William Walker (mercenary)

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William Walker

William Walker (born May 8, 1824 in Nashville , Tennessee , † September 12, 1860 in Trujillo , Honduras ) was an American doctor , lawyer , journalist , adventurer and filibuster who tried several states in Central America in the mid-19th century to conquer. During the Civil War, he was one of the rival presidents of the Republic of Nicaragua from 1856 to 1857 . In 1860 he was executed by firing squad.

biography

Walker studied medicine at the Universities of Edinburgh , Göttingen , Heidelberg and Paris. At the age of 19 he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in medicine and worked briefly as a doctor in Philadelphia before studying law in New Orleans .

After a brief stint as a lawyer , Walker became the editor of the New Orleans Crescent . In 1849 he moved to San Francisco , continued to work as a journalist and was involved three times in duel demands . He was wounded in two duels. In San Francisco he developed the idea of conquering parts of Latin America and establishing states ruled by white North Americans ( filibustering ), which can be seen in the larger context of inter-Americanism .

Trip to Baja California and Sonora

In 1853, Walker tried to conquer the Mexican areas of Baja California and Sonora with 45 men . He occupied La Paz , the capital of sparsely populated Baja California, and proclaimed himself President of the Republic of Baja California . Three months later, he declared Baja California part of the larger Republic of Sonora , although he never succeeded in conquering Sonora. A shortage of supplies and unexpectedly fierce resistance from the Mexican government quickly forced Walker to withdraw. In California, he was tried for illegal warfare. The jury , influenced by the ideas of Manifest Destiny , acquitted him of the allegations after eight minutes of deliberation.

Ruler of Nicaragua

Walker's Nicaragua Map

Walker was called in to help by the Liberal War Party in the Nicaraguan Civil War that began in 1855 . On May 4, he set sail with a mercenary force of 57 men from San Francisco despite a ban by the US authorities . He quickly took power in Nicaragua and ruled as commander in chief of the army through the puppet government of Patricio Rivas . Despite the apparent illegality of this company, US President Franklin recognized Pierce Walker on May 20, 1856 as the legitimate ruler of Nicaragua. Walker hired other Europeans and Americans to bring the four other independent Central American states of Guatemala , El Salvador , Honduras and Costa Rica under his control.

A dispute over the Nicaraguan transit route from New York to San Francisco led to a break between Walker and the US government. Until a continuous rail link was opened, the fastest route from the US east coast to California was via Nicaragua. Passengers and cargo were transported by ship from New York to the Nicaraguan Atlantic coast to Greytown and on over the Río San Juan to Lake Nicaragua . After a short overland journey by carriage to the Pacific coast, it was then transported by ship to the American west coast. The former Nicaraguan government had granted the concession for this connection to the Accessory Transit Company controlled by Cornelius Vanderbilt . Vanderbilt initially supported Walker in the hope of stabilizing Nicaragua. Walker withdrew the concession because of alleged violations of the Accessory Transit Company and granted it to Vanderbilt's rivals Cornelius K. Garrison and Charles Morgan , who financially supported Walker's further military plans. Vanderbilt successfully put pressure on the US government to withdraw recognition of Walker's regime. In addition, he supported an attempt by the Central American states under the leadership of Costa Rica to cut off Walker's supply routes.

Walker's house in Granada. During the siege, the Guatemalan officer José Víctor Zavala ran under heavy fire to the building on October 12, 1856 to capture the flag. He was not injured in the process.
Naval battle off San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, on November 23, 1856. Contemporary illustration. In the foreground the Costa Rican brig "Once de Abril", in the background the Nicaraguan schooner "Granada" flying the flag of William Walker.

After an unopposed election, Walker declared himself President of Nicaragua in July 1856. Because of the increasingly precarious situation for him, he sought support from the residents of the southern United States. Many white southerners expected slavery to end soon in the USA , the basis of their traditional economy. Walker portrayed his conquests as a struggle for the spread of slavery and invalidated Nicaragua's Emancipation Edict of 1824, which abolished slavery. Walker's popularity in the southern states rose, but his army, weakened by a cholera epidemic and numerous defections, failed to compete with the Vanderbilt-backed coalition of Central American states.

On May 1, 1857, Walker surrendered to the US Army and was returned to the United States. Hailed as a hero upon his arrival in New Orleans , he turned public opinion against him when he blamed the US Navy for his defeat. Six months later he made another attempt at conquest and was arrested again at San Juan del Norte by the US Navy and brought back to the USA. The legality of this arrest has been the subject of heated public debate.

Third raid

Encouraged by the slave owners, Walker organized another raid. The Caribbean island of Roatán off the coast of Honduras was supposed to serve as a base of operations, but he was banned from landing there by the British authorities. On August 6, 1860, he had Trujillo (Honduras) steered for and occupied the port fortifications in a flash . On August 19, 1860, the British steam sloop HMS Icarus called under the command of Captain Nowell Salmon Trujillo. Salmon informed Walker on August 21, 1860 that the revenue from the Trujillo customs post had been pledged to the British crown and that with Walker's appearance, the revenues from the customs post had disappeared. Now the commandant of the fortress, the Spanish citizen Manuel Cano Madrazo, who was Governor of the Department of Izabal in Guatemala under José Rafael Carrera Turcios , turned to the Governor of British Honduras and asked him to instruct the captain of the frigate HMS Icarus to take over the filibustiers to pursue. This forced Walker to retreat inland from Honduras. 80 filibustiers decided to leave the fortress and head east towards Cabo Gracias a Dios . They left six sick and injured in the fortress under the care of medic EH Newton. At dawn on August 22, 1860, Salmon came to the fortress and placed the injured under the protection of the British Crown. On August 23, 1860, Honduran troops attacked Walker's mercenaries across the Río Aguán in La Ceiba . The attack was repulsed by the filibuster, Walker was slightly injured. There was one dead and a number of wounded on the filibuster side. They reached the Río Tinto, moved along the bank to about four miles from its mouth and camped in a factory owned by the British Demsing. On September 3, 1860, the English captain Nowell Salmon landed there with 40 men and advanced with two boats on the Río Tinto. When he got to the factory, Walker's surrender was brought to him. Walker surrendered with his mercenaries and was arrested on the English warship HMS Ikarus . The Icarus cast off for Trujillo. On board, Walker dictated a protest to a journalist; he surrendered to the British Crown.

execution

William Walker's grave in the old cemetery in Trujillo

Walker was extradited to the authorities of the Republic of Honduras and sentenced to death by Nowell, who saw him as a threat to English interests in the region ( British Honduras and the Mosquito Coast) . On September 12, 1860, he was executed by a Honduran firing squad .

reception

Monumento Nacional de Costa Rica Detalle

To commemorate the victory over Walker, a bronze monument was erected in the Costa Rican capital San José in 1895 by the French sculptor Louis-Robert Carrier-Belleuse , the national monument of Costa Rica . The monument consists of five female figures representing the five Central American republics and a fleeing male figure representing William Walker.

The German author Alfred Neumann wrote the biographical novel The Pact between autumn 1941 and spring 1948 while emigrating to southern California . The French Patrick Deville wrote the novel Pura vida about Walker in 2004 . The Life and Death of William Walker (2009).

Walker's biography is also the subject of several films, including Queimada - Isle of Secrets (1969, directed by Gillo Pontecorvo ), in which Walker is played by Marlon Brando , and Walker with Ed Harris in the title role. Director Alex Cox was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 1988 Berlinale .

Fonts

  • William Walker: The was in Nicaragua. Mobile AL, 1860, digitized

literature

  • Victor H. Acuña (Ed.): Filibusterismo y destino manifiesto en las Américas. Alajuela / Costa Rica (Museo Histórico Cultural Juan Santamaría) 2010, ISBN 9977-953-67-8 , ISBN 978-9977-953-67-0
  • Delia González de Reufels : Settlers and Filibusters in Sonora. A Mexican Region in the Interest of Foreign Adventurers and Powers (1821–1860). Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2003, ISBN 3-412-04103-3 .
  • Lorenzo Montúfar y Rivera: Walker in Centroamérica. Museo Histórico Cultural Juan Santamaría, Alajuela 2000, ISBN 9977-953-33-3 .
  • Frank Niess: The Legacy of the Conquista: History of Nicaragua. 2nd Edition. Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-7609-1297-4 .
  • Brady Harrison: Agent of empire. William Walker and the imperial self in American literature. University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA 2004, ISBN 0-8203-2544-9 .
  • Tony Horwitz: The devil may care. Fifty intrepid Americans and their quest for the unknown. Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York (et al.) 2003, ISBN 0-19-516922-0 .
  • Robert E. May: The southern dream of a Caribbean empire, 1854-1861. 2nd Edition. Gainesville, FL 2002.
  • Albert HZ Carr: The world and William Walker. Westport, CN 1975.
  • Jorge Enrique Guier: William Walker. San José / Costa Rica 1971.
  • William Oscar Scroggs: Filibusters and financiers. The story of William Walker and his associates. New York 1969 (reprint of the 1916 edition).
  • Rafael Obregón Loría: La campaña del transito 1856-1857. San José (Costa Rica) 1956.
  • Robert E. May: Manifest Destiny's Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America. University of Northern Carolina Press 2004.
  • Marco Cabrera Geserick: The legacy of the Filibuster War. National identity and collective memory in Central America , Lanham, MD (Lexington Books) 2019. ISBN 978-1-4985-5981-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d James M. McPherson: Die for Freedom. The history of the American Civil War. Anaconda, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-86647-267-9 , p. 101 ff.
  2. ↑ Dueñas Van Severen, 2006, p. 140
  3. ↑ Nowell Salmon VC ( Memento from December 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: Memorials in Portsmouth (English).
  4. ^ The Capture Of Walker. Interesting Correspondence with Captain Salmon ( Memento from January 30, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) and Correspondence with Captain Salmon. (PDF) In: The New York Times , September 29, 1860 (English).
  5. ^ Patrick Deville: Pura Vida: Vie et mort de William Walker. Seuil, Paris 2004, ISBN 2-02-062877-5 ; Spanish 2005, ISBN 84-322-2787-0 ; German: Innsbruck, Haymon, 2007, ISBN 3-492-04249-X (German).
personal data
SURNAME Walker, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American doctor, lawyer, journalist, adventurer, and mercenary
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1824
PLACE OF BIRTH Nashville , Tennessee
DATE OF DEATH September 12, 1860
Place of death Trujillo , Honduras