Answer:
The correct answer is D) Enlightenment ideals should cautiously be applied to South America to achieve independence.
Step-by-step explanation:
Simón Bolívar (1783-1830) was a Venezuelan military and political leader, widely renowned as the leader of the independence movements of the northern South American Spanish colonies, in what is today Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Ecuador and Panama.
Bolívar took inspiration from the ideas of the Enlightenment, which had already inspired revolutions in France and the United States. Bolívar was familiar with the work of French philosopher Montesquieu, especially with his most famous work, The Spirit of Laws (1748), one of its main topics being the issue of liberty. Montesquieu argued that liberty was only possible under a republican or a monarchical government as long as there was separation of powers, a legal framework, and a political culture that was favourable towards liberty and freedom. This feat was harder to achieve in a republic, however, as he argued that maintaining a republic required their citizens to be politically virtous. Bolívar argued that, due to the history of servitude in South America, which had spent over two centuries under the Spanish crown, Enlightenment ideals had be cautiously applied there to achieve independence from Spain, as it would be difficult to establish a republic based on civic and republican virtues when these were non-existant.
Ultimately, however, the South American nations gained their freedom from the Spanish crown, which earned Bolívar the motto of Liberator. A series of republics were established throughout the continent, which resulted in the establishment of the Gran Colombia, a political project that united the northern South American nations into a single state. Nevertheless, the project fell apart when the Gran Colombia was dissolved in 1831, a year after Bolívar's death.