Anita Arnon

He would have been a Creole landowning aristocrat exploiting the slaves working on his land.

Yeah, but he doesn't because that future just dies with Maria Teresa.

So in this sort of distraught state, he leaves Venezuela.

He leaves his estate.

He leaves anything that reminds him of Maria Teresa and returns to Europe.

That's right.

And that has a huge impact because again, he has something else to think about.

And he dives into the radical teachings that Rodriguez is laying in front of him.

And you can say sort of at this point, truly, his political education begins in earnest.

This will be a theme in Bolivar's life because he wants to be like Napoleon, but he doesn't want to be like Napoleon at all costs.

What makes a great leader?

Do you have to do what it takes regardless of the human cost because you believe in a better future for your people?

So, you know, there is this push-pull when he's not going to Napoleon's ceremony, when he makes decisions and will haunt him for the rest of his life.

This idea that he wants liberty, he wants civility.

But in the end, he will end up being a man who imposes tyranny and terror.

But more on that to come.

Willie, take us back to that moment, you know, the oath that you read out.

Apart from the heavily laden with the Roman history that he would have been well aware of, Spain's at war with Britain again, having recently suffered the devastating defeat at Trafalgar.

The Spanish court, which Bolivar has been sort of swimming around in Madrid, is riven.

He's seen this now firsthand with incompetence and corruption.