He returned to Venezuela via the United States, where he saw republican institutions first hand. Soon after he returned he took the very generous and principled step of freeing all of the slaves on his property. He joined a group of revolutionaries which took advantage of Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808 to liberate the country. The group captured Caracas in 1810.5
Simon Bolivar went to England in an effort to get English support for Venezuelan independence. This, however, failed largely because of a British treaty obligation to Spain. Bolivar returned to Venezuela, and in 1811 was part of a constitutional convention that declared Venezuela's independence from Spain. However, in 1812 royalists gained the upper hand and Bolivar was forced to leave the country for Columbia.6
In 1812 he issued his Columbian Manifesto which urged cooperation among the states working for independence from Spain. This manifesto helped him to garner support to reenter Venezuela at the head of a military force (1813). He again took Caracas and made himself dictator, but was again forced out of the country (this time to Jamaica) by military units loyal to Spain.7