Simon Bolivar was born on July 24, 1783 in Caracas, Venezuela. In 1799 Bolivar travels to Europe to complete his education. His wife died shortly after their marriage in Caracas in1801. Bolivar returns to Europe for additional studies with tutor Simon Rodriguez who exposes him to writers such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Francois Voltaire, Charles Montesquieu and Jean Rousseau. Bolivar made an ode to himself to liberate South-America from Spain. In 1817 he returns to Venezuela. He was defeated twice in 1810 and 1814 by Spain before he finally had a victorious battle against them. While in exile in 1814 in Jamaica Bolivar had written the Letter in which he outlines his vision of South America.While in Jamaica, Simon Bolivar wrote the now famous "Letter from Jamaica" in which he expressed his ideas for republican government and Latin American unity. Widely recognized as an important political doctrine the letter was actually titled, "Reply of a South American to a Gentleman of this Island." It was Bolivar's lengthy response to a letter he had received from an unnamed Jamaican who empathized with Bolivar's struggle for South American liberation and indicated a desire to learn more about the politics and people of each South American province. Specifically, the Jamaican Gentleman asked Bolivar to explain such technicalities as whether each province desired a monarchy or a republic or to form one unified republic or one single monarchy. This sparked the Spanish American patriot and general to launch into his treatise an extensive description of the history of the different provinces (including the present-day countries of Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru) and an exploration of his own ideas for their political futures.
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Pics of Painting of Simon Bolivar and Statute of Simon Bolivar lacoted in Central Park, NYC.
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