e was a success in terms of military but a failure in terms of ideology and politics. First of all, let us put this in historical context.
It is the beginning of the 19th century. The memory of the American Revolution is still relatively fresh. George Washington, Tom Paine, and the American founding fathers had proved that a true and fair republic could be created.
So in his mind, Simon Bolivar had a clear task: He had to prove that in the oppressed and racially divided lands of the Spanish Empire, a republic of any sort could still be set up. The United States had been created in, in Bolivar's mind, a relatively great land for personal liberty. He felt that the same could not be said about South America. As a result, he felt that a unified South American republic would have to be more conservative and tightly controlled if it wanted to survive at all in the harsh lands. Indeed, he believed that initial failures were due to the leaders trying to mimic "some ethereal republic."
But in the end, Bolivar expelled the Spanish. At the equivilent point at the American Revolution, Washington stepped down and returned to farming. But Bolivar felt that the republic had to be created a certain way and could not let others deviate. He tried to remain the head of things, and this lead to his downfall. He died both a hero and a villian, and the nation he set up fractured.
