Simon Bolibar

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Blanco (July 24, 1783 – December 17, 1830), commonly known as Simón Bolívar (Spanish pronunciation: [siˈmom boˈliβar]), was aVenezuelan military and political leader. Bolívar played a key role in Hispanic America's successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire, and is today considered one of the mostinfluential politicians in the history of the Americas.
Following the triumph over the Spanish Monarchy, Bolívar participated in the foundation of the first union of independent nations in Hispanic-America, arepublic, which was named Gran Colombia, of which he was president from 1819 to 1830. Bolívar remains regarded in Hispanic-America as a hero, visionary, revolutionary, and liberator. During hislifetime, he led Venezuela, Colombia (including Panama at the time), Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia to independence, and helped lay the foundations for democratic ideology in much of Latin America.
The surnameBolívar derives from the Bolívar aristocrats who came from a small village in the Basque Country, Spain, called La Puebla de Bolívar.[1] His father came from the male line of the de Ardanzafamily.[2][3] His maternal grandmother, however, was descended from some families from the Canary Islands that settled in the country.[a]
The Bolívars settled in Venezuela in the sixteenth century. His firstSouth American Bolívar ancestor was Simón de Bolívar (or Simon de Bolibar; the spelling was not standardized until the nineteenth century), who lived and worked with the governor of the Santo Domingofrom 1550 to 1570. When the governor of Santo Domingo was reassigned to Venezuela in 1589, Simón de Bolívar came with him. As an early settler in Caracas Province, he became prominent in the localsociety and he and his descendants were granted estates, encomiendas, and positions in the Caracas cabildo.[4]
The social position of the family is illustrated by the fact that when the Caracas...