The United States' Stance on the Simón Bolívar Movement 1810-1830

Abstract

    The first quarter of the 19th Century witnessed a radical transformation of the political map of the Americas, as the "Liberator" Simón Bolívar led national liberation movements to end Spanish domination in South America. While Latin American peoples looked to their northern neighbor, the United States, as the cradle of revolution and democracy in the New World, the official American stance was governed by complex geopolitical calculations. This study seeks to shed light on the nature of the American stance towards Bolívar's movement, deconstructing the dimensions of Washington's policy of cautious neutrality, culminating in the declaration of the Monroe Doctrine, and how this relationship transformed from hopes of continental solidarity into seeds of suspicion and ideological clash between the two sides. The research comprises three main sections. The first section, entitled "The Early Stages of Simón Bolívar's Life: His Family Origins, Birth, Education, and Early Activism," examines the reasons for the independence of the Spanish colonies in Latin America and the establishment of several independent states there. Finally, the third section, entitled "The United States' Declaration of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823," outlines the American position on the revolutions in the Americas and its declaration of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, which opposed the European presence in the New World.