Simón Bolívar

Born into Caracas wealth in 1783, Bolívar lost both parents as a child and was educated in Spain, where Enlightenment philosophy took hold. His young wife died of yellow fever in 1803; two years later, standing in Rome, he swore to end Spanish rule in the Americas. He returned to Venezuela in 1807 and began fighting in 1810, suffering early defeats that forced him into Jamaican exile by 1815. In Haiti, Alexandre Pétion gave him military support after Bolívar promised to abolish slavery. He established a third republic in 1817, then spent eight years crossing the Andes and defeating Spanish for…