In 1819, as the various wars of independence in South America were still raging, the man known as the “father of South American Independence,” Simón Bolívar, established the nation of “Gran Colombia,” or Greater Colombia. This fledgling nation consisted of the present-day nations of Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. It was Bolívar’s dream to unite all of South America into a single great nation, and Greater Columbia was the first step.
Bolívar was Greater Columbia’s first and only president. Bolívar was a very charismatic statesman and soldier, and under his leadership most of northern South America was liberated from Spanish rule. He was unable to make Greater Columbia work, however, because once the common enemy – the Spanish – was vanquished, petty regional rivalries began to surface almost immediately which tore the young nation apart. Logistics was another problem: the mountains, rivers and dense jungles of northern South America made communication and government very difficult.
Bolívar, disheartened by the failure of Greater Colombia, intended to leave for Europe in 1830, but died of tuberculosis before he could leave. Nobel-Prize winning writer Gabriel García Márquez’ novel The General in his Labyrinth is a moving portrait of Bolívar’s final days.