1830Together with José de San Martín, Bolívar is regarded as one of the Liberators of Spanish South America.
The Bolívar aristocratic bloodline derives from a small village in the Basque Country, called Bolibar, which is the origin of the surname.[1] His father was a remote descendent of King Fernando III of Castile and Count Amedeo IV of Savoy, and was related to the male line of the family of Ardanza.[2] The Bolívars settled in Venezuela in the sixteenth century.
Some people claim that the family grew to prominence before gaining great wealth. For example, the Cathedral of Caracas, founded in 1575, has a side chapel dedicated to Simón Bolívar's family.[citation needed] In any case, they became one of the western hemisphere's richest families during the later colonial period, in large part due to the Aroa River gold and copper mines in Venezuela. Gold-mining in the region had begun in 1632, followed by discoveries of copper, which was exploited in the later seventeenth century under the name "Cobre Caracas". These mines became the property of Simón Bolívar's family. Bolívar used part of his inherited mineral income to finance the South American revolutionary wars.
