Angostura Address Of 1819 By Simon Bolivar Summary

Simon Bolivar, or as known to many in Latin America as “the Liberator,” was a brave, smart, courageous and independent revolutionary of his time. Bolivar was a man of action and incredible intellect. During the Second National Congress of Angostura on February 15, 1819 Bolivar stood and gave an address that would form its own place in history. His “Angostura Address of 1819” is much more than just a regular speech that any politician would make throughout the course of their career. The Address gives us much insight to the feelings and political happenings of Latin America, specifically Venezuela, during the early periods after their revolution. Bolivar gives a voice to his revolutionary community in the Address and talks directly to his

contemporaries. His political leadership is clearly defined and welcomed during the formation of a new government which was in a state of crisis and disharmony. Bolivar’s speech is embodied with an underline spirit of hope for unity and harmony while defining what he stated was a proper leadership and government for the ever-changing Latin America.
To understand a speech, one must first come to understand a brief history of its author leading up to the time of its delivery.

Simón José Antonio de la Santísma Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios, or for our purposes, Simon Bolivar, was born in modern day Caracas, Venezuela on July 24, 1783. Unlike what many would commonly think, Bolivar was born into a fairly wealthy family which found its riches in the gold and copper mines of Venezuela. After being left an orphan first by his father and then by his mother at age nine, Simon received a sized inheritance and was left to the care of his maternal uncle. While being properly educated in Spain, Bolivar met the love of his life. Soon they were married and as a couple returned to the Americas. Soon after arriving, his wife Maria Teresa Rodriguez del Toro y Alaysa was struck with yellow fever and

died.
This incident greatly affected Bolivar. He returned to Europe seeing it as his only opportunity to escape from his grief. During this period of his life, Bolivar witnessed the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte and regarded the emperor as a betrayer of the republic ideals that he so highly valued. Thoughts soon began to take form within Bolivar and after being mentored by his life long friend and gifted teacher, Simon Rodriguez, he knew in his heart of hearts what had to be done. According to history:
“He ascended Mount Aventine and, from a precipice overhanging the Tiber, gazed upon the tomb of Csecilius Metellus, the Appian Way and the Campagna, which last reminded the young traveller of the fertile plains of his own Caracas. In an excess of enthusiasm, he is said to have seized the hand of his old tutor and, upon that sacred soil, to have sworn to liberate his native land!”
But how was he to do so? And when he did, what government would be formed?
Besides being a man of action on the battlefield and in the political arena, Bolivar proved to also conquer his own language and was a master of intellect.

Throughout his life the Liberator set forth many different addresses, essays, letters and other written works in which he always expressed his admiration and aspiration for unity in Latin America. “Bolivar longed for political unity. His ultimate ambition was to have a single nation, a sort of United States, but in Latin America.” Simon Bolivar faced and encountered the many different negative aspects that the Spanish had on his land. The exploitation and overall inequitable form of government which allowed the Spanish to dominate the Americas prevented its inhabitants from defining their own identity and expressing their innermost desires for freedom. Perhaps inspired by the recent revolutions in North America and in France, Bolivar constructed and commanded the Venezuelan War of Independence which was won in 1819 and formally established the Great Colombia which included Venezuela and New Granada. Although Bolivar aspired for unity, what he encountered was tremendous disharmony and a lack of nutrients to support a democratic

society.
“Popular education should be the highest concern of paternal love for our congress. Morality and enlightenment are the poles of a Republic; so morality and enlightenment are our first necessities.” Bolivar states that education should be on the forefront of every citizen’s concern. He believed that everyone should come to gain specific virtues through what he calls “enlightened education.” This was a direct idea spurred from the Enlightenment which appealed greatly to the the intellectual classes of South America, which Bolivar was a lifelong member of. Yet he goes on to state that, “We should not leave everything to chance and to the results of elections: The people are more gullible than nature perfected by art…” A critique on the intellect of the populous? Nevertheless, there were definitely some issues to address besides the battle on the forefront, although this too was a great concern.
His land was in chaos. Immediately after the declaration of independence storms of Spanish loyalists formed to squash any rebellious activity. So bloody and so dangerous was this threat that Bolivar was forced to flee to Jamaica. Soon the revolutionaries would take the lead but not without first undergoing many casualties. There was also an internal class struggle where the question of land ownership was highly contested. “The continued violence and disappointment of the Venezuelan struggle led the Liberator to believe that only a centralized government representing all regions could keep at bay all anarchical tendencies and create a truly free and just society.”
Bolivar and many of his contemporaries believed that for newly independent countries a centralized form of government was imperative. The Liberator was clearly a fan of democracy as he states, “only democracy, in my opinion, is conducive to absolute freedom.” Yet he has difficulty applying democracy to his current situation, “but was there ever a democratic government that succeeded in conjoining power, prosperity, and permanence?” No matter how great the thought of democracy might be, Bolivar said that his people were not ready to adopt it. They were too uneducated and constantly fighting disharmony that the adoption of a completely representative government would be a fatal mistake. All the same, Bolivar did support a republic with some non-democratic elements.
What was Bolivar’s plan? A strong executive branch with a permanent presidency and a Senate where birth right was the only form of membership, not an electoral process. Bolivar mixed and borrowed ideas from different times and different philosophers. We can trace back these ideas to great intellectuals such as Plato and Burke amongst others. Bolivar had finally constructed, from mixing together several ideas, what in his mind was the perfect form of government.