5.03- The Precursors

Enter Bolívar.  

1n 1806, two invasions of South America tested the waters of independence. Also, Bolívar swears to liberate his country or die trying.  

Vespasian served as Emperor from 69-79 AD, stabilizing the Empire after a year of Civil War. 

After attaining power, Augustus set about reforming the Empire. 

In 238, a revolt in Africa sparked a revolution in Rome that would eventually lead to six different men claiming the title of Augustus. 

Before Simón Bolívar, before José de San Martín, there was someone else. A man who fought for independence not only in South America but in France and the United States, and whose name is the ONLY American one (North or South) to be engraved in the Arc de Triomphe.