napoleon's concept of war. Bolivar followed the Napoleonic school in his swiftness of action in battle as well as in the grandiloquence and exalted style of his proclamations and addresses to his soldiers. When organizing the government of the newly liberated nations, Bolivar was inspired by the Napoleonic codes of laws. This becomes obvious when one delves into the vast mass of documents and writings of Bolivar and leads to the conclusion that the genius of the Liberator was guided by the masters: Rousseau, the writer-philosopher, and Napoleon, the conqueror and legislator.