Simón Bolívar - III: Leavings and Returns - Extra History

Sounds like my kinda history book! I'll be looking to pick this up. -Soraya

Extra History

Several people have mentioned that they also had trouble finding information about the Legions of Hell. (I guess a name like that attracts attention.) I'll pass the request along to him!

Extra History

Dan has many talents. Pronunciation is not one of them. <3

Extra History

And then turned away.

Banananananna

Yeesh, talk about brutal. Something I've always wondered about revolutions from this period (or revolutions in general) was "how do these revolutions go so wrong, and what was it that the American Revolution got right when every other one just fell into pieces and gave birth to tyranny?"

A letter and its pronunciation you may want to learn about: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%87 And so: Curaçao (/ˈkʊrəsaʊ/ kur-ə-sow

Tommy Laukkanen

@ Alberto Great suggestion as a Colombian I remember learning a lot about her in school. She was a true hero.

Jimmy A Guerrero

There's actually one from that period, called "La Pola". It's not from the perspective of Bolívar, but from Policarpa Salavarrieta, a woman who was a hero during the revolution. I would definitively recommend it if you want to get a grasp of the situation in New Granada and the early days of the Gran Colombia.

Alberto Restrepo

I'd like if James could talk more about the "Legions of Hell" in the Lies episode. Since I can't really find that much in terms of information on them, not even a Wikipedia article.

TalonsofWater

Now if someone can make a novella out of this, that would be great!

Joo-Hwan Jun

Agreed. :(

Extra History

His declaration was common practice in revolutionary warfare. The Cuban insurrection in Cuba in the 1890's would act under a similar mantra. José Tomás Boves, the general who would oppose Bolivar, was semi-royalist, but by 1813 had largely acted as he pleased, permitting his mixed-race force to launch a brutal race and class war against the urban populations. Like Alexander or other "lead-from-the-front" generals, Boves exposed himself to the same hardships as his men and won their undying loyalty. Though his horsemen were not mere raiders and looters, they often lived as herdsmen who drove cattle to grazing lands in time with the wet and dry seasons. Both Bolivar and Boves were masters at using shock to their advantage. The chaos and shock of attacking in an unexpected direction forms a major component of maneuver warfare. By attacking and causing damage quickly, a shock troop disrupts enemy cohesion and instills panic, preventing an enemy from bringing its full force to bear as it becomes unable to field a proper fixed line, and this was true regardless of whether the enemy was using spears or muskets. By attacking from an unexpected direction, commanders were looking to maximize the chances of their shock troops succeeding by reducing the ability of the defenders to fight back before panic set in. Right out of Sun Tzu: "shun places that are defended, attack in unexpected quarters."

Jim McGeehin

We'll go up to his death, although after he leaves South America there's a lot less detail from us as it's pretty much a sharp, sad decline. But it would have been disingenuous to leave him with the declaration of independence, considering how badly things do fall apart and how valuable it is to try and understand why.

Extra History

We'll soon see! :D

Extra History

David's been knocking it out of the park with this series!

Extra History

I'm afraid there's going to be a lot of mispronunciation in this one. Due to the way our schedule works, I (Soraya) was away on vacation back when Dan had to record the voice work for them, and I'm usually the person who helps him find pronunciations he's not sure about. We do occasionally patch in fixes to the audio, but in this case it'd take longer to fix than it did to record the original audio, and there's now art being set and timed to this audio version. Long story short: sorry about the mispronunciations, but they are here to stay this time around. On the bright side, I believe we're almost done talking about juntas.

Extra History

It never ends well when you decide that killing everyone (and I do mean everyone) on the other side is an acceptable practice.

Michael Jebbett

One thing I hope James explains in lies is his use of Venezuela. At the time the territory was known as the Viceroyalty of New Granada, and after the revolution it became The Republic of Colombia (now known as Gran Colombia to differentiate it from the current Republic of Colombia). How far will the series cover? will it go all the way to his death or just the declaration of independence?

Jimmy A Guerrero

so whats next for Simon

schuyler

as Phillip said: in spanish, the "J" is equivalent to the english "H" (and the spanish H is silent!) ... also, good use of the red as part of the Venezuelan flag. I believe that it does, in fact, stand for the blood spilled (I know it does in Colombia at least)

mazinja

Hey, guys, please look up the pronunciation of words and geographical names you are not sure about! After all, your goal is no to promote ignorance ;) "junta" is pronounced with a sound, which has nothing in common with the English "j"; the second "c" in Curacao is pronounced as an "s". The "ao" is also pronounced in a special way, but that's too much to ask

Philipp Ugryum-Botanin von Stierlitz