The story
In June and July 1819 Simon Bolivar led roughly 2,500 men from the Venezuelan plains over the frozen Paramo de Pisba, a pass about 4,000 meters high, into the highlands of New Granada. On August 7 his army and its allies, led in the field by Francisco de Paula Santander, beat the royalists under Jose Maria Barreiro at the Boyaca bridge and captured most of the Spanish force. Bolivar entered Bogota on August 10, and the viceroy fled.
Bolivar's earlier republics in Venezuela had collapsed in 1812 and 1814. He wrote a famous political analysis, the Jamaica Letter, in 1815 and in 1816 won help from Haiti's president Alexandre Petion in exchange for a promise to free slaves. At Angostura in February 1819 he told a congress his plan was to unite Venezuela and New Granada. The bold crossing of the Andes brought him control of New Granada's capital, treasury and population, and gave him a base to finish Venezuela.
On December 17, 1819, the Congress of Angostura proclaimed the Republic of Colombia (historians call it Gran Colombia), combining Venezuela and New Granada, with Ecuador added in 1822 after Sucre's victory at Pichincha. Carabobo in June 1821 secured Venezuela. Gran Colombia never held together: regional rivalries and disputes between Bolivar and Santander pulled it apart, and it dissolved in 1830 and 1831 into Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. Bolivar died in December 1830 on the Colombian coast.
Why it mattered
- Boyaca gave the patriots New Granada and a base for the liberation of Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru.
- Gran Colombia was the first attempt to build a large, unified republic in northern South America.
- Its breakup in 1830 and 1831 created Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador as separate states.
- Bolivar's career made him the central symbol of Latin American independence and unity.
Sources
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