Hello, and welcome to Revolutions.

Episode 5.4, The Prince of Caracas.

So last time, we ran through the first two waves of rebellion that hit Spanish America

in the years after the Seven Years War.

We're wandering off into the endlessly fascinating lifetimes of Francisco de Miranda.

We left Miranda in Paris, getting ready to head back up to London to reignite his dream

of Spanish American independence, but we are going to leave him there for the moment,

while we hop back in time a little bit, specifically we're hopping back to the summer of 1783,

just after Miranda had deserted from the Spanish Army.

As I mentioned, it is very likely that as the then 33-year-old Miranda sailed from Cuba

to the United States that he was already dreaming of going down in history as the man who liberated

Spanish South America.

Well, we know that Miranda does not go down as the liberator.

He is just the precursor.

But as historical coincidence would have it, as Miranda departed for his life as a wandering

revolutionary, the man who would become the liberator was on the verge of being born

back in Miranda's hometown of Caracas.

And it is time to call that man to the center of the stage.

Simone Bolivar was born on July 24, 1783, into one of Caracas's most elite Criollo families.

As I mentioned two episodes back, the original patriarch of the family, Simone de Bolivar,

immigrated down to Caracas in 1589, beginning a run of seven generations of the Bolivars

occupying the very upper rungs of Caracas society.

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