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==Background==
During the years 1815 and 1816, Spain had [[Spanish reconquest of New Granada|reconquered most of New Granada]] after having deployed the Expeditionary Army of Costa Firme under the command of General [[Pablo Morillo]] from Spain in early 1815, this effort was also aided by General [[Juan de Sámano|Juan de Samano]] and his royalist forces in the south of New Granada. After five years of de facto and official independence Morillo restablished [[Viceroyalty of New Granada|Royalist government]] in [[Bogotá|Santa Fe]]
By 1817, Bolívar had set up his headquarters in the [[Orinoco]] region in southern Venezuela. It was an area from which the Spaniards could not easily oust him. There he engaged the services of several thousand foreign soldiers and officers, mostly [[British Legions|British and Irish]], set up his capital at Angostura (now [[Ciudad Bolívar]]) and established liaisons with the revolutionary forces of the [[Llanos]], including one group of Venezuelan ''[[llanero]]s'' (cowboys) led by [[José Antonio Páez]] and another group of New Granadan exiles led by Colonel [[Francisco de Paula Santander]] who was the commander of the remnant forces that made up the army of the [[United Provinces of New Granada|United Provinces of New Granda]] and would join Bolivar's army. With these forces he began a campaign from [[Guyana]] pushing Morillo westwards where his forces would reach the gates of [[Caracas]] only to be turned back by Morillo at the 3rd Battle of La Puerta. With this defeat Boilvar retreated to the safety of ''Llanos'' of the [[Apure]] region. Morillo's forces in early 1819 penetrated the ''llanos'' of the Apure region with the goal of finishing off Bolivar. Bolivar would defeat him at the [[Battle of Las Queseras del Medio]] in April, forcing Morillo to retreat to [[Calabozo]] where he would stay to wait out the rain season.
Back in August 1818 Bolivar promoted Santander to Brigadier General and dispatched him to the ''Llanos'' of [[Casanare Department|Casanare]] along with 1,200 muskets, uniforms, and other supplies with the mission of creating and training New Granadan army for a future campaign to liberate New Granada. This area of New Granada was one of the few places where there was no Spanish presence thus it harbored many of the New Granadans who had fled Morillo's reconquest. Santander was able to effectively organize this army which eventually reached around 1,200 men
By 1819, the young [[artillery]] Colonel José María Barreiro, was the military commander of all royalist troops in New Granada, and counted with at least 4,500 trained soldiers of the III Division of the Expeditionary Army of Costa Firme scattered throughout the Kingdom. Since assuming command his mission was both to attack and defend the kingdom against any rebel threat. As both Viceroy Samano and Morillo heard reports of Santander's efforts to organize an army in Casanare at the same time that Morillo penetrated the Apure region in Venezuela, Barreiro was instructed to attack Santander in Casanare and deployed a force of 1,200 men 540 cavalry in March of 1819 crossing the Andes and arriving in the llanos and reaching Pore in early April, this campaign would be unsuccsessful as the Royalist Army would become exhausted as it was badly prepared for the campaign and was also constantly harrased by Patriot forces forcing Barreiro to withdraw to Tunja as the rainy season set in.
==The campaign==
Bolívar conceived of the [[Military operation|operation]] in late 1818 and early 1819 after the [[Congress of Angostura]] began its deliberations and had reappointed him president of [[Second Republic of Venezuela|Venezuela]]. If Bolívar could liberate New Granada, he would have a whole new base from which to operate against General [[Pablo Morillo]], head of the [[royalist (Hispanic American Revolution)|royalist]] forces in the area and end the stalemate in Venezuela. Central New Granada held great promise since, unlike Venezuela, it had only been recently conquered by Morillo and it had a prior six-year experience of independent government. Royalist sentiment, therefore, was not strong. But it would be hard to take the initiative against the better prepared and supplied royalist army. To surprise it, Bolívar decided to move during the [[wet season|rainy season]], when the Llanos flooded up to a meter and the campaign season ended. Morillo's forces would be gone from the Llanos for months and no one would anticipate that Bolívar's troops would be on the move. The proposed route, however, was considered impassable, and therefore the plan understandably received little support from the Congress or from Páez. [[File:Marcha del libertador Bolívar y Santander en la campaña de los Llanos.jpg|thumb|Bolívar and Santander traversing the flooded ''Llanos'' by Jesús María Zamora.|287x287px]]
On May 25, Bolivar set out with his Venezuelan troops from the town of Mantecal in the [[Apure]] region of Venezuela westwards towards Tame in New Granada (modern day Colombia) where he would meet up with the army General Santander had formed to combine their forces and then set off for the Andes. During the march from Venezuela to New Granada a considerable number of horses and pack mules were lost to the flooded Llanos where they drowned, on June 4 they crossed the [[Arauca River]] and reached Tame on June 12. Once there Bolivar began the organization of the combined army of 2,500 men with him as commander-in-chief and General [[Carlos Soublette]] as his [[Chief of staff|Chief of staff.]] The army was organized into 2 Divisions, a Vanguard Division in the front of the army under the command of Brigadier General Francisco de Paula Santander, and a Rearguard Division with the bulk of the army under the command of Brigadier General [[José Antonio Anzoátegui]], within this rearguard division was the British Legion under the command of Colonel [[James Rooke (British Legion officer)|James Rooke]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moreno de Angel |first=Pilar |title=Santander |orig-date=1989 |publisher=Crítica Colombia |year=2019 |isbn=9789584276926 |edition=1st |location=Bogotá |pages=400 |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gutiérrez Ardila |first=Daniel |title=1819: Campaña de la Nueva Granada |date=2019 |publisher=Universidad Externado de Colombia |year=2019 |isbn=978-958-790-122-1 |edition=1st |location=Bogotá |pages=61}}</ref> While at Tame, Bolivar and Santander conducted a war meeting in order to discuss which route the army would take to cross the Cordillera Oriental, while Bolivar had originally inteneded to take the route through La Salina pass, Santander disagreed with this and suggested taking the route through the Paramo de Pisba with Boilvar eventually agreeing with this recommendation.<ref>Riaño, Camilo. ''La Campaña Libertadora de 1819'', 116-119.</ref> The pass through the Paramo de Pisba was the shortest and the least defended route, however it was also the most difficult and treacherous but with the greatest chance of suprising Spanish forces as it was deemed impassable by Barreiro especially during the rain season. With the forces that he and Santander had recruited in the [[Apure River|Apure]] and [[Meta River]] regions now combined, set off on June 17 1819.<ref>Lynch, John. ''Bolívar, A Life'', 124–127.</ref><ref>Masur, Gerhard. ''Simon Bolivar'', 261–264.</ref><ref>Madariaga, Salvador de. ''Bolívar'', 339–343.</ref>
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=== Battle of Paya - 27 June ===
On June 27 as the Patriot Vanguard approached the town of Paya they spotted the presence of a Spanish Garrison guarding the town. This Spanish garrison of around 300 men were under the command of Major Juan Figueroa y Ladron were guarding the town as it was along the road that led to the main mountain pass at [[Labranzagrande]]. Santander then ordered
=== Crossing the Andes ===
With the path clear the army continued its march, however
[[File:Bolivar's troops in the Cordillera Oriental.jpg|thumb|Bolívar's troops ascend the Cordillera Oriental|154x154px]][[File:AgenciaDeNoticias-20190219-01 04.jpg|left|thumb|342x342px|Bolivar crossing the Paramo de Pisba by Francisco Antonio Cano]]As the army ascended from the hot and humid, flood-swept plains of Venezuela of New Granada they were greeted by the freezing cold of the icy mountain pass of the [[Páramo]] de [[Pisba, Boyacá|Pisba]], which reached an elevation of 3,960 meters (13,000 feet), through the [[Cordillera Oriental (Colombia)|Cordillera Oriental]]. After the hardships of wading through a virtual sea, the mostly ''llanero'' army was not prepared and poorly clothed for the cold and altitude of the mountains as well as the heavy rainfall they experieneced.<ref>Lynch, John. ''Bolívar, A Life'', 127–129.</ref><ref>Masur, Gerhard. ''Simon Bolivar'', 264–266.</ref><ref>Madariaga, Salvador de. ''Bolívar'', 343–348.</ref>Santander and the Vanguard divison were able to weather the climate better as they were mostly from the andes, this force arrived in Socha on July 4, and sent back men to assist the struggling Rearguard in their crossing<ref>Riaño, Camilo. ''La Campaña Libertadora de 1819'': 160.</ref><ref>Harvey, Robert. ''Liberators: Latin America's Struggle for Independence'': 177.</ref>. Anzoategui and the rearguard division began to cross the Paramo on July 5 and would have to spend the night on the plateau. Bolivar among them described the crossing "That same day we entered the Paramo, while the weather was good, the troops suffered a lot from the cold and we lost all beasts of saddle and burden; It has been rare that one would make it."<ref>Riaño, Camilo. ''La Campaña Libertadora de 1819'': 162.</ref> The rearguard suffered heavily during the crossing as their troops were mostly men of the ''Llanos,'' during the night many froze to the death as there is little to no vegetation in the area preventing the building of fires for warmth. The rearguard eventually descended on July 6, General Soublette who was still in Paya informed Bolivar that the British Legion would cross on the 13th. During the crossing 100 men had perished as well as another amount had deserted, during the crossing the army all most all of its horses as well as a large amount of supplies. In Socha some 500 men were hospitalized and had to be cared for by the townsfiolk, Santander commented on the sorry state of the army stating that "the army was a dying body." <ref>Gutiérrez Ardila, Daniel. ''1819: campaña de la Nueva Granada'': 62.</ref><ref>Moreno de Angel, Pilar. ''Santander'': 417. </ref>
=== Barreiro's reaction ===
▲Despite some intelligence that Bolívar was on the move, the Spanish doubted Bolívar's army could make the trip, and therefore, they were taken by surprise when Bolívar's small army emerged from the mountains on 5 July. Bolívar rebuilt his forces by placing a [[Conscription|levy]] on the local population. In a series of battles the republican army cleared its way to [[Bogotá]]. First at the [[Battle of Vargas Swamp]] on 25 July, Bolívar intercepted a royalist force attempting to reach the poorly defended capital. After the Battle of Vargas Swamp, Bolivar reorganized his men, resting them until 4 August, when he ordered a return to Venezuela. However, in the night, he redirected his forces towards Tunja, and took the city by mid-day of 5 August 1819. Due to Bolivar's flash conquest, Barreiro was obliged to mobilize his troops to defend the capital, Santafé, from Bolivar. The Royalist men took the fastest route to Bogota (which led through the Boyacá Bridge) but were unable to pass, as Bolivar intercepted them, early morning of 7 August. Bolivar's republican troops were composed of approximately 2,850 men, which successfully divided and defeated the 2,670 royalist soldiers in a battle that lasted two hours. The battle resulted in the death of 66 republicans, 250 royalists, as well as the capture of approximately 1,600 of the remaining royal troops. At the [[Battle of Boyacá]] on 7 August 1819, the bulk of the royalist army surrendered to Bolívar.
On the day of the battle of Boyacá, Colonel Barrerio (leader of the royalist forces in Nueva Granada) was captured alongside 37 Spanish officers. The 38 prisoners were executed on 11 October 1819 by decree of Francisco de Paula Santander, keeping true to Bolivar's motto of 'war to the death.' On receiving the news, the viceroy, [[Juan José de Sámano y Uribarri|Juan José de Sámano]], and the rest of royalist government fled the capital to Cartagena de Indias so fast that they left behind the treasury. On the afternoon of 10 August Bolívar's army entered [[Bogotá]] without any royalist resistance.<ref>Lynch, John. ''Bolívar, A Life'', 129–130.</ref><ref>Masur, Gerhard. ''Simon Bolivar'', 266-73.</ref><ref>Madariaga, Salvador de. ''Bolívar'', 357–358.</ref> His arrival concluded the campaign for liberating Nueva Granada. The battle of Boyacá was a decisive triumph over Spanish power in Nueva Granada, and the Spanish America as a whole. Despite the Royalists' strength in the other provinces of the region, such as Santa Marta and Pasto – where resistance would withstand various years of revolutionary uprisings – the capital of the viceroyalty of Nueva Granada had fallen in the hands of the New Granadans.
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