Latin America was under the colonial rule of Spain, Portugal and Britain since the beginning of 17th century. The Latin American region was also exploited by the colonial nations like other parts of the world. This exploitation gave birth to the spirit of nationalism in Latin America. The ideas of American Revolution, French and the democratic movements going in Europe also affected the awakened elements in Latin American countries. All this led to the anti-colonial movement in the beginning of 19th century.
Simon Bolivar was a Venezuelan citizen by birth. He had stayed in Britain for some time to receive education and during this stay he came under the influence of liberal, democratic and nationalist ideas. When he went back to his country he was deeply hurt by the prevailing colonial exploitation and assumed the leadership of nationalist movement in Latin America.
Simon Bolivar inspired the Latin American people to organize themselves against the colonial rule. He propagated the liberal and progressive ideas and fought to free his people from colonial rule. Simon Bolivar continued to fight for almost two decades and succeeded in freeing Venezuela, Bolivia and some other parts of Latin America from the domination of colonial rule.
He gave birth to the legacy of anti-colonial struggle and this inspiration provided by him resulted in the success of anti-colonial struggle. Ultimately it led to whole of Latin America attaining independence by the middle of 20th century.
Simon Bolivar dreamt of establishing a United State of Latin America by freeing all the areas from foreign domination. He wanted to develop Latin America as a liberal, progressive and economically prosperous nation. Latin America had been under colonial control for many centuries and because of that there was a long standing tradition of absolute rule. They had considered democratic rule as weak therefore the liberal democratic ideals failed to take root in most of the Latin American countries. These limitations were used by local military commanders to establish their absolute rule in different parts of the continent after the end of the colonial rule.
Economically Latin American region was backward.Inspite of being rich in mineral resources there was no trace of industrial revolution in any part. Agriculture was also in backward condition. The problem of hunger, poverty and unemployment were common which led to liberal and progressive ideas propagated by Simon Bolivar failed to have any impact on Latin American countries. Educationally also Latin American region was backward. Even the ideas of American and French revolutions did not influence the Latin Americans and the level of awakening remained very low among the masses.