Rebels led by Simon Bolivar defeated troops of the Spanish Empire in the Battle of Boyaca on this day in 1819, ensuring the independence of a vast swath of South and Central America from the Spanish monarchy and the success of a wider movement to boot it from the Americas entirely.
It was also a stunning victory for Bolivar and his men. They’d marched for 42 days, including crossing a 13,000-foot-high mountain pass, and one-third of the troops had died along the way. The rebels posted up at a key bridge overlooking Bogota, the capital. When royalist soldiers met them, they underestimated the size of the rebel force. They were quickly overwhelmed and dropped their arms when faced with a massive bayonet charge.
After nine years of struggling for independence, Bolivar built a state that would eventually cover 1.18 million square miles, over a third of the current size of the 48 contiguous U.S. states. The confusingly named Republic of Colombia lasted from 1819 to 1832, before it broke into several states due to infighting. The land it once covered is spread across several modern countries, including parts of Brazil and Peru and the entirety of modern Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and mainland Ecuador.
You can read more about the Battle of Boyacá at the Library of Congress.
