On This Day: Irregular army from U.S. conquers Nicaragua, re-institutes slavery - May 3, 1855
(edited from Wikipedia)
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[Filibuster War and William Walker]
The Filibuster War or Walker affair was a military conflict between filibustering multinational troops stationed in Nicaragua and a coalition of Central American armies. An American mercenary, William Walker, invaded Nicaragua in 1855 with a small private army. He seized control of the country by 1856, but was ousted the following year.
Walker declared himself president, re-instituted slavery, and made English the official language.
[Nicaragua in flux]
Nicaragua's independence from Spain, Mexico, and then from the United Provinces of Central America in 1838, did not free it from foreign interference.
[Gold rush leads to canal fever]
The 1850s California Gold Rush created interest in the United States in finding a quicker route between the American east and west coasts. However, Great Britain had long been present on the coast of Nicaragua, which created tension between the two countries. The Clayton–Bulwer Treaty was signed in 1850, in which both sides "agreed that neither would claim exclusive power over a future canal in Central America nor gain exclusive control over any part of the region." Many Nicaraguans originally welcomed this treaty because of the potential financial benefits a canal could bring.
Following Nicaraguan independence from Spain, a conflict over power developed between the liberal party, based in León, and the conservative party, based in Granada.
In 1854, a civil war erupted in Nicaragua between the Legitimist Party (also called the 'Conservative party'), and the Democratic Party (also called the 'Liberal party'). The liberal elite of León was losing the struggle to unseat the conservative elite of Granada and turned for help to a San Francisco-based soldier of fortune named William Walker. Walker was known as an adventurer who sought to take control of Latin American countries with the purpose of making them a part of the United States.
[Private army departs San Francisco - May 3, 1855]
To circumvent American neutrality laws, Walker obtained a contract from Democratic president Francisco Castellón to bring as many as three hundred "colonists" to Nicaragua. Walker sailed from San Francisco on 3 May 1855, with approximately 60 men. Upon landing, the force was reinforced by 170 locals and about 100 Americans.
Establishment of Walker
With Castellón's consent, Walker attacked the Legitimists in the town of Rivas, near the trans-isthmian route. He was driven off, but not without inflicting heavy casualties. On 4 September, during the Battle of La Virgen, Walker defeated the Legitimist army. On 13 October, he conquered the Legitimist capital of Granada and took effective control of the country. Initially, as commander of the army, Walker ruled Nicaragua through puppet President Patricio Rivas. U.S. President Franklin Pierce recognized Walker's regime as the legitimate government of Nicaragua on 20 May 1856.
Central American counterattack
Walker had scared his neighbors with talk of further military conquests in Central America. Juan Rafael Mora, President of Costa Rica, rejected Walker's diplomatic overtures and instead declared war on his regime. Walker sent Colonel Schlessinger to invade Costa Rica in a preemptive action, but his forces were defeated at the Battle of Santa Rosa in March 1856.
In April 1856, Costa Rican troops penetrated into Nicaraguan territory and inflicted a defeat on Walker's men at the Second Battle of Rivas, in which Juan Santamaría, later to be recognized as one of Costa Rica's national heroes, sacrificed himself to burn down the place where the Filibusters were staying.
Walker set himself up as President of Nicaragua, after conducting an uncontested election. He was inaugurated on 12 July 1856, and soon launched an Americanization program, reinstating slavery, declaring English an official language and reorganizing currency and fiscal policy to encourage immigration from the United States of America.
Meanwhile, government representatives from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala signed in the City of Guatemala a Treaty of Alliance on 18 July 1856, for "defense of its sovereignty and independence". On 14 September, Septentrión Army (as the allied army was called) forces managed the first victory of the patriotic Nicaraguans in the so-called Battle of San Jacinto.
By the end of 1856, Walker ordered the destruction [burning] of Granada.
[Cornelius Vanderbilt becomes involved]
The Costa Rican government resumed action in late 1856, and developed plans to take over the San Juan River in order to cut Walker's supply of weapons and new recruits. Cornelius Vanderbilt sent one of his agents, Sylvanus Spencer, to collaborate with the Costa Rican army in order to recover the possession of the Transit Company he had lost to Walker. Spencer arrived to San Jose in November 1856 and was assigned to a company under Major Maximo Blanco to take over the steamers of the Transit Company. By January 1857, the Costa Rican army was in control of the San Juan River and all the steamers of the Transit Company.
Meanwhile, Walker was expelled from Granada by the rest of the allied armies.
Walker's surrender
Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, and other Central American countries united to drive Walker out in 1857. During this time, Granada was burned and thousands of Central Americans lost their lives. The final battle of what Nicaraguans called the "National War" (1856–1857) took place in the spring of 1857 in the town of Rivas, Nicaragua. Walker beat off the attacks, but the effort diminished the strength and morale of his forces and he soon succumbed.
The National War made for the cooperation between the Liberal and Conservative parties, which had brought Walker to Nicaragua. On 1 May 1857, Walker surrendered to Commander Charles Henry Davis of the United States Navy and was repatriated. Upon disembarking in New York City, he was greeted as a hero, but he alienated public opinion when he blamed his defeat on the U.S. Navy.
Filibuster (military)
A filibuster (from the Spanish filibustero), also known as a freebooter, is someone who engages in an unauthorized military expedition into a foreign country or territory to foster or support a political revolution or secession. The term is usually applied to United States citizens who incited insurrections across Latin America, particularly in the mid-19th century, usually with the goal of establishing an American-loyal regime that could later be annexed into, or serve the interests of, the United States. Probably the most notable example is the Filibuster War initiated by William Walker in Nicaragua in the 1850s.
Filibusters are irregular soldiers who act without official authorization from their own government, and are generally motivated by financial gain, political ideology, or the thrill of adventure. Unlike mercenaries, filibusters are independently motivated and work for themselves, whilst a mercenary leader operates on behalf of others. The freewheeling actions of the filibusters of the 1850s led to the name being applied figuratively to the political act of filibustering in the United States Congress.
History
The Spanish [derived term] entered the English language in the 1850s, as applied to military adventurers from the United States then operating in Central America and the Spanish West Indies.
In 1806, the general Francisco de Miranda launched an unsuccessful expedition to liberate Venezuela from Spanish rule with volunteers from the United States recruited in New York City. The three most prominent filibusters of that era were Narciso López and John Quitman in Cuba and William Walker in Baja California, Sonora, Costa Rica and lastly Nicaragua. The term returned to American parlance to refer to López's 1851 Cuban expedition.
Other filibusters include the Americans Aaron Burr, William Blount (West Florida), Augustus W. Magee (Texas), George Mathews (East Florida), George Rogers Clark (Louisiana and Mississippi), William S. Smith (Venezuela), Ira Allen (Canada), William A. Chanler (Cuba and Venezuela), Samuel Brannan (Hawaii), Joseph C. Morehead and Henry Alexander Crabb (Sonora) and James Long (Texas).
Although the American public often enjoyed reading about the thrilling adventures of filibusters, Americans involved in filibustering expeditions were usually in violation of the Neutrality Act of 1794 that made it illegal for a citizen to wage war against another country at peace with the United States. For example, the journalist John L. O'Sullivan, who coined the related phrase "manifest destiny", was put on trial for raising money for López's failed filibustering expedition in Cuba.
The Neutrality Act of 1818 became of great frustration for American filibusters. Article 6 stated anyone engaged in filibustering could receive a maximum three years imprisonment and three thousand dollars in fines. However, it was not uncommon for early Republic politicians to "overlook" and sometimes "assist" some filibuster missions in the hopes to add to U.S. territory. This conflict meant the army were reluctant to arrest filibusters who broke the terms of this legislation. Officers were worried that without permission from the U.S. district court to make these arrests, they could face arrest themselves.
Filibusters and the press
There was widespread support in the press for filibusters' missions. A number of journalists were sympathetic towards filibusters.
However, filibustering was not universally praised in the press. Papers backing the Republican party's position of being anti-filibuster would use the term to denounce not just actors such as William Walker but also the abolitionist filibuster John Brown.
Connection to slavery
The mid-nineteenth century (1848–1860) saw Southern planters raise private armies for expeditions to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America to acquire territories that could be annexed to the Union as slave states. Despite not being authorized by their government, Southern elites often held considerable sway over U.S. foreign policy and national politics. Despite widespread opposition from Northerners, filibustering thrust slavery into American foreign policy.
Historians have noted that filibustering was not a common practice and was carried out by "the most radical proslavery expansionists". Hardline defenders of slavery saw its preservation as their "top priority", leading to support for filibusters and their campaigns abroad. At the height of filibustering, pro-slavery politicians wanted to expand the United States further into Latin America, as far as Paraguay and Peru. However, these attempts were quickly withdrawn when military and diplomatic retaliation was pursued.
Many future Confederate officers and soldiers obtained valuable military experience from filibuster expeditions.
[Historical debate]
In the traditional historiography in both the United States and Latin America, Walker's filibustering represented the high tide of antebellum American imperialism. His brief seizure of Nicaragua in 1855 is typically called a representative expression of manifest destiny with the added factor of trying to expand slavery into Central America. Historian Michel Gobat, however, presents a strongly revisionist interpretation. He argues that Walker was invited in by Nicaraguan liberals who were trying to force economic modernization and political liberalism, and that thus it was not an attempted projection of American power.
Masculinity and filibustering
Historians such as Gail Bederman and Amy Greenburg have noted the influence of masculinity of filibustering, particularly the form of 'martial manhood' that many filibusterers adopted during the period. Many men in antebellum America sought a return to the type of masculinity displayed on the frontier – one supposedly of strength, violence and self reliance. Greenburg uses primary sources to examine the appeal to masculinity in the recruitment campaigns of filibuster missions, focusing on how the deteriorating working class conditions enabled locations such as Nicaragua to be advertised as a space for men to celebrate their strength.
Bederman, meanwhile, emphasises the importance of nostalgia for the American frontier, and draws together notions of race, masculinity and gender to display how people felt insecure in their identities so reverted back to the typical ideal of what it meant to be a white man.
Women's involvement with filibustering
Women often participated in filibustering, taking active roles such as planning, propaganda, participation, and popularization. Women also composed songs, arranged balls and concerts on behalf of the filibusters. Most of the interest came from women in the Gulf and Mid-Atlantic states as they were closer to the events. Correspondingly those in the Northern states tended not to take much interest in what was going on further south. Many women attended the filibuster expeditions as settlers, to help with casualties and to aid the expeditions in any way they could. Many women were at the front line experiencing first hand the armed engagements. A few even took up arms and used them to defend their men and property.
Filibusters and freemasonry
Several well-known figures in filibusterism were also Freemasons and this organization played a major role within the hierarchy of the filibusters.
[Opposition discourse and Latin American identity]
Historians such as Aims McGuinness promote the view that Filibustering catalysed an opposition discourse, that Manifest Destiny had spawned. In doing so this discourse in addition to the trauma and collective memory of the Filibuster War (caused by events such as the burning of Granada) is theorised to have created the original sense of widespread Latin American identity and Costa-Rican national identity.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_(military)
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