May 26, 2023 • 10 mins
Before the U.S. Civil War, American mercenaries called 'filibusters' attempted to claim territory in Mexico and Central America for themselves. Learn about the well-deserved fate of one William Walker in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/william-walker.htm
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Brainstuff, Lauren
Vogelbaum here. William Walker stood a little over five feet
tall and weighed just about one hundred and twenty pounds
that's about one and a half meters and just over
fifty kilos or so. He didn't look the part of
a brash adventurer or military man, but the Tennessee native
(00:26):
with the piercing gray eyes was arguably the most successful
of the nineteenth century American filibusters, who were men who
fought from manifest destiny, the belief that it was the
right of the United States to stretch west to the
Pacific and south into Central America. In the eighteen fifties,
Walker invaded Mexico twice with a private army and briefly
(00:48):
installed himself as president of Nicaragua. His exploits were followed
breathlessly by American newspapers, which either hailed Walker as a
hero or condemned him as a pirate. Long before the
word filibuster came to mean a long winded Senate speech
to block the passage of a bill, it was a
colorful term for rogues and mercenaries who tried to raid
(01:10):
foreign territory and claim it for their own. The word
filibuster probably derives from the Dutch word freibert, a meaning freebooter,
which the Spanish morphed into philibustero to refer to pirates
in the Caribbean. In the first half of the eighteen hundreds,
dozens of American filibusters launched failed expeditions into Mexico and Cuba.
(01:32):
This was before the U s Civil War, when the
Missouri Compromise barred the addition of new states, allowing enslavement
above the Mason Dixon line. While some filibusters only sought
fortune and fame, others hoped to claim southern territories that
could then be annexed by the US as slaveholding states.
(01:53):
Before the article this episode is based on How Stuffworks,
spoke with journalist Scott Martel, author of the book William
Walker's War, How One Man's Private American Army Tried to
Conquer Mexico, Nicaragua, and Honduras. He explained that Walker fell
somewhere in the middle. Originally he got into filibustering for
the personal glory, but ultimately quote he wanted to create
(02:16):
a Central American Caribbean empire. That would still have slavery.
Walker came from a wealthy and politically connected family in Nashville, Tennessee.
He graduated from college at fourteen, studied to become doctor
by seventeen, then travelled Europe for two years before settling
in New Orleans to practice law. After the untimely death
(02:38):
of his fiancee, A, Walker became an editor at the
New Orleans Daily Crescent, where Whitman was briefly a colleague.
By this time, philibustering was all over the headlines. In
eighteen forty eight, the Venezuelan born philibuster Narcisso Lopez attempted
to invade Cuba with a private army of American recruits
and financial backing from Southern plantation owners. Since Lopez was
(03:01):
in violation of the Neutrality Act of eighteen eighteen, the
US government sent warships to scuttle the raid. In an editorial,
Walker took the filibuster's side. He wrote, there is no
law of nations recognized in this country, at least, nor
of morals, which deprives a man of the right of
expatriating himself if he pleases to take his share in
(03:24):
a foreign quarrel which appeals to his love of liberty
or detestation of tyranny, or even to his mere sordid
estimate of glory and gain. By eighteen fifty three, Walker
was living in gold Rush era San Francisco, a magnet
for young adventurers looking to strike it rich in the West,
(03:45):
and he was seriously entertaining his own career as a filibuster.
Walker and other would be invaders set their sights on
the northern Mexican state of Sonora, right across the southern
US border. Martel said there was a common belief at
the time that the Mexican government wasn't in control of
the border territory on their side. From the filibuster's perspective,
(04:08):
it was land for the taking. If they could impose
a government, then it would be theirs to defend a
Walker tried diplomacy, first, sailing to the Baja Peninsula to
request permission for the establishment of a private mining colony
in Sonora, but someone tipped off the Mexican authorities that
Walker had grander plans for an American empire in Mexico,
(04:30):
and he was kicked out. Martel said he would return
to Sonora not as a putative settler, but as a conqueror.
Back in San Francisco, Walker and his associates openly recruited
men to the cause an equipped a ship called the
Arrow with weapons and provisions for a proper invasion. The
US authorities caught wind of Walker's plan and seized the Arrow,
(04:53):
but in a midnight raid, Walker's men were able to
steal back some of their supplies and set sail for
Mexico on another vest, the Caroline, With a ragtag brigade
of just forty five men, Walker landed in the port
city of La pazz and quickly seized the governor's office,
where they lowered the Mexican flag and raised one of
(05:13):
Walker's own design for his new country. Walker announced, the
Republic of Lower California is hereby declared free, sovereign, and independent,
and all allegiance to the Republic of Mexico is forever renounced.
He also gave himself the title of President. Hundreds of
reinforcements sailed down from San Francisco, eager to join Walker's
(05:36):
fledgling empire and to stake a claim to lucrative mining rights.
But once the men arrived, they found an ill equipped
army without a solid game plan. Local ranchers took up
arms against Walker's underfed troops, who began deserting in droves
despite Walker's violent punishments. By the spring of eighteen fifty four,
(05:58):
even Walker realized that the invade had failed, so he
men his exhausted men marched north and surrendered to the
US authorities at the border. Walker was charged with violating
the Neutrality Act, but was merely acquitted. Martel says that
the US government saw Walker as a pest and nothing more.
(06:18):
He would soon prove them wrong. In the late eighteen fifties,
Nicaragua was locked in a civil war between two opposing
political parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals. The Liberals had
the support of a former American newspaperman named Byron Cole,
who pitched the idea of hiring the now famous Walker
to capture the Conservative stronghold of Grenada. Nervous of being
(06:44):
tried a second time for breaking the Neutrality Act, a
Walker said that he would only come if he and
his men were invited as colonists and given land grants.
The Liberals agreed, and Walker sailed down with a mercenary
band of fighters, mostly veterans of the Mexican American War.
After heavy fighting, they took the city, and Walker managed
(07:05):
to get himself appointed as the head of the Nicaraguan military. Then,
when Nicaragua's puppet president fled after an invasion by neighboring
Costa Rica, Walker declared himself president. In eighteen fifty six,
even United States President Franklin Pierce officially recognized him as
the country's new leader. As President, Walker made English the
(07:27):
national language and legalized slavery. He might have had a
long and successful career as a Central American imperialist if
he hadn't angered another American that claimed Nicaragua. Before the
Panama Canal connected the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
Shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt established a profitable shortcut transporting cargo
(07:51):
and passengers across Nicaragua by river and land. Walker seized
Vanderbilt steamships as property of Nicaragua, which didn't sit well
with the New York millionaire. Martel explained, Vanderbilt sent word
to the Costa Rican military, I'll pay for your troops
if you'll help me get rid of Walker. Surrounded by
(08:13):
Costa Rican troops and Vanderbilt's mercenaries. Walker negotiated a surrender
in eighteen fifty seven and sailed back to New York,
where he was tried and acquitted again for violating the
Neutrality Act. He wasted no time planning to take back Nicaragua,
but his first two comeback attempts were dead in the water,
(08:33):
literally in one, Walker's ship struck a coral reef off
Belize and had to be towed back to Mobile, Alabama
by the British Navy. Another ended with Walker arrested by
the US Navy when he tried to land in Costa Rica.
A Walker was undeterred, though, and thanks to his fame
in the newspapers, he had no trouble recruiting ninety one
(08:55):
men for another try. The plan was to land in
the Honduran port of Trahuia and marched south into Nicaragua,
but they met fierce resistance from the Honduran military, which
was aided by a British naval blockade that kept out
American reinforcements. With dozens of men wounded or dying from
tropical diseases and ammunition in short supply, a Walker was
(09:17):
convinced to surrender to the British commodore Norvel Salmon, who
assured Walker that he'd be spared the wrath of the
Honduran military. But that's not what happened. Martell put it
this way. The captain of the ship screwed him over.
In a matter of days, Walker was standing before a
Honduran firing squad. He was only thirty six years old
(09:41):
when he was executed in September eighteen sixty, and Filibustering
more or less died with him. Just months later, South
Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union,
and the nation was soon embroiled in its own bloody
civil war. Today's episode was based on the article William Walker,
(10:04):
the American mercenary who named himself President of Nicaragua on
HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Dave Ruse. Brain Stuff is
production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com
and is produced by Tyler Klang. A four more podcast
that's from iHeartRadio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Brainstuff, Lauren
Vogelbaum here. William Walker stood a little over five feet
tall and weighed just about one hundred and twenty pounds
that's about one and a half meters and just over
fifty kilos or so. He didn't look the part of
a brash adventurer or military man, but the Tennessee native
(00:26):
with the piercing gray eyes was arguably the most successful
of the nineteenth century American filibusters, who were men who
fought from manifest destiny, the belief that it was the
right of the United States to stretch west to the
Pacific and south into Central America. In the eighteen fifties,
Walker invaded Mexico twice with a private army and briefly
(00:48):
installed himself as president of Nicaragua. His exploits were followed
breathlessly by American newspapers, which either hailed Walker as a
hero or condemned him as a pirate. Long before the
word filibuster came to mean a long winded Senate speech
to block the passage of a bill, it was a
colorful term for rogues and mercenaries who tried to raid
(01:10):
foreign territory and claim it for their own. The word
filibuster probably derives from the Dutch word freibert, a meaning freebooter,
which the Spanish morphed into philibustero to refer to pirates
in the Caribbean. In the first half of the eighteen hundreds,
dozens of American filibusters launched failed expeditions into Mexico and Cuba.
(01:32):
This was before the U s Civil War, when the
Missouri Compromise barred the addition of new states, allowing enslavement
above the Mason Dixon line. While some filibusters only sought
fortune and fame, others hoped to claim southern territories that
could then be annexed by the US as slaveholding states.
(01:53):
Before the article this episode is based on How Stuffworks,
spoke with journalist Scott Martel, author of the book William
Walker's War, How One Man's Private American Army Tried to
Conquer Mexico, Nicaragua, and Honduras. He explained that Walker fell
somewhere in the middle. Originally he got into filibustering for
the personal glory, but ultimately quote he wanted to create
(02:16):
a Central American Caribbean empire. That would still have slavery.
Walker came from a wealthy and politically connected family in Nashville, Tennessee.
He graduated from college at fourteen, studied to become doctor
by seventeen, then travelled Europe for two years before settling
in New Orleans to practice law. After the untimely death
(02:38):
of his fiancee, A, Walker became an editor at the
New Orleans Daily Crescent, where Whitman was briefly a colleague.
By this time, philibustering was all over the headlines. In
eighteen forty eight, the Venezuelan born philibuster Narcisso Lopez attempted
to invade Cuba with a private army of American recruits
and financial backing from Southern plantation owners. Since Lopez was
(03:01):
in violation of the Neutrality Act of eighteen eighteen, the
US government sent warships to scuttle the raid. In an editorial,
Walker took the filibuster's side. He wrote, there is no
law of nations recognized in this country, at least, nor
of morals, which deprives a man of the right of
expatriating himself if he pleases to take his share in
(03:24):
a foreign quarrel which appeals to his love of liberty
or detestation of tyranny, or even to his mere sordid
estimate of glory and gain. By eighteen fifty three, Walker
was living in gold Rush era San Francisco, a magnet
for young adventurers looking to strike it rich in the West,
(03:45):
and he was seriously entertaining his own career as a filibuster.
Walker and other would be invaders set their sights on
the northern Mexican state of Sonora, right across the southern
US border. Martel said there was a common belief at
the time that the Mexican government wasn't in control of
the border territory on their side. From the filibuster's perspective,
(04:08):
it was land for the taking. If they could impose
a government, then it would be theirs to defend a
Walker tried diplomacy, first, sailing to the Baja Peninsula to
request permission for the establishment of a private mining colony
in Sonora, but someone tipped off the Mexican authorities that
Walker had grander plans for an American empire in Mexico,
(04:30):
and he was kicked out. Martel said he would return
to Sonora not as a putative settler, but as a conqueror.
Back in San Francisco, Walker and his associates openly recruited
men to the cause an equipped a ship called the
Arrow with weapons and provisions for a proper invasion. The
US authorities caught wind of Walker's plan and seized the Arrow,
(04:53):
but in a midnight raid, Walker's men were able to
steal back some of their supplies and set sail for
Mexico on another vest, the Caroline, With a ragtag brigade
of just forty five men, Walker landed in the port
city of La pazz and quickly seized the governor's office,
where they lowered the Mexican flag and raised one of
(05:13):
Walker's own design for his new country. Walker announced, the
Republic of Lower California is hereby declared free, sovereign, and independent,
and all allegiance to the Republic of Mexico is forever renounced.
He also gave himself the title of President. Hundreds of
reinforcements sailed down from San Francisco, eager to join Walker's
(05:36):
fledgling empire and to stake a claim to lucrative mining rights.
But once the men arrived, they found an ill equipped
army without a solid game plan. Local ranchers took up
arms against Walker's underfed troops, who began deserting in droves
despite Walker's violent punishments. By the spring of eighteen fifty four,
(05:58):
even Walker realized that the invade had failed, so he
men his exhausted men marched north and surrendered to the
US authorities at the border. Walker was charged with violating
the Neutrality Act, but was merely acquitted. Martel says that
the US government saw Walker as a pest and nothing more.
(06:18):
He would soon prove them wrong. In the late eighteen fifties,
Nicaragua was locked in a civil war between two opposing
political parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals. The Liberals had
the support of a former American newspaperman named Byron Cole,
who pitched the idea of hiring the now famous Walker
to capture the Conservative stronghold of Grenada. Nervous of being
(06:44):
tried a second time for breaking the Neutrality Act, a
Walker said that he would only come if he and
his men were invited as colonists and given land grants.
The Liberals agreed, and Walker sailed down with a mercenary
band of fighters, mostly veterans of the Mexican American War.
After heavy fighting, they took the city, and Walker managed
(07:05):
to get himself appointed as the head of the Nicaraguan military. Then,
when Nicaragua's puppet president fled after an invasion by neighboring
Costa Rica, Walker declared himself president. In eighteen fifty six,
even United States President Franklin Pierce officially recognized him as
the country's new leader. As President, Walker made English the
(07:27):
national language and legalized slavery. He might have had a
long and successful career as a Central American imperialist if
he hadn't angered another American that claimed Nicaragua. Before the
Panama Canal connected the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
Shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt established a profitable shortcut transporting cargo
(07:51):
and passengers across Nicaragua by river and land. Walker seized
Vanderbilt steamships as property of Nicaragua, which didn't sit well
with the New York millionaire. Martel explained, Vanderbilt sent word
to the Costa Rican military, I'll pay for your troops
if you'll help me get rid of Walker. Surrounded by
(08:13):
Costa Rican troops and Vanderbilt's mercenaries. Walker negotiated a surrender
in eighteen fifty seven and sailed back to New York,
where he was tried and acquitted again for violating the
Neutrality Act. He wasted no time planning to take back Nicaragua,
but his first two comeback attempts were dead in the water,
(08:33):
literally in one, Walker's ship struck a coral reef off
Belize and had to be towed back to Mobile, Alabama
by the British Navy. Another ended with Walker arrested by
the US Navy when he tried to land in Costa Rica.
A Walker was undeterred, though, and thanks to his fame
in the newspapers, he had no trouble recruiting ninety one
(08:55):
men for another try. The plan was to land in
the Honduran port of Trahuia and marched south into Nicaragua,
but they met fierce resistance from the Honduran military, which
was aided by a British naval blockade that kept out
American reinforcements. With dozens of men wounded or dying from
tropical diseases and ammunition in short supply, a Walker was
(09:17):
convinced to surrender to the British commodore Norvel Salmon, who
assured Walker that he'd be spared the wrath of the
Honduran military. But that's not what happened. Martell put it
this way. The captain of the ship screwed him over.
In a matter of days, Walker was standing before a
Honduran firing squad. He was only thirty six years old
(09:41):
when he was executed in September eighteen sixty, and Filibustering
more or less died with him. Just months later, South
Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union,
and the nation was soon embroiled in its own bloody
civil war. Today's episode was based on the article William Walker,
(10:04):
the American mercenary who named himself President of Nicaragua on
HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Dave Ruse. Brain Stuff is
production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com
and is produced by Tyler Klang. A four more podcast
that's from iHeartRadio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
BrainStuff News
Hosts And Creators
Josh Clark
Jonathan Strickland
Ben Bowlin
Lauren Vogelbaum
Cristen Conger
Christian Sager
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.