📜 1783-1830 | The Life of Simón Bolívar What you’re seeing: Simón Bolívar’s life, from colonial Caracas to his death in 1830, through love and loss, exile, war, the Andes crossing, Gran Colombia, dictatorship and collapse. What was happening in Latin America? Spain ruled most of Spanish America. Napoleon’s 1808 invasion of Spain shattered royal authority, helping trigger independence movements across the empire. Ferdinand VII returned in 1814, and Spain sent an army under Pablo Morillo in 1815 to restore control. Where were the other powers? Britain stayed officially neutral, but Jamaica sheltered Bolívar and British and Irish volunteers joined the patriot armies. Haiti, the first independent Black republic, armed him in 1816. The U.S. recognized new republics in 1822 and issued the Monroe Doctrine in 1823. Why did his republic fall apart? Gran Colombia united Venezuela, New Granada and Quito, but regional rivalries weakened it. Bolívar took dictatorial power in 1828, survived an ...