AHC: Keep Gran Colombia From Breaking Apart

I'm thinking about re-writing a TL I started a while ago, this time with actual research and all that good stuff where Gran Colombia doesn't fracture into three (later four) countries. I'd like to read some comments and ideas about how this would go about. I believe the necessary POD would be an early death to Simon Bolivar and Francisco de Paula Santander becomes president and is able to federalize the nation. Any ideas?
 
Nothing happened in south america since cortez and pizzaro. :p

Make Simon Bolivar take the idea of union more seriously and stop the adventuring.
 
Nothing happened in south america since cortez and pizzaro. :p

Make Simon Bolivar take the idea of union more seriously and stop the adventuring.

That seems rather out of his character...

OP, try getting Columbia to press further and reabsorb Ecuador in their 1863 war and you'd be taken the first step. iirc Venezuela was in the middle of a civil war then, or just coming off of one.
 
Nothing happened in south america since cortez and pizzaro. :p

Make Simon Bolivar take the idea of union more seriously and stop the adventuring.


What about having him adventuring in the caribbean instead of Peru, something like, the meeting with San Martin went differently, so Bolivar, Instead of going to Peru, went north, to liberate Cuba, Puerto Rico, La Española (Dominican Republic), and have them join the Republic of Colombia, and with British aid, I might even see a Colombian-US rivalry in the caribbean
 
What about having him adventuring in the caribbean instead of Peru, something like, the meeting with San Martin went differently, so Bolivar, Instead of going to Peru, went north, to liberate Cuba, Puerto Rico, La Española (Dominican Republic), and have them join the Republic of Colombia, and with British aid, I might even see a Colombian-US rivalry in the caribbean

Bolivar wasn't a navy man. And Spain cared way more about it's Caribbean possessions than it's south american possessions. Britain also wouldn't like it because they didn't want an independence movement spreading to Jamaica and the Windward or Leeward Islands.

Bolivar should probably do a lot better in the Peruvian and Chilean theaters so he has time to return and engage in statecraft in Gran Colombia.
 
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