Ramtin Arablouei and Randa Abdel-Fattah

Bolivar spent a lot of time outside of Venezuela, organizing new rebellions, failing, and reflecting on what went wrong in that first rebellion, the one that came so close to succeeding.

Those reflections led Bolívar to devise a whole new approach.

First, if he wanted to build up an army, all types of people needed to be brought into the revolutionary fold.

Not just, as Miranda had thought, the elite, the criollos.

Criollos aren't going to, you know, be the ones who are charging into battle.

People are going to be charging into battle are mestizo, you know, mixed race peoples who can imagine themselves in a better place in an independent system.

It's slaves for whom he subsequently promises liberty.

Second, Bolívar decided that he would have to wage a different kind of war to stand a chance against the powerful Spanish army.

And third, Bolívar rethought his mission altogether.

This can't be a struggle to liberate Venezuela.

This has to be a much larger continental struggle.

He imagined a South America under one flag that would be democratic and inclusive of all the diverse people that lived in it.

This wasn't just an effort to take power.

It was supposed to bring a different kind of government.

One not just ruled by the elite.

He called this new vision of a united South America Gran Colombia.

Great Colombia.

Which would bring together a federation of independent republics nevertheless united as one.

more and more people across South America began joining his cause.

And with this army, Bolívar began challenging Spanish troops in Venezuela and neighboring Colombia.