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After Bolívar died and Gran Colombia broke up, Santander returned from exile in 1832 and served as President of the Republic of New Granada from 1832 to 1836. Santander had spent a great deal of time in Europe absorbing how the ideas of the Enlightenment were affecting European politics in the early 19th century. In 1830, he was in Brussels, where he attended the opera "La muette de Portici," and witnessed the Belgian Revolution, which was sparked by riots linked to the opera’s liberal political implications. When he returned, these concepts influenced his decisions to a great extent.