There were a number of reasons for Bolivar’s failure to unite the states; however, one of the more prominent reasons was his refusal to realize that the people did not necessarily share his goal. After their liberation from Spain, there was a strong nationalistic feeling throughout the colonies, a dominant psychological reality. They became only concerned about their own national well-being and became opposed to any form of policy that was not beneficial to them.
Small elite groups also sprang up, vying for control of the newly independent states. In 1826 civil war erupted in Colombia, and Bolívar returned in haste to prevent a clash between the conflicting factions. He gained a temporary reconciliation and called a new constituent assembly together in 1828, but its deliberations did not agree with his autocratic ideas, and he assumed the dictatorship once more. Unfortunately, Bolivar’s ideas were not in harmony with the claims and pretensions of these different social groups.
Bolivar was in an extraordinary position. He was president of Colombia, dictator of Peru, and president of the newly created Bolivia, whose constitution he composed. This was an extremely autocratic and utopian document that broke down within two years. Bolivar harboured many ambitious projects, one of which was his proposed Federation of the Andes. He pursued this aim along several paths though they were significant geographical considerations that he refused to consider.
Bolivar refused to accept the difficulties of uniting an area as vast as Latin America. Bolivar’s plans for Latin America were ever changing. He wanted at first to have a Latin-American League of Nations, which was then replaced by his idea of the Federation of the Andes (from Orinoco to Potosi), each time incorporating more lands. Bolivar called for a confederation of the Hispanic American countries, and in 1826 he assembled the congress in Panama, but the league he had envisaged never materialized. He then planned to unite all the countries of the South into a Federation of the Andes, with himself as president and with the Bolivian constitution as the permanent basis of government.
In 1815, even Bolivar, himself, comments on the difficult nature of controlling such a vast territory. “A state too extensive, either in itself, or on account of its dependencies, finally falls into decadence and converts its free form of government into tyranny, weakening the principles which should preserve it and finally relapsing into a despotism…. A large monarchy is hard to consolidate and a large republic is impossible.” However, he still tries a decade later to do the impossible; failure was inevitable.
Geographical problems were furthermore accentuated by the individualism of race and national differences. Each nation was different and there was much conflict between the states. Yet he expected that the states all come together under one flag, one army and be one nation under one constitution. He expected Colombia, Peru and Bolivia to come together under the Bolivian constitution, which would cause for rivalries between the Colombians and the Peruvians to arise.
With a federation this large, it would inadvertently bring out the predominance of one section over the others. With the many conflicting differences among each other, it would be impossible for one country to submit itself to another. Peru would resist the hegemony of Colombia; Venezuela would resist Bogotá and so on. Realising that this union would not be popularly supported, the proposed Andean Federation had to look for strong military support out of Colombia within the Peruvian provinces. This in itself was enough to strike a chord in Peru, the indignity of having a Colombian army in her territories seemed even worse somehow than Spanish rule.
The federation was indeed too vast in terms of the distance between each state, with Bolivar being only one man; it was impossible for him to stretch himself here and there among the territories as each problem arose. This enabled the different territories to do what they felt to do when he was away. People conspired against him and attempted to have him executed. Finally, in his ailing days, travel became extremely arduous.
On Sept. 25, 1828, Bolivar was able to escape his assassins by mere minutes. For more than a year afterwards he fought to preserve his political creation, but success was doubtful and the cost was too high. Peru tried to annex Bolivia, which started a war with Colombia. Colombia was victorious and managed to prevent Peru’s encroachment on Colombian territory. The signing of the treaty of Giron, February 28, 1829, awarded most reparations to Colombia and guaranteed her territorial integrity. However, President La Mar of Peru refused to honour this agreement, which was to give Guayaquil to Colombia. This resulted in the taking of the Guayaquil port, the election of a new president, the ratification of the Giron treaty and Guayaquil became occupied by a Colombian army.
Although Bolivar had worked so hard to preserve Colombia, there were other voices of dissent that cropped up during Bolivar’s weakened state, with the main focus of separating New Grenada from Venezuela. Cordoba’s rebellion was one of the first such attempts but it was easily destroyed and Cordoba was killed. At this time, Bolivar realising that failure was imminent, returned to his former plan of establishing a foreign protectorate. However, this plan of action was already too late and while he was thinking this, the Colombian ministers were thinking of another way out. They were thinking that if Colombia could not be maintained as a republic, maybe they could be converted to a monarchy, which Bolivar was completely against. Unfortunately, Bolivar was hundreds of miles away from Bogotá when he learned of their plans.
At this time, the Venezuelans, under Paez, used this monarchical proposition as a pretext for their own rebellion. Paez decided to go ahead with his plans as he realized also that Bolivar was ill and far away. A new congress elected in 1830 accepted the secession of Venezuela and, soon thereafter, of Ecuador. Bolivar finally realized that his goal was unattainable and was harshly confirmed when he was exiled form his own country.
In conclusion, one realises that there were a varying number of factors that contributed to Bolivar’s failure to unite the Latin American States. These reasons however branch off of two specific factors. Firstly, Bolivar refused to accept the states’ newfound nationalism as a strong and important factor, to understand the differences among the states. This showed in the elites’ unwillingness to accept Bolivar’s grand plans for their independent nations.
Secondly, Bolivar, against his earlier judgement attempted to manage a republic over too vast a geographical area. As he could not be everywhere at once, his large republic became increasingly difficult to maintain. Eventually this led to individuals acting freely in his absence. Though Bolivar was quite a humble gentleman, he allowed those around him to persuade him that his popularity as ‘liberator’ would allow him to be successful in his plans.
Belaunde, Victor A. Bolivar and the Political Thought of the Spanish American Revolution, 1967.
