Simon Bolivar and Spanish American Independence, 1783-1830 (John J. Johnson)

John J. Johnson
Simon Bolivar and Spanish American Independence, 1783-1830



I won't go into how El Libertador freed (most of) South America from the Spanish mainland as you can wikipedia it. This book goes through that process with a critical eye including Bolivar's initial failures and the not so great bits of his legacy. What makes this book interesting is the analysis of Bolivar's view of how to run government in the Americas which seems to slide from democratic through to dictatorship over his (short) lifetime. This seems to have been due to failures of the revolution and reversion to Spanish rule. He concludes that the only way to liberate South America is to have a dictatorship backed up by the army. His idea was to replace Spanish rule with American born dictators but that seems to be restricted to those of European descent. He views slaves of African descent and native Indians as to unsophisticated and uncivilised to entrust to power and would cause anarchy if given any power or the vote. He frees slaves reluctantly as he promised that to the Haitians when they helped him out early on after one of his knockbacks. The other shock (to me anyway) was how Bolivar brutalised the continent by declaring a take no prisoners policy in the wars which he seems to have regretted later in life and was certainly regretted by his peers. Although undoubtably a great war time hero the failure seems to be the cult of Bolivar and his being invited to be president of much of South America.

The second half of the book is a series of papers. Some written by Bolivar and some critiques of him. The last ends with the depressing thought that South America has become a colony rules by Spanish descendants rather than from Spain. The vast majority of the populations are forced under the yolk of dictatorships and military juntas. The latter were Bolivar's preferred form of government. Given that he came from the richest family in Venezuela perhaps the result of his "liberation" was no true liberation of the masses. After starting this book thinking Bolivar was a hero I ended it thinking that he was a tyrant who put in place the form of government that still lasts today. After 300 years of Spanish domination the masses have endured another 200 years since Bolivar's liberation. Overall a depressing read for myself. I travelled in South America and was somewhat surprised that every town in the northern countries had streets and monuments dedicated to Bolivar. I was surprised because I didn't think that the current despotic rules would appreciate celebration of a liberator. Now I know why they did. He liberated the ruling classes from the Spanish mainland but the freedom stopped there. The struggle for freedom continues for most of the continent.

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