What did Napoléon Bonaparte think of Simón Bolívar?

by snuppy12345

Did Napoléon ever comment or express any opinion on Simón Bolívar or his idea of Gran Colombia? There was probably a very short period where they were both technically fighting the Spanish at the same point in time, so was that ever acknowledged?

zhirzzh

While you are waiting for answers, a very similar question was answered very well by u/Red_Galiray in another thread, but focusing on what Bolivar thought of Napoleon: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/gng3ik/napoleon_was_fourteen_when_sim%C3%B3n_bol%C3%ADvar_was_born/

visijared

Hm, well, I can't exactly answer your question (not sure if anyone can?) but I can give you some context.

It's important to note that Boliver's time in Europe was not simply a 1805 coronation inspiration-vacation. In 1803 Bolivar lost his new wife and was absolutely devastated (he vowed never to marry again and he never did) - the trip to Europe was supposed to cheer him up.

So in reality, Bolivar arrived in France some time in 1804, perhaps early in the year, and was actually part of Napoleon's retinue for a time. Bolivar was fascinated by Napoleon at first, but later became disillusioned by Bonaparte's perceived betrayal of republican ideals. I don't think this happened overnight. The coronation disgusted Bolivar and he left Paris to tour around Europe with his old friend Simón Rodríguez while they brainstormed the future possibilites of a Latin American revolution.

So bear in mind, Simon likely spoke with Napoleon on numerous occasions and perhaps even chummed around with (or maybe just close to?) him for a few weeks or even months, rather than simply being in the same room as him during the 1805 coronation. Perhaps Napoleon was too busy and his retinue was too large at that point for them to really come into contact, but one can safely assume Napoleon would have had to extend the invitation to be part of his retinue to Bolivar personally at some point (unless arrangements were made through wealthy/influential family connections or subordinates which is admittedly also possible) or at least welcome Bolivar himself eventually. I am obviously speculating here.

But I can also tell you for sure what Napoleon (in his younger years anyways) thought of Simon Bolivar's predecessor, Francisco de Miranda, based on an account of the party where they first met in 1795 Paris;

He (Miranda) continued to receive invitations to the best Parisian soirees, including one at Julie Talmy's home where the rising young Napoleon Bonaparte pronounced Miranda to be a saner incarnation of Don Quixote. Napoleon apparently rebuffed Miranda's dinner invitations, and there was no great affinity between the two military men.

A decade and a half later, on June 10 1810, Bolivar travelled to London as an envoy to seek support for Venezuela's revolt against Bonaparte's authority. Bolivar also met with Francisco de Miranda and convinced him to return to Venezuela. They both arrived back home in December. A short two years later Boliver would arrest Miranda and hand him over to the Spanish Royal Army, while claiming he had only let Miranda live because his comrades had restrained him.

Honestly, given how anti-slavery Bolivar was - his favourite tactic was to grant slaves freedom only IF they killed their former masters - and how pro-slavery Napolean was, it's hard to think Napolen was anything other than irritated at the thought of Bolivar granting freedom to all former Spanish colony slaves as he liberated country after country, especially since Napoleon knew how much harder it was to reinstate slavery after slaves had already been freed. Napoleon was very pro-slavery when it came to Saint-Domingue specifically (half of modern-day Dominican Republic) for wealth and prestige reasons, but I for one think his aggressive approach to re-imposing extreme slavery would have been extended to all of Latin American had Napoleon got his hands on it.

Although one has to wonder if Napoleon wasn't a little happy about how Bolivar helped to ensure his Napoleanic Code became adopted by all Latin American countries even despite the French-Spanish rivalry and lack of encouragement to do so. The Napoleanic Code is what Bonaparte considered to be his greatest achievement of all time and something he openly advocated for the whole world to implement without delay. Fun fact; the Napoleanic Code is still in use by many countries (and Louisiana) across the world to this day!