New Book on British Volunteers who fought under Bolivar

excavator59 says on Oct 25, 2009, 07:56:

About time they got some recognition I had heard about this but nice to see something in print ,I think also an Irish platoon & General helped in the liberation of Chile.

Life is like a Pubic Hair on a Toilet Seat (Sooner or Later you get Pissed Off)

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johnny2009 says on Oct 25, 2009, 08:09:

Bernardo O Higgins half Irish Chilean schooled in London was the liberator or Chile. Scot Thomas Cochrane put the Chilean Navy together and went and helped liberate Perú too

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tirofijoisback says on Oct 25, 2009, 08:28:

Cochrane led the Brazilian Navy breifly too.

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excavator59 says on Oct 25, 2009, 08:35:

When are we going to liberate it from all these Gringos Johnny?

Life is like a Pubic Hair on a Toilet Seat (Sooner or Later you get Pissed Off)

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excavator59 says on Oct 25, 2009, 08:39:

Different story Johnny but in about 1830-40 the Venezuelan Ambassador's (or envoy) wife came from Market Weighton which is only about 15 miles from my hometown in East Yorkshire .

Life is like a Pubic Hair on a Toilet Seat (Sooner or Later you get Pissed Off)

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johnny2009 says on Oct 25, 2009, 10:57:

All those drunken Scottish and Irish mercenaries should apologise to Spain, liberate Colombia back from the Colombians and give it to the EU

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jb_fastpitch says on Oct 25, 2009, 19:42:

Sounds like a good read:
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"Over the next few months I will be contributing a series of blogs promoting Conquer or Die!, a forthcoming Osprey title on the British troops who helped Simón Bolívar liberate Venezuela and New Granada (modern day Colombia) in the early nineteenth century. Some will focus on the key characters involved. Others will look at the untamed geography of the continent, the merciless nature of South American warfare and the ravages of tropical disease."
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This took place in the early part of the 19th century (after the battle of Waterloo - 1814) I wonder how familiar the author of the review is with the nature of european warfare that preceded this or in fact the American Civil war wich followed? " the merciless nature of South American warfare and the ravages of tropical disease." How about the savage nature of Greek Hoplite warfare, Roman warfare, all hand to hand combat and the devestation of two world conflicts. In the American civil war more folks were lost to disease than combat. 27000 were killed in one day at Sharpesburg (Antietem). Gettysburg saw over 50,000 killed in just three days. During the Tri-Partite War in Paraguay (I know it's in South America), Lopez lost 90% of the male population of Paraguay in his war with Brazil, Uraguay and Argentina.
Anyway, I don't think the warfare was any more merciless in Bolivar's era in Saouth America than anywhere else.

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tirofijoisback says on Oct 26, 2009, 07:10:

jb-fastpitch: Several of the British volunteers were veterans of the Napoleonic Wars, partricularly Wellington´s Peninsular Campaigns and the 100 days (Waterloo, Quatre Bras). Compared to their experiences in these conflicts the wars of Liberation (which Bolivar himself dubbed War to the Death) were merciless indeed. British and French officers often enjoyed truces or exchanged pleasantries on the battlefield in the European conflict, but such behaviour was unheard of in SOuth America were no quarter was given and all prisoners (as well as numerous civilians) were routinely executed. Some historians have written (see Lynch´s BolivAR a life) that as many of 200,000 of Venezuela´s population of 900,000 died between 1810 and 1821. The numbers were not as huge as in the American Civil War but proportionally the figures were even more horrific.

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