There is hardly another country in the world that has given the honor to one of their fighters for independence to name the nation in his memory. This is the case in Bolivia, and this name goes back to Simon Bolivar. He was the first president of the Andean nation and is revered as a national hero not only in Bolivia. The son of a Creole family, he was born in Caracas, Venezuela, traveled through Europe at a young age, experiencing the triumph and tragedy of Napoleon Bonaparte, his rise to emperor, and he gradually became animated by the will to free the subjugated peoples and countries of South America from the scourge of the European occupiers. He felt called to participate in the liberation struggle, stayed in exile for some time and, after the conquest of Angostura in 1821, became the first president of Greater Colombia. The naming of Bolivia is a later bow to the achievement of this fighter for freedom.
