page_title: Simón Bolívar
section_title: Ecuador and Peru, 1822–1825
hierarchical_section_title: Simón Bolívar / Political and military career / Ecuador and Peru, 1822–1825
caption_attribution_description: Batalla de Junín - Oleo de Martín Tovar y Tovar
context_page_description: Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte-Andrade y Blanco, generally known as Simón Bolívar and also colloquially as El Libertador, or the Liberator, was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama to independence from the Spanish Empire.
  Bolívar was born into a wealthy family and as was common for the heirs of upper-class families in his day, was sent to be educated abroad at a young age, arriving in Spain when he was 16 and later moving to France. While in Europe he was introduced to the ideas of the Enlightenment, which later motivated him to overthrow the reigning Spanish in colonial South America. Taking advantage of the disorder in Spain prompted by the Peninsular War, Bolívar began his campaign for independence in 1808. The campaign for the independence of New Granada was consolidated with the victory at the Battle of Boyacá on 7 August 1819. He established an organized national congress within three years.
context_section_description: Bolívar followed with the Battle of Bombona and the Battle of Pichincha, after which he entered Quito on 16 June 1822. On 26 and 27 July 1822, Bolívar held the Guayaquil Conference with the Argentine General José de San Martín, who had received the title of "Protector of Peruvian Freedom" in August 1821 after partially liberating Peru from the Spanish. Thereafter, Bolívar took over the task of fully liberating Peru.
  The Peruvian congress named him dictator of Peru on 10 February 1824, which allowed Bolívar to reorganize completely the political and military administration. Assisted by Antonio José de Sucre, Bolívar decisively defeated the Spanish cavalry at the Battle of Junín on 6 August 1824. Sucre destroyed the still numerically superior remnants of the Spanish forces at Ayacucho on 9 December 1824.
  According to British historian Robert Harvey:
  Bolívar's achievements in Peru had been as staggering as any in his career of a year, from holding a strip of the country's north coast while himself nearly moribund, he and Sucre had taken on and defeated an army of 18,000 men and secured a country the size of nearly all of Western Europe...the investment of personal energy, the distances covered and the four army expeditions across supposedly impassable mountain ranges had qualified him for superhuman status...His stamina and military achievements put him at the forefront of the global heroes of history.
  Writing to United States Secretary of State John Quincy Adams in 1824, United States Consul in Peru William Tudor stated:
  Unfortunately for Peru, the invaders who came to proclaim liberty and independence were cruel, rapacious, unprincipled and incapable. Their mismanagement, their profligacy, and their thirst for plunder soon alienated the affections of the inhabitants.
  Even though Bolívar condemned the corrupt practices of the Spanish, he ordered some churches stripped of their decorations. On 19 March 1824, José Gabriel Pérez wrote to Antonio José de Sucre about the orders given to him by Bolívar; Pérez talked about "all the ordinary and extraordinary means" that should be applied to assure the subsistence of the patriot army. Indeed, Pérez said that Bolívar issued instructions to take from churches "all golden and silver jewels" in order to coin them and pay war expenditures. Days later, Bolívar himself said to Sucre that there would be a complete lack of resources unless severe actions were taken against "the jewels of the churches, everywhere".
caption: Battle of Junín, 6 August 1824
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