Simon Jose Antonio de la Santisima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios y Blanco (born July 24, 1783 in Caracas, Captaincy General of Venezuela – died December 17, 1830, in Santa Marta, Colombia) was the most important leader of South America's successful struggle for independence from Spain, collectively known as Bolivar's War.

Venezuela (1989) 5 Bolivars (front) - Simon Bolivar (left) and Francisco de Miranda (right)

In 1802, he married María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alaysa. She died of yellow fever less than a year later and he never remarried.

Together with Jose de San Martín, Bolivar is regarded as one of the Liberators of Spanish South America.

On August 6, 1825, at the Congress of Upper Peru, the Republic of Bolivia was created. Bolivar is thus one of the few men to have a country named after him. Bolivia's struggle for independence started in 1809, but sixteen years of war (Bolivian War of Independence) followed before the republic was proclaimed.

Simon Bolivar was also past President of Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.

Sebastian Francisco de Miranda y Rodríguez (March 28, 1750 – July 14, 1816), commonly known as Francisco de Miranda, was a Venezuelan revolutionary. Although his own plans for the independence of the Spanish American colonies failed, he is regarded as a forerunner of Simon Bolivar, who during the South American wars of independence successfully liberated a vast portion of South America. Miranda led a romantic and adventurous life. An idealist, he developed a visionary plan to liberate and unify all of Spanish America. His military initiatives failed in 1812, and he was handed over to his enemies, dying four years later in a Spanish prison dungeon. Within fourteen years of his death, most of Spanish America was independent.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Simon Bolivar" and "Francisco de Miranda"