Revolutions - 5.16- Over The Mountains

Episode Date: October 2, 2016

In July 1819 Bolívar led a legendary march into the mountains to liberate New Granada once and for all. 

Hello, and welcome to revolutions. Episode 5.16, Over the Mountains. We left off last time with Simone Belivar convening the Congress of Angostura in February 1819 and setting it to work drafting a constitution for what they all called the Republic of Columbia, a republic that they claimed covered all of the old vice royalty of New Granada. And for the moment, this was a laughably grandiose proclamation. The Republic, as such, was little more than a loosely knit-together collection of armies, led by quarrelsome Cowdeos, answering to a rickety chain of command with a headquarters tucked away

deep in the Venezuelan interior. Caracas and the Venezuelan coast remained in royalist hands, and the entirety of New Granada continued to live under a restored vicerigal regime that had been in place since General Pablo Morillo had arrived way back in 1816. But despite the apparent fantasy of it all, Simone Belivar was about to audits. audaciously bend reality to fit the fantasy. Grand Columbia would be a thing. Of that, for some reason, Belivar was positive. Despite Belivar's closing statement to the Congress that his work was done, one of the first things the Congress did was elect Belivar president of the Republic. But everybody understood that he would focus almost exclusively on the war, and the actual business of civilian

government would be left in the somewhat capable hands of a long-exiled new granadine intellectual named Francisco Antonio Sea. Now, Saya is an interesting guy who's actually been around quite a bit, and he offers a different perspective on the events that we've covered so far. So before we head back out to war with Belivar, let's go back and do Francisco Antonio Saya. At 53 years old, Assea was positively ancient compared to his fellow revolutionaries. Belivar himself was still just 35. Santiago Marino was 31. Jose Antonio Pazio. was just 29. Sondander was 27. Born in New Granada, shortly after the revolt of the comuneros, Saea started in seminary, but his liberal curiosity got the better of him, and he moved to

Bogota to study secular law. He emerged from university in 1789 as a professor of philosophy, but his liberal curiosity then landed him in big trouble. He was a member of that little enlightened social circle that surrounded Antonio Norino, and when Norino published, he was a published the Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1794, Sayah was amongst those arrested, and he was shipped off back to Spain, where he spent two years in the same Cadiz prison that would eventually swallow the bones of Francisco de Miranda 20 years later. Sayah was paroled in 1796 and then pardoned in 1798, but the authorities barred him from returning to the Americas. So, trapped in Europe, Sayas' curiosity then took him in a scientific direction,

and he got himself appointed to a scientific mission to France in 1799. So arriving in France on the eve of Bonaparte's coup of Brumere, Seya witnessed firsthand the hopeful dawning of an enlightened end to the chaos of revolution, and he became an admirer of Bonaparte and a confirmed Francophile, seeing in the French the polar opposite of the medieval ignorance of the Spanish. He finally returned to Spain in 1803, and now a somewhat renowned scientist and intellectual, Seah was appointed head of the Royal Botanical Garden in Madrid. But his French connections and worldview were very strong now, and when the abdications of Bayonne

hit in 1808, Seya was one of the 85 deputies selected by Napoleon to rubber-stamp the transfer of power to Joseph Bonaparte. Seah was then rewarded with a provincial governorship, and he loyally served the French regime until the end. So through the whole of the peninsular war, Seah was on the other side. When Napoleon's empire started imploding in 1814, Sayah fled back to France. Instead of remaining in Europe, though, for the final collapse of Imperial France, Seya decided it was time to return home after 20 years of exile.

Now, I lose track of him for a little bit, and I'm not sure where exactly he landed, but the next time I can nail him down is 1816, when he shows up in Haiti to join Belivar's little band of revolutionary Cowdeos, who were gathering under the patronage of Alexandra Petsion. So Seya was amongst those who traveled back with everybody to Venezuela in March of 1816. But Seya was an intellectual, not a soldier. So though he was respected, he was not exactly a force to be reckoned with and a company where the number of scars you had counted for more than the number of books you had read. But he was also something of an acceptable neutral party between all the Caudillos.

And after Belivar had been sent back into exile following his disaster at Akumare, Sayah was the one who made the trip back to Haiti at the end of 1816 to tell the Liberator, come back, we actually do still need you. After Belivar and Company successfully captured Angostura in the summer of 1817, Sayah was then dispatched on a mission to London to assist the recruitment of British Legionaries, and so he was amongst those running around painting happy little trees for would-be recruits. But then rumors started filtering back home that Sayah was overstepping his bounds, taking out unauthorized loans and possibly embezzling money.

So Belivar recalled him to Angostura. But obviously there were no hard feelings because upon his return Belivar made Seya editor-in-chief of a new patriotic newspaper that had been started to promote the Republic. And that was the job that Seya held until his election to vice president of the republic in February 1819, which, as it would turn out, was an office worth quite a bit more than a bucket of warm spit, because when Belivar rode off to resume his grand war of liberation, Saya became the de facto president of the republic. But though there was something pleasantly respectable about a civilian running the government, it would not be long before the Cowdeos, who even Belivar had trouble

keeping in line, would begin looking sideways at the bookworm in Angostura telling them how to do their jobs, especially once the rumors started filtering back that Simone Belivar was dead. After issuing some final instruction to the Eastern Caudillos, Marino and Bermudas and those guys, Belivar gathered up a company of about 300 newly arrived British legionaries and headed west up the Orinoco River in the direction of the Western Janos and the army of Jose Antonio Paias. Now, the relationship between Paz and Belivar was critical to the success of the revolution, but that relationship was complicated. Paz was simultaneously deferential and insoling.

subordinate. He continued to act like Belivar's orders were mere recommendations to be taken under advisement, but he did not budge from his belief that Belivar was the right man to be El Hefe Supremo. So, for example, in the summer of 1818, after Belivar had returned to Angostura, following his disastrous attempt to take Caracas, that was all the stuff we talked about last time, elements in Paas's command, most especially a few of the newly arrived British officers tried to orchestrate a coup to make Paas El Hefe Supremo and send Belivar to his fifth and hopefully final exile. But Paas wouldn't have it, and at Belivar's order, he tossed the principal British agitator in jail and then deported him from the country. So though Paas took

Belivar's orders under advisement, he did follow them when he agreed with the orders. And after departing for Angostura, Belivar ordered the lion of the Apure to avoid. any major battles with General Murillo's royalist army until Belivar came back, and Paas complied. He followed this order even as Murillo marched on Paas's headquarters in the city of San Fernando. Refusing to fight, but also refusing to let Murillo take the city, Paz ordered San Fernando burned to the ground and then withdrew with his men out into the open plains. Murillo later said that when he saw the flames rising from San Fernando, he pretty much lost all hope of ever winning the war. How do you fight an enemy that simply does not care about living naked

out in the wilderness if they have to? Paz then continued to avoid any set engagements while harassing Murillo mercilessly with guerrilla attacks. And the only thing Murillo really has going for him here is that he was a veteran of the Peninsular War. And so he was well acquainted with guerrilla tactics and he had some idea how to deflect them. He kept his men together. He prevented anyone from getting isolated. He maintained strong defeclars. He maintained strong, sensible positions and tried not to take any obvious bait, but it was hard, and it was demoralizing, and it was exhausting. And General Murillo's request to be relieved continued apace. So though things were going according to his instructions, when Belivar reached Paas as headquarters

finally in March of 1819, his first question was, where do you and your men stand? Are you with me or what? Paa said, yes, we are with you, nothing has changed. Okay, go. good, let's get back to it. So reported troop strength numbers fluctuate a lot depending on the source you read, but combined Belivar and Paz currently led somewhere between three and four thousand men. And though they would ultimately disagree about where this year's campaign was headed, they once again agreed that attacking General Murillo was the obvious opening move. And at the moment, Murillo was headquartered at a spot called La Ceres del Medio.

And again, numbers are difficult to establish, and in total. Total Murillo commended somewhere between six and seven thousand men, but how many were actually there with him is unclear to me. In fact, picking through the details of what happened next has been pretty tricky in general because accounts differ and provide different significant details. But it's a pretty big moment in the wars, so I'm pretty sure that this is how things unfolded. On April 2nd, 1819, believe our granted Paz's permission to launch an attack on Murillo's forces. But the ever daring Paas only rode off with 150 men, 150 men. He broke his men up into small squadrons to ride around kicking up dust to make sure it seemed like the whole Republican

army was on the move. Now, Murillo was probably tricked into thinking that more than just 150 men were on the way, but he was by now fully aware of Paas's standard hit-and-run tactics, and so Morillo was at least prepared for that when it came. And in fact, he laid a pretty careful trap. When the dust clouds were reported, Murillo mobilized about a thousand cavalrymen and arrayed them at the far wings of his army with the infantry and heavy guns in the center. When Paas's generos charged in for the hit, Murillo launched his own cavalry on a diagonal line to cut off the run. So this started out, according to plan for both sides. Paz came charging in for the hit and then turned around for the run, but now an over one

cavalry force was threatening to close off their escape. So Paas ordered one of his best officers, a guy named Juan Jose Rondon, to wheel around with a small company and charge headlong back into the center of the Royalist infantry. And this had the intended effect. The royalist cavalry wings took the bait and collapsed in on Rondon's little band, while Paz and the rest of his generos were able to keep riding away. But just before he was fully enveloped, Rondon and his men broke off their attack, wheeled around again, and then burst through the last little sliver of daylight. With the royalist cavalry now ramming into each other and the infantry, everything in their lines devolved into a tangled mess of confusion. When Pah saw all the disarray, he gave the most

famous order of his career. Now, the official sanitized version is that he yelled Vuelvencaras, or about face. But historians think it far more likely that he yelled, Vuelvencarajo, which has a few literal ways it can be translated, but my Spanish-speaking friends on Twitter think I can go with, go back, goddammit. And yes, you can come find me on Twitter at Mike Duncan. It's actually way easier to get a hold of me there than by email. Anyway, after yelling, go back, god damn it, all 150 of his men wheeled around and charged headlong back into the disorganized mess of royalists. With confusion reigning and believing that they were well and truly under attack by the whole Republican army, the royalists all panicked.

The cavalry just rode off, leaving the infantry to fend for themselves, and understandably spooked, the infantry then broke and fled in all directions, just trying to get out of this alive. When the dust finally cleared, upwards of 500 Spaniards lay dead, and all their heavy artillery pieces were just sitting around waiting to be picked up. Having beaten a force that was at a minimum ten times larger than his own, the line was in the line lion of the Apura, lost two dead, and six wounded. In the aftermath of the battle, General Murillo sent back a report stating that he had been attacked by at least 700 men, and it's not clear whether he believed that, or was exaggerating to cover his butt, as General throughout

history have been wont to do. The two sides then spent the rest of April and May 1819 waging an indecisive war of skirmishes. Belivar desperately wanted to deliver one more decisive blow before moving on, but Murillo wasn't having it, and he refused to be baited into a battle. This was frustrating because the rainy season was starting to set in, and Belivar couldn't afford to wait much longer to execute the plan that he had been keeping secret for months, a surprise invasion of New Granada. But the final piece of that secret plan finally fell into place at the end of May, when he got a letter from Francisco de Palisantanar, and Belivar knew it was time to move on. So backing up a little bit, after Belivar and Paz and Santander had gone their

separate ways in the summer of 1818, with Belivar going back to Angostura and Pasning and the Venezuelan Janos, Santander had crossed back over into New Granada to recruit men and most especially gather intelligence on the state of affairs and whether New Granada could even be taken by an invasion. After nine months of work, Santander finally wrote back to Belivar to say yes. New Granada. is right for the plucking, come on over. And though Santander is not exactly an unbiased observer, I mean, he wants Belivar to invade New Granada. He wasn't wrong. Remember, General Murillo had brought most of his own army back into Venezuela, leaving behind a small corps of peninsular soldiers to manage things with the help of some local militia. Santander was able to report that these

forces were not exactly cracked units. They were underpaid, undersupplied, and very low on morale. And then just In general, the viceroy that Marillo had reinstalled in Bogota believed that harsh repression was the most effective means to bring the country back into line. Mario counseled ruling with a lighter hand, but the viceroy wanted no part of it, and Bogota had become a repressive hub of summary executions, property confiscation, and just general maltreatment of the locals. Whether they were diehard patriots or not, the people of New Granada did not like the new vice regal regime. All of this, Santander Jubilee reported to Belivar. So Belivar now made his move.

On May the 23rd, 1819, he called his senior officers for a small council of war in the town of Satenta. There, using cattle skulls for chairs, Belivar revealed his plan. They would march across the Janos, up into the mountains of New Granada, surprised the royalists, and seized Bogota. Now, this is Belivar at his most recklessly daring. Remember, this is the beginning of the wintry, rainy season, and already the Janos was filling with water from rains that never ceased. The mountains would be more of the same, except everything would be freezing cold to boot. Now was the time to retire for the winter, not literally march into some of the steepest mountains in the world. But Belivar believed that it could be done,

and more importantly, if it were done, it would be a strategic masterstroke. Now his plan was inspired both by the recent example of Jose de Saint-Martine, who had just liberated Chile with his own surprise invasion through the Andes, and also by the most famous general in history because it goes without saying that Belivar was well-versed in the life and career of Hannibal. And if you guys remember from back in the history of Rome, Hannibal always preferred difficult terrain to the fortunes of a battle not of his choosing. His own march through the Alps in terrible weather is legendary, but even more impressive was that time he marched three days through a supposedly impenetrable swamp to split the legions and surprise the Romans at their rear. That was when he lost his eye. Taking an army into the mountains now was brilliant because it was insane. General Murillo suspected Belivar's ultimate intention was to invade New Granada, but there was plenty of time to prepare for that because it's not like they were going to leave Tom. tomorrow. And as for the royalist forces in New Granada, well, it quite rightly did not even occur to them that an invasion might be coming from Venezuela, which was Belivar's point. His officers agreed that it was crazy, but doable. The only dissenter to all this was Paz, which drove Belivar crazy,

because Paz had actually been the first man Belivar had confided his plans to, and he seemed at the time to have been in full agreement. But now that it was actually before, for him, the centaur of the plains, did not want to leave the plains, and he can't really blame him. Half-naked cowboys who ride around in grasslands are not exactly well suited for frozen, steep, mountainous terrain. But though furious at the perceived betrayal, Belivar once again recognized that he could not risk losing a staring contest to pass. So Belivar compromised.

He ordered Paz to take up a position at Kukuta, which was still on the other side of the border in New Granada, and still, still off the Janos, but rather than participating in the full invasion, Paz would watch the rear and make sure that Murillo did not follow. To this, Paz agreed. And he also further agreed to let some of his men go with Belivar, including the hero of Lac Cheserestal Medio, Juan Jose Rondon. But even with this compromise in place, Paz still continued to take Belivar's orders under mere advisement. And after Belivar rode away, Paz turned around and headed east. he never would go to Kukuta.

On May the 26th, 1819, Belivar set out with 2,100 men, divided into four infantry battalions and three cavalry squadrons. Also in the mix were various non-combatant auxiliaries, including families of some of the men, especially from among the 300 or so British legionaries, who, as I said, had signed up for service in South America as much to try to start a new life there as to go on some grand military adventure. And one of the women present was, I kid you not, nine months pregnant. I don't know her name, but we'll get to her in a second. Now, no one was told what the ultimate destination was going to be because Belivar quite rightly feared mass desertion. Now, before they could even begin the grueling march up into the mountains, they had to get to the mountains. So Belivar pointed them in the direction of Tame, on the other side of the border in New Granada, where Santander was waiting with his

own small army. But Tome was over 250 miles away, and by now the rains were non-stop and torrential. As I mentioned a few times, during the dry season, the Ghanos is bone dry, but during the rainy season, everything floods. So this is not a time to go out marching, but the only way to get from here to there was to march from here to there. In the best of conditions, this meant slogging through thick mud that enveloped their feet and their carts and their horses and their animals. Worst conditions meant wading through standing water up to their knees and then up to their wastes. The worst conditions meant literally swimming alongside improvised leather boats that held their gear.

And always it rained and always there were bugs. Animals died, supplies, guns and carts were abandoned if they became immovable. And even if this all hadn't ended with a march through the mountains, this march through the winter isanos rain would have been impressive all on its own. Just before the army crossed the border into New Granada, Belivar finally revealed to his men what this was all about, that this was in fact the beginning of the invasion of New Granada. And by this point, the only way out was forward. Finally in the last week of June, the beleaguered army hit dry ground, as the grasslands gave way to the foothills at the base of the mountains,

and they successfully linked with Santander's forces at Tame. The men were given a week to recuperate from their long march through the flooded plains, but on July the 1st 1819, it was back to it, and now the going was going to get really tough. The small army traveled west as the crow flies, but mostly they went up, up, up, up. The rains never stopped, except now instead of mud and floodwater, it was all slick rocks and iced over paths that ran along narrow ravines. And it's not like these guys had gone to R-E-I to get outfitted for the ascent. They were poor peasant soldiers. These guys were marching barefoot. They marched in tattered rags that could only charitably be called a uniform.

As they struggled up the mountain, the strong started to carry the weak, and believe our personally carried men broken from whatever combination of hunger and fatigue, sickness, or injury had taken them down. Many just did. make it. They dropped dead and everyone else just kept walking. Up, up, up, because you can't go back now. They would hit torrential creeks raging from winter rain and have to cross in a single file line with each person holding the hand of the man in front of them and behind them, forming a human chain until they all reach the other side. They would reach chasms that could only be crossed by stringing a rope between the trees and fixing improvised leather hammocks to take men and women across one by one. and eventually they crested 13,000 feet as they wound their way around the tallest peaks. Hypothermia set in, and even if you wanted to stop, you couldn't, because you would just freeze to death.

On July the 3rd, on the third day of the climb, that pregnant woman I mentioned, she gave birth. Now, as the father of two small children, I've just been through all of this, and frankly, I consider the woman's presence on the march to be insane already. But then on top of that insanity, right now in the middle of all this, she gives birth. The next day, Belivar spotted her with the newborn strapped to her chest under a blanket as she just kept walking. Now, I have no idea what happened to her because after this, she just disappears from the record. But I have to say, of everything I've talked about over the whole course of this show, all of it, everyone, this unnamed woman giving birth in the middle of this deadly, treacherous hike, It might be the single most badass moment I've ever heard of.

I mean, my God, this isn't something I'm making up. This actually happened. On July the 6th, after six days of marching, the bedraggled little army finally hit a safe oasis, the town of Swatchah, about 150 miles northeast of Bogota. The residents there had been alerted that this liberating army was doing this insane thing and rushed out to their aid. They brought food and blankets and water and gave them fire. literally the essentials of life, to save these men and women who had done this crazy, reckless,

brave thing. But there was one upside to all this. The royalist forces had no idea that they were there. They had no garrisons even remotely close and no prearranged plan for how to deal with an invasion right now in all this crappy weather in July 1819. Belivar's men were all half dead, but to a certain degree, they had the enemy right where they wanted them. Now, as he himself struggled up the mountain, Mountains. Francisco de Paula Santander was able to observe Belivar's relentless energy, his courage, and genuine compassion for the men who were following him. Now, as with Paz, Belivar and Santander had a complicated relationship, and for example, Santander had never gotten over that time Belivar threatened to shoot him right at the beginning of the admirable campaign six years earlier.

But here, Santander was blown away by Belivar's resolve, his determination, and his genuine spirit of patriotic unity. I mean, all that talk of everyone being in this together was one thing when Belivar was trying to convince New Granotans to come help him liberate his home country of Venezuela. But now Belivar was showing the same relentless resolve the other way. He was leading Venezuelans to liberate New Granada. And Belivar then wasted no time making sure that their shared sacrifice was not all in vain. He immediately began planning the next stage of the campaign. and Santander later said, Here is where this man distinguishes himself above the rest,

exhibiting extraordinary resolve and energy. In three days, he remounts and arms the cavalry, musters ammunition, reassembles the army, then sends out patrols, energizes the citizens, and plans an all-out attack. Now, even though Santander and Belivar would spend as much time in conflict with each other as in partnership, at this moment,

Santander came to realize that whatever else he thought about Belivar, Belivar's stick was not empty vanity. He was the real deal. By now, word was spreading that this Republican army had appeared out of nowhere, and the ranking Spanish general, a guy named Jose Maria Barrero, quickly mustered what forces he could, ultimately about 4,000 men, to put them between Belivar's army and Bogota. Now, after the dead were subtracted, and new recruits added, Belivar was now leading an army of about 2,600 men, and near the end of July, they were on the move towards Bogota. On July the 25th, they finally ran into the Royalists at Pontano de Vargas, literally the Vargas swamp, a region of swampy marshes rimmed by low hills. General Barrero was able to occupy

those hills with his royalist forces, which gave him two essential advantages. He both outnumbered Bolivar and held the high ground. And this is usually game-same. match. But Belivar, of course, decided to launch a full frontal assault right into the teeth of this. When things, quite predictably, started going badly for the Republicans, their left flank was being turned to disarray, the British legionary stepped into the breach and held back any finishing blow, which gave just enough time for Juan Jose Rondon, the hero of La Cicetas del Medio, to lead the cavalry on a furious charge up into the high ground. wielding nothing but spears and machetes. They crashed into the shocked royalist line, just as

heavy rains started to fall. The royalist soldiers had been preparing for a long winter of sitting around doing nothing, not, you know, standing here in the rain being attacked by machete wielding crazy people from Venezuela. They completely caved, broke, and fled. Sontander later reported that the Battle of Pontano de Vargas had been won by the calm of the British and the intensity of the generos. In the aftermath of his defeat at the Vargas swamp, though, the royalist General Barario made a critical decision. He decided to lie his head off to the viceroy about the battle.

He sent a dispatch, assuring the viceroy that the Republicans had been beaten soundly and that everything was well in hand. Now, what I'm guessing here is that Barario did this for two reasons. First, he did not want to provoke a panic in Bogota that might try. trigger a patriotic insurrection. And second, he wanted to buy himself some time to regroup, catch Belivar, and deliver the crushing blow he now already claimed had been delivered. But that's not how things are going to go. Instead, this lie would set the stage for the decisive battle of the campaign, the battle that to this very day marks the beginning of true independence for Colombia,

the battle of Boyaka. On August 7, 1819, the two sides were most of maneuvering around Tunha, once capital of the now defunct Union of New Granada. Belivar's forces still numbered about 2,600, Barrarios about 2,800. But as the royalists moved around Tunha, trying to get on to the main road back to Bogota, they split in two, with an advance guard approaching a key bridge over the Boyaka River and a rear guard about a mile behind them. Now Belivar had posted a small cavalry unit near the bridge to keep an eye on things. And when this advanced guard approached and saw that little unit, they thought it was the only small unit in the area. But Belivar's entire army was just behind a hill out of sight. So these two little cavalry units skirmished against each other, but when the

Republican forces fell back, they fell back not out of sight, but into the waiting embrace of a much larger force led by Santander. The Royalist Vanguard realized they had made a mistake that a much larger army was right around the corner, but then they made another mistake. Rather than racing back to reunite with the rear of the army, they raced forward to capture the Boyaka Bridge. Now, this seemed like a good idea at the time, hold the critical bridge, but it split the Royalist Army in two, and the force led by Santander was hot on their heels, and so, yes, they took the bridge and got to the other side, but now they were pinned down there and cut off from their comrades. Meanwhile, the rest of Belivar's army came pouring out around the hill.

They located the Royalist rear guard strung out along the road and hit them from all sides. Belivar ordered the British legionaries to attack the front of the Royalist. Rondon and the Genneros rode around the back and hit him from the rear, and then Belivar ordered everyone else on a bayonet charge right into their center. General Barrerio's forces were hit from three sides simultaneously by a surprise attack. all told, the Battle of Boyacca lasted no more than two hours, and it was a complete Republican victory. General Barrario himself was cornered and captured, as were 1,600 of his men. Another 500 lay dead, and the rest just scattered.

There was now quite literally no royalist army within 500 miles of Bogota. The question now was not whether the Republicans would take the capital, but whether they would capture the viceroy in the process. They nearly did capture the viceroy. But about 50 of the men who had been pinned down by Santander at the bridge managed to get away. They raced for Bogota to raise the alarm. Now, the city had no idea anything was even remotely amiss. The viceroy was in fact sitting around having dinner when a messenger burst in and told him the enemy was victorious, and nothing was standing between them and Bogota.

After getting over his shock, the viceroy had no time to do anything but just run. His attendance dressed him up like a peasant. peasant, and he snuck out of town. Belivar would later send agents out looking for him, but the viceroy was never located, and he never stopped running either. He wound up making it all the way to Cartagena, and then he immediately got on a ship, and sailed back to Spain, never to return. Meanwhile, Belivar was on a race of his own. With the smoke at Boyakab barely cleared, he was off like a shot at full gallop to close the hundred miles or so to Bogota. And when he arrived in the city, he found himself greeted by bewildered citizens.

I mean, less than 12 hours ago, they had been under the impression that whatever small invading force that had come up through the mountains had been beaten, and that was if they knew anything about any of this at all. And instead, what, General Belivar is here?

And he's won? The Viceroy is gone? And then Belivar discovered just how close he had come to capturing the Viceroy. There were literally still bags of money on his desk, just left behind in the rush. The treasury was full. The munitions depot were stocked. This was a complete victory on all fronts. But Belivar had been in the dark himself about a lot of what had gone on in New Granada.

And when he greeted men that he had known from the last time he had passed through Bogota in 1815, he asked around for the others. Where's President Camillo Torres, the man who supported me in my darkest hours? He was dead. His head had been chopped off and posted on a spike. Oh, what about this guy? What about that guy? They had all been killed in the aftermath of Murillo's reconquest. It was a sobering back end to an otherwise jubilant moment. Now, since we know how this all turns out, we know that the Battle of Boyaka marks the beginning of Colombian independence, real permanent independence. There was no guarantee at the time that it would, nor any way that anyone could have known

that it would, but it did. Belivar's dramatic push into New Granada had fundamentally altered the political and geographic axis of the war. The Republicans were no longer confined to a few interior bases hiding out in Angostura, playing Congress. They now controlled a huge stretch of territory, reaching from the Orinoco River to Bogota, and in no time they would bring all of the interior of New Granada under Republican jurisdiction. It was now the royalists who were confined, restricted to a few ports along the coast, short of men, and now knocked thoroughly back on their heels. When General Murillo was briefed about what had happened, he wrote a report to the Ministry of War back in Spain and said,

The rebellious Belivar has occupied the capital of Bogota, and the deadly outcome of this battle gives him dominion over the enormous resources of a highly populated, abundantly rich nation, from which he will take whatever he needs to prolong the war. This unfortunate loss delivers into rebel hands, apart from the kingdom of New Granada, many ports in the south, where he will now deploy his pirates. The interior of the continent all the way to Peru is at the mercy of whoever rules in Bogota. In just one day, Belivar has undone all that we have accomplished in five years of this campaign, and in one single battle, he has reconquered all the territory that soldiers of the king have won in the course of so many past conflagrations. Belivar then set up shop in the great capital of Bogota and began putting together the bare bones of a new government to rule new Granada.

But it was never his destiny to be a man of laws, and he was itching to get back on his horse, to ride triumphantly through liberated New Granada, spreading the good news that they were all free, and most especially to return to Venezuela to trumpet the success of the invasion, and then return to Angostura to make preparations for the true union of Venezuela and New Granada, to no longer hide on the Orinoco River, but to meet out in the open and in full dignity. So at the end of September 1819, he appointed Santander, the man who was destined to be the man of laws, vice president of New Granada, and left him the difficult task of organizing a restored republic. And this was truly a job for Santander.

Always a mediocre soldier at best, who did not fit in easily with the rough men who had been so easily won over by Belivar. Santander was completely in his element, seated behind a desk drawing up edicts and reforms and taxes, tax codes and an entire political apparatus. And that is where Santander would stay, becoming the founder of modern Colombia, as Belivar himself left the capital in September 1819. Next week, the Liberator will return to Venezuela to forge the Union of Grand Columbia. But he would discover that in his absence from Venezuela, the tenuous alliances that had held the Eastern Caldeos together had broken apart, and it would take careful cajoling and careful soothing to bring everyone back together to complete Belivars first and most compelling desire

to liberate Venezuela once and for all.