Territorial evolution of the Caribbean the Viceroyalty of New Granada and the Captaincy General of Venezuela became the Republic of Gran Colombia organized as a federation of Ecuador, today's Colombia and Venezuela (Panama was part of Colombia). The official name of the country at the time was the Republic of Colombia. Historians adopted the term "Gran Colombia" to distinguish this republic from the present-day Republic of Colombia, which began using the same name in 1863. Spanish Haiti's independence was short-lived, as Haitian forces, led by Jean Pierre Boyer, invaded and took control of the country just nine weeks later in February 1822. After a brief
Orindatus Simon Bolivar Wall Orindatus Simon Bolivar Wall Orindatus Simon Bolivar Wall, known as O.S.B. Wall (1825-1891), was an American attorney and politician who was born into slavery but, during the American Civil War, became the first black man to be commissioned as captain in the Regular U.S. Army. One of several mixed-race children of a white planter, Wall and others were freed by their father, given a bequest and guardian, and sent to Ohio to be educated at Oberlin College. After the war, Wall read the law and passed the bar. Wall moved to Washington, DC, where he practiced law and was appointed