The Man Who Conquered
Nicaragua, Died In Shame
By Lindsey Bright
Back in the day, a man
from Tennessee took over
Central America. “Five
or None!” was his motto.
Though, he never ruled
all five Central
American countries, he
did manage to become
president of Nicaragua;
and the thing is, he
very well might have
succeeded in ruling all
five Central American
countries if his
financial backer hadn’t
turned against him.
The man is William
Walker, born in the
years before the Civil
War. America was young
and adventurous then,
many people thought she
could do anything.
The heroes of the states
were the men who had
come back from great
exotic adventures,
normally involving
trying to take over some
land. The world still
had to be conquered in
the eye many a man.
Young Walker was ripe
for the job. He was
young, he was an
accomplished lawyer and
a doctor by the age of
21, and he needed a
hobby.
First thing on Walker’s
list, go down to Baja
Penninsula in Mexico and
claim it as his own. And
he did it. This man
gathered together some
troops. They weren’t
many, and goodness, they
weren’t trained; but
give ‘em a gun and they
would fight. For awhile
at least. Walker’s
victory was short-lived.
He tried to get Sonora
as well, and that’s when
his men tired, his food
was low, and to stay in
Mexico meant certain
death.
Let me remind you, this
man was not taking
orders from the
government. He was going
off on his own, and from
this, he got a rush, an
addiction, an obsession.
He couldn’t stop. After
the Baja failure, he was
on to the next!
Anyone who knows a thing
or two about
overthrowing a
government can tell you
that when you’re looking
to take over a country,
you look for unrest.
Well, there was lots of
unrest in the world,
especially in Central
America. That’s where
Walker made his next
move. He went down to
Nicaragua. There was
chaos and rebel groups.
What William Walker did
was provide the means
for those rebel groups
to conquer their
government. He brought
firepower, and with it,
his troops grew to
include the disgruntled,
rebel locals. It took a
few battles, but Walker
did it. At 31, he was
president of Nicaragua
and had his face on
their notes of currency.
As you know, though,
something went wrong. If
Walker would’ve gone on
succeeding, Central
America might be part of
the United States, and
we’d all know his name.
So what happened?
Cornelius Vanderbilt
happened. He was the man
with the money in the
world; a man, that to be
a world conqueror, you
needed on your side.
Old Vanderbilt, he
didn’t like to be messed
with and two people
associated with Walker
messed with Vanderbilt’s
money. Vanderbilt wanted
to get those two back,
so he made sure that
their business, which
was tied up with Walker,
was crushed by his own.
Money was gone from the
Walker expedition, but
Walker’s zeal wasn’t. He
didn't have to try for
Honduras. He could’ve
come back to the United
States wounded and a
has-been. But not
Walker. He was a world
conqueror, so he went to
conquer Honduras.
Lacking largely in troop
size and support of any
kind, it didn’t take the
Hondurans long to defeat
his troops
“I am prepared to die.
My political career is
over,” Walker said at
his end.
And die he did in front
of a Honduran firing
squad.
Imagine trying to take
over (fill this spot
with your preferred
country of unrest),
putting a flag in the
ground, calling it an
independent state and
yourself the president.
What a wild world. |
