Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Brainstuff, Lauren
Speaker 1: Vogelbaum here. William Walker stood a little over five feet
Speaker 1: tall and weighed just about one hundred and twenty pounds
Speaker 1: that's about one and a half meters and just over
Speaker 1: fifty kilos or so. He didn't look the part of
Speaker 1: a brash adventurer or military man, but the Tennessee native
Speaker 1: with the piercing gray eyes was arguably the most successful
Speaker 1: of the nineteenth century American filibusters, who were men who
Speaker 1: fought from manifest destiny, the belief that it was the
Speaker 1: right of the United States to stretch west to the
Speaker 1: Pacific and south into Central America. In the eighteen fifties,
Speaker 1: Walker invaded Mexico twice with a private army and briefly
Speaker 1: installed himself as president of Nicaragua. His exploits were followed
Speaker 1: breathlessly by American newspapers, which either hailed Walker as a
Speaker 1: hero or condemned him as a pirate. Long before the
Speaker 1: word filibuster came to mean a long winded Senate speech
Speaker 1: to block the passage of a bill, it was a
Speaker 1: colorful term for rogues and mercenaries who tried to raid
Speaker 1: foreign territory and claim it for their own. The word
Speaker 1: filibuster probably derives from the Dutch word freibert, a meaning freebooter,
Speaker 1: which the Spanish morphed into philibustero to refer to pirates
Speaker 1: in the Caribbean. In the first half of the eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: dozens of American filibusters launched failed expeditions into Mexico and Cuba.
Speaker 1: This was before the U s Civil War, when the
Speaker 1: Missouri Compromise barred the addition of new states, allowing enslavement
Speaker 1: above the Mason Dixon line. While some filibusters only sought
Speaker 1: fortune and fame, others hoped to claim southern territories that
Speaker 1: could then be annexed by the US as slaveholding states.
Speaker 1: Before the article this episode is based on How Stuffworks,
Speaker 1: spoke with journalist Scott Martel, author of the book William
Speaker 1: Walker's War, How One Man's Private American Army Tried to
Speaker 1: Conquer Mexico, Nicaragua, and Honduras. He explained that Walker fell
Speaker 1: somewhere in the middle. Originally he got into filibustering for
Speaker 1: the personal glory, but ultimately quote he wanted to create
Speaker 1: a Central American Caribbean empire. That would still have slavery.
Speaker 1: Walker came from a wealthy and politically connected family in Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: He graduated from college at fourteen, studied to become doctor
Speaker 1: by seventeen, then travelled Europe for two years before settling
Speaker 1: in New Orleans to practice law. After the untimely death
Speaker 1: of his fiancee, A, Walker became an editor at the
Speaker 1: New Orleans Daily Crescent, where Whitman was briefly a colleague.
Speaker 1: By this time, philibustering was all over the headlines. In
Speaker 1: eighteen forty eight, the Venezuelan born philibuster Narcisso Lopez attempted
Speaker 1: to invade Cuba with a private army of American recruits
Speaker 1: and financial backing from Southern plantation owners. Since Lopez was
Speaker 1: in violation of the Neutrality Act of eighteen eighteen, the
Speaker 1: US government sent warships to scuttle the raid. In an editorial,
Speaker 1: Walker took the filibuster's side. He wrote, there is no
Speaker 1: law of nations recognized in this country, at least, nor
Speaker 1: of morals, which deprives a man of the right of
Speaker 1: expatriating himself if he pleases to take his share in
Speaker 1: a foreign quarrel which appeals to his love of liberty
Speaker 1: or detestation of tyranny, or even to his mere sordid
Speaker 1: estimate of glory and gain. By eighteen fifty three, Walker
Speaker 1: was living in gold Rush era San Francisco, a magnet
Speaker 1: for young adventurers looking to strike it rich in the West,
Speaker 1: and he was seriously entertaining his own career as a filibuster.
Speaker 1: Walker and other would be invaders set their sights on
Speaker 1: the northern Mexican state of Sonora, right across the southern
Speaker 1: US border. Martel said there was a common belief at
Speaker 1: the time that the Mexican government wasn't in control of
Speaker 1: the border territory on their side. From the filibuster's perspective,
Speaker 1: it was land for the taking. If they could impose
Speaker 1: a government, then it would be theirs to defend a
Speaker 1: Walker tried diplomacy, first, sailing to the Baja Peninsula to
Speaker 1: request permission for the establishment of a private mining colony
Speaker 1: in Sonora, but someone tipped off the Mexican authorities that
Speaker 1: Walker had grander plans for an American empire in Mexico,
Speaker 1: and he was kicked out. Martel said he would return
Speaker 1: to Sonora not as a putative settler, but as a conqueror.
Speaker 1: Back in San Francisco, Walker and his associates openly recruited
Speaker 1: men to the cause an equipped a ship called the
Speaker 1: Arrow with weapons and provisions for a proper invasion. The
Speaker 1: US authorities caught wind of Walker's plan and seized the Arrow,
Speaker 1: but in a midnight raid, Walker's men were able to
Speaker 1: steal back some of their supplies and set sail for
Speaker 1: Mexico on another vest, the Caroline, With a ragtag brigade
Speaker 1: of just forty five men, Walker landed in the port
Speaker 1: city of La pazz and quickly seized the governor's office,
Speaker 1: where they lowered the Mexican flag and raised one of
Speaker 1: Walker's own design for his new country. Walker announced, the
Speaker 1: Republic of Lower California is hereby declared free, sovereign, and independent,
Speaker 1: and all allegiance to the Republic of Mexico is forever renounced.
Speaker 1: He also gave himself the title of President. Hundreds of
Speaker 1: reinforcements sailed down from San Francisco, eager to join Walker's
Speaker 1: fledgling empire and to stake a claim to lucrative mining rights.
Speaker 1: But once the men arrived, they found an ill equipped
Speaker 1: army without a solid game plan. Local ranchers took up
Speaker 1: arms against Walker's underfed troops, who began deserting in droves
Speaker 1: despite Walker's violent punishments. By the spring of eighteen fifty four,
Speaker 1: even Walker realized that the invade had failed, so he
Speaker 1: men his exhausted men marched north and surrendered to the
Speaker 1: US authorities at the border. Walker was charged with violating
Speaker 1: the Neutrality Act, but was merely acquitted. Martel says that
Speaker 1: the US government saw Walker as a pest and nothing more.
Speaker 1: He would soon prove them wrong. In the late eighteen fifties,
Speaker 1: Nicaragua was locked in a civil war between two opposing
Speaker 1: political parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals. The Liberals had
Speaker 1: the support of a former American newspaperman named Byron Cole,
Speaker 1: who pitched the idea of hiring the now famous Walker
Speaker 1: to capture the Conservative stronghold of Grenada. Nervous of being
Speaker 1: tried a second time for breaking the Neutrality Act, a
Speaker 1: Walker said that he would only come if he and
Speaker 1: his men were invited as colonists and given land grants.
Speaker 1: The Liberals agreed, and Walker sailed down with a mercenary
Speaker 1: band of fighters, mostly veterans of the Mexican American War.
Speaker 1: After heavy fighting, they took the city, and Walker managed
Speaker 1: to get himself appointed as the head of the Nicaraguan military. Then,
Speaker 1: when Nicaragua's puppet president fled after an invasion by neighboring
Speaker 1: Costa Rica, Walker declared himself president. In eighteen fifty six,
Speaker 1: even United States President Franklin Pierce officially recognized him as
Speaker 1: the country's new leader. As President, Walker made English the
Speaker 1: national language and legalized slavery. He might have had a
Speaker 1: long and successful career as a Central American imperialist if
Speaker 1: he hadn't angered another American that claimed Nicaragua. Before the
Speaker 1: Panama Canal connected the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
Speaker 1: Shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt established a profitable shortcut transporting cargo
Speaker 1: and passengers across Nicaragua by river and land. Walker seized
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt steamships as property of Nicaragua, which didn't sit well
Speaker 1: with the New York millionaire. Martel explained, Vanderbilt sent word
Speaker 1: to the Costa Rican military, I'll pay for your troops
Speaker 1: if you'll help me get rid of Walker. Surrounded by
Speaker 1: Costa Rican troops and Vanderbilt's mercenaries. Walker negotiated a surrender
Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty seven and sailed back to New York,
Speaker 1: where he was tried and acquitted again for violating the
Speaker 1: Neutrality Act. He wasted no time planning to take back Nicaragua,
Speaker 1: but his first two comeback attempts were dead in the water,
Speaker 1: literally in one, Walker's ship struck a coral reef off
Speaker 1: Belize and had to be towed back to Mobile, Alabama
Speaker 1: by the British Navy. Another ended with Walker arrested by
Speaker 1: the US Navy when he tried to land in Costa Rica.
Speaker 1: A Walker was undeterred, though, and thanks to his fame
Speaker 1: in the newspapers, he had no trouble recruiting ninety one
Speaker 1: men for another try. The plan was to land in
Speaker 1: the Honduran port of Trahuia and marched south into Nicaragua,
Speaker 1: but they met fierce resistance from the Honduran military, which
Speaker 1: was aided by a British naval blockade that kept out
Speaker 1: American reinforcements. With dozens of men wounded or dying from
Speaker 1: tropical diseases and ammunition in short supply, a Walker was
Speaker 1: convinced to surrender to the British commodore Norvel Salmon, who
Speaker 1: assured Walker that he'd be spared the wrath of the
Speaker 1: Honduran military. But that's not what happened. Martell put it
Speaker 1: this way. The captain of the ship screwed him over.
Speaker 1: In a matter of days, Walker was standing before a
Speaker 1: Honduran firing squad. He was only thirty six years old
Speaker 1: when he was executed in September eighteen sixty, and Filibustering
Speaker 1: more or less died with him. Just months later, South
Speaker 1: Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union,
Speaker 1: and the nation was soon embroiled in its own bloody
Speaker 1: civil war. Today's episode was based on the article William Walker,
Speaker 1: the American mercenary who named himself President of Nicaragua on
Speaker 1: HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Dave Ruse. Brain Stuff is
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