Exactly a century has passed since the French invasion of Spain gavethe signal for a general revolt of the Spanish-American Colonies. Inthe twenty years' struggle that ensued, Spain paid in kind for morethan three centuries of Colonial misrule. Her garrisons, again andagain reinforced from the mother country, fought a losing fight, withthe old-time Spanish gallantry that had won for Ferdinand the Empire ofthe West. But the tide of freedom swept them remorselessly from oneprovince after another, and with them went the swarms of corruptofficials who since the days of Cortes and Pizarro had plundered thecolonies for the benefit of the Spanish treasury.
In the northern provinces the leading spirit of revolt was SimonBolivar, a man whose many faults of character were obscured by anextraordinary energy and enthusiasm. He is said to have fought fourhundred battles; his victories were sullied by inhuman barbarities; hisdefeats were retrieved by unconquerable perseverance. Bolivar wasinstrumental in founding five republics, among them that of his nativeprovince of Venezuela, of which he was the first President.
Ten years of one of the grimmest struggles known to history gavefreedom to Venezuela and her sister republics; but in the north, as inmany other parts of the Continent, freedom has for the past centuryspelt, not liberty, but licence. Centuries of slavery, in fact if notin name, had rendered the mixed races