![\"\"](\"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/warandnation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1846\/2018\/08\/C1-Crown-Gold-sun-face-Museo-Nacional-1024x768.png\")
A crown that was given to Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar for his role in the struggle for independence.<\/p><\/div>\n
The early drive for independence in the regions of New Granada and Venezuela had been relatively successful with an early declaration of independence in Venezuela<\/a> in 1811. This first South American republic was lost to the Spaniards again in 1812, but would be retaken by the patriots (independence fighters) in 1813 when Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar<\/a>, one of the key figures in the independence struggle, took Caracas in a swift three-month campaign with 500 patriots under his command. This is known as Admirable Campaign. Once again, this success was to be short lived. The Spaniards enlisted the support of a figure called Boves, who enlisted the support of Venezuelan horsemen known as llaneros. He allowed the llaneros to loot places and this gained him a large following. Boves also won the support of Blacks by promoting them in his army. Boves defeated Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar<\/a> and his army in 1814 and Bol\u00edvar<\/span> retreated from the region this time to the British colony of Jamaica. It was from Jamaica that Bol\u00edvar wrote a famous letter, known as the Jamaica Letter or ‘The Carta de Jamaica’ in which he outlined his views on the political situation in the Americas and his vision of the new nations that would emerge.<\/p>\n Back in Venezuela, the other independence fighters did not have full regional support and regional differences prevented an early consolidation of the independence project.\u00a0In fact, the early wave of success for the independence project was quashed in most places by the Spanish forces in 1815.<\/p>\n A second phase in the struggle for independence occurred from around 1817 and this second phase was more successful.<\/p>\n Further Reading\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar\u2019s Jamaica Letter t<\/span><\/span>ranslated by Lewis Bertrand in Selected Writings of Bolivar<\/em>, (New York: The colonial Press Inc.,1951) <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The early drive for independence in the regions of New Granada and Venezuela had been relatively successful with an early declaration of independence in Venezuela in 1811. This first South American republic was lost to the Spaniards again in 1812, but would be retaken by the patriots (independence fighters) in 1813 when Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-352","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/warandnation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/warandnation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/warandnation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/warandnation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/warandnation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/warandnation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4759,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/warandnation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/352\/revisions\/4759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/warandnation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/warandnation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1846\/2018\/08\/Bolivar-Balcony-IMG_0191-225x300.jpg\")
In 1817 Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar<\/a> made a come back and along with a figure known as P\u00e1ez, won against the Spanish forces in the Venezuelan plains known as the Llanos. Conquering the Spanish forces in the Highlands was more difficult however. Bol\u00edvar<\/a> used the geographic terrain to his advantage. In the rainy season, part of the region behind Bogot\u00e1 suffers floods. Bol\u00edvar<\/a>\u2019s troops therefore decided to approach New Granada from behind Bogot\u00e1, a region that was poorly guarded. They walked through waist high water for a week before climbing up into the Andes. Many of them lost their lives due to the harsh weather conditions and many horses that had never left the plains were unable to cope with the terrain. However as soon as they reached the Andean plateau local people supported the troops. The troops then won two battles. The second of these, known as the Battle of Boyac\u00e1 was a milestone in the wars of independence. It consolidated the liberation of New Granada and is considered to mark the beginning of the independence of the North of South America.<\/p>\n