Simon Bolivar

He married Maria Teresa Rodriguez del Toro y Alaiza, in 1802. Eight months after returning to Venezuela with him, she passed away due to yellow fever.

He had no children of his own, due to the fact that he contracted measles and mumps when he was a young boy.

He is believed to have had an affair with Manuela Saenz, who saved him from an assassination attempt.

Simon Jose Antonio de la Santisma Trinidad Bolivar y Palacios Ponte y Blanco was born on July 24, 1783 into a wealthy family in Caracas, Captaincy General of Venezuela (now the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela).

A large portion of the family’s wealth came from the estates and the mines they owned including sugar plantations, silver, gold and copper mines.

Doña María de la Concepción Palacios y Blanco was his mother while Coronel Don Juan Vicente Bolívar y Ponte was his father. He had two older sisters and a brother: María Antonia, Juana, and Juan Vicente.

Due to certain circumstances, Simon's parents entrusted him to the care of family's slave la negra Hipolita. Bolivar, however, returned to his parents after a few years.

Tragedy struck Simon as his father died when he was just two and a half years old and his mother also passed away when he was around nine years old.

Simon Bolivar returned to Venezuela in 1807. Venezuela achieved de facto independence on April 19, 1810, when the Supreme Junta of Caracas established their rule and deposed colonial administrators.

He along with a few notable Venezuelans persuaded Francisco de Miranda to return to his native land to take up the republican cause. They welcomed Miranda in 1811 and Bolivar was promoted to the rank of colonel and made commandant of Puerto Cabello in 1812.

During the war, Bolivar lost control of San Felipe Fort along with its ammunition stores on June 30 of 1812 to the royalist forces and abandoned his post and retreated to his estate in San Mateo.

Seeing the republican cause as lost, Miranda too signed a capitulation with Monteverde on July 25, 1812. Thereafter, Bolívar along with other revolutionary officers, termed Miranda's actions as treasonous and arrested and handed Miranda over to the Spanish Royal Army.

For his services to the royalist cause, Bolívar was granted a passport and he left for Curaçao on August 27, 1812. In 1813, he was given a military command in Tunja, New Granada (modern day Colombia).

In 1819, Bolivar paraded into New Granada, which was also at war with Bolivar’s enemy, Spain. He took command of a small force and conquered the Spaniards in Boyar, thus delivering the territory of Colombia. He then returned to Angostura and then led the assembly that systematized the Republic of Colombia. He thus, became its first president on December 17, 1819.