William Walker (1824-1860), a US filibuster or military adventurer, took over Nicaragua in 1856 and made himself president, but was driven out a year later. He also tried to take over Honduras and parts of Mexico.
Walker saw slavery as a blessing, even for Black people:
“The white man took the Negro from his native wastes and, teaching him the arts of life, bestowed on him the ineffable blessings of a true religion.”
Slavery’s future lay to the south of the US:
“The true field for the exertion of slavery is in tropical America; there it finds the natural seat of its empire and thither it can spread if it will but make the effort.”
The Knights of the Golden Circle and others supported him: the US South needed more slave states or the North would outlaw slavery. Mexico itself could be made into 25 slave states.
In 1853 Walker and his men took over part of Mexico. He declared the independence of the Mexican states of Baja California and Sonora (just south of California and Arizona) and made himself president. The following spring the Mexican army made short work of him. He fled to the US, where he was tried for breaking the Neutrality Act of 1818. He was too much of hero for a jury to find him guilty.
In 1855 he went to Nicaragua, making himself president a year later. He was quickly recognized by the US government. He restored slavery, the slave trade, forced labour and serfdom. He even made English the official language. But he also made enemies: Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, who sent their armies against him.
The thing about Nicaragua: After gold was struck in California (1848) and before the Transcontinental Railroad was completed (1869), the quickest way from the US east coast to California lay through foreign lands: Nicaragua and what the US would later make into Panama.
President Buchanan:
“To the United States these routes are of incalculable importance as a means of communication between their Atlantic and Pacific possessions.”
Cornelius Vanderbilt’s Accessory Transit Company provided transport for the Nicaraguan route.
Walker took over Nicaragua by being invited by one side of the civil war there and using Accessory Transit as his military supply route. But then he made Vanderbilt his enemy by taking over Accessory Transit itself. Vanderbilt helped Costa Rica defeat him. Walker fled to the protection of the US Navy. He was again tried under the Neutrality Act and again got off because he was too much of a hero (now an even bigger one) in the US.
In 1860 he tried to take over Honduras. He did not get far: the British Navy captured him and turned him over to Honduran authorities. They sent him before the firing squad.
His wars caused the death of 20,000 people.
His tombstone reads:
“Glory to the patriots who freed Central America of such a bloody pirate! Curses to those who brought him and to those who helped him.”
Thanks to Linda for suggesting this post and for her patience!
– Abagond, 2016.
See also:
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“In 1855 he went to Nicaragua, making himself president a year later. He was quickly recognized by the US government. He restored slavery, the slave trade, forced labour and serfdom. He even made English the official language. ”
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Yet another *quintessential* WHITE dude who in the end the Universe saw to it that he got exactly what he deserved!
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One day you have to learn to not only tolerate but understand people. Never look at anybody as inferior….
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“This is why the Confederate secession attempt was so dangerous. They were not going to keep themselves to themselves and they did not plan on letting slavery die a natural death. They planned to create a slave empire.”
Good old Lordy, still caught up in his delusions of a fundamental difference between the Yankees and Confederates! You do know that there were Manifest Destiny Yankees as well, right? Jane Cazneau who worked for William H. Seward, Lincoln’s Secretary of State was one. She and her husband, William Leslie Cazneau, worked to annex the Dominican Republic to the USA after it split from Haiti. Luckily, the Dominicans were deemed “too black” to be annexed. Gerald Horne speculated that both Haiti and the DR were slated to be absorbed by the US Borg and Black Americans shipped to the island, thus solving the race question! The USA accomplished what the Confederates wanted. The main difference is that wage slavery replaced slavery.
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The level of anger and aggression that exist amongst white people in general, but men in particular towards people of color is perhaps something I will never truly understand.
Anger is an internal emotion. Aggression is an external emotion directed towards an intended target. The target is usually against another people. On one hand, I can understand aggression for the sake of survival or self preservation thereof. But on the other hand, aggression in the form of invading other countries for the sake of mere conquer, for the sake of precious metals or simple to force another people to abide under the hegemony of white rule is not only obscene but it displays a sense of depravity in its truest form.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders N (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), offers a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. But yet, the centuries old or millennial of aggression exhibited by white people collectively appear to be a mental disorder or some sort of psychosis that the above-mentioned organization doesn’t seem to be prepared or simply lack the collective will power to confront this inconvenient truth. I wonder why!
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“The level of anger and aggression that exist amongst white people in general, but men in particular towards people of color is perhaps something I will never truly understand.”
I don’t understand it either and I have been up close and personal with it.
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These guys had a penchant for land-grabbing and posturing.
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“But then he made Vanderbilt his enemy by taking over Accessory Transit itself.”
Walker might have taken over the assets of the company, but Vanderbilt retained all the legal rights to the business. Jeremiah G. Hamilton, the black Wall street broker took Vanderbilt to court to force him to dissolve the company but the presiding judge threw his petition out since he owned 200 to Vanderbilt’s 58,000 plus shares. The historian, Shane White, claims that Hamilton settled with the company for an undisclosed sum.
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Another murderous bastard with roots in goode olde Blighty where the people have stiff upper lips and whose homes are their castles. Latest is that they are seeking re-entry into Zimababwe with the post-Mugabe period looming.
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I love what his tomb says “fusilado” which means killed by firing squad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_(filibuster)#/media/File:Wwalker_tombstone.JPG
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