Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Ponte Palacios y Blanco, generally known as Simón Bolívar and also colloquially as El Libertador, "the Liberator", was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama to independence from the Spanish Empire. Bolívar was born in Caracas into a wealthy family and as was common for the heirs of upper-class... Show more families in his day, was sent to be educated abroad at a young age, arriving in Spain when he was 16 and later moving to France. While in Europe he was introduced to the ideas of the Enlightenment, which later motivated him to overthrow the reigning Spanish in colonial South America. Taking advantage of the disorder in Spain prompted by the Peninsular War, Bolívar began his campaign for independence in 1808. The campaign for the independence of...