founded two republics of which he was president

At present, millionaires are focused on Your own space career for “save humanity“Of itself. In the nineteenth century, the millionaires concentrated all that impetus in conquering territories of third countries independently, using Your own private army and governing their colonies as former feudal lords.

That was the case of William Walker, considered by many as “last great filibuster“, which acted as an independent mercenary that conquered territories in Mexico, Nicaragua.

William Walker: The Central American dictator

The story of William Walker is a story of ambition, power and the formation of Latin American identity. Born in Tennessee in 1824, Walker was the son of very influential entrepreneurs in local politics. He studied medicine, journalism and law.

However, he abandoned these professions to become a filibuster, a kind of private mercenaries that encouraged revolutions not authorized by any country in order to take the territories and their resources. To understand the context of private invasions of countries, it is important to know the concept on which the DOCTRINE OF MANIFESTO DESTINATION. This doctrine, one of the pillars United States foundational.

This 19th century doctrine justified the territorial expansion of the United States through North America, based on the belief of being a “chosen” nation with the divine right to extend its civilization. This idea is associated with annexation to the United States of territories such as Texas and California, and wars such as Mexico and Spain, promoting the idea that expansion was obvious and predestined, reflected in the phrase “by divine or God authority.”

This ideology influenced intervention and expansionism policies, whose maximum expression It is the famous phrase of Thomas Jefferson: “America has a hemisphere for itself.”

With only 29 years, in 1853, Walker recruited 32 American slave mercenaries and launched into the conquest of the southern borders of the country which Hernán Cortés, in search of power and wealth. The incursion were not bad and the cities of La Paz and Ensenada in Mexico conquered, self -proclaiming president of the Republic of Sonorawhere he hastened to impose a new permissive legislation with slavery to obtain a rapid profitability of his conquest.

His presidency lasted little, since five months later, the Mexican resistance and the lack of supplies forced him to withdraw.

To a scrambled river, invading gain

Far from demotivating itself after the failure of the first foray into private colonialism, William Walker allied with the Democratic Party of Nicaragua, which at that time was in full territorial dispute over the control of the Central American country with the legitimist party.

Walker saw the opportunity to put a trick in the matter and offered to the local bourgeoisie to help them militarily to achieve their goals, and incidentally, to gain their own economic interests a little more. After winning the battle in Granada with an army of mercenaries called “The immortals“He was symbolically elected president, imposing American policies and customs.

William began to apply his colonialist policy in the area by initiating a government policy by decrees, in which slavery was restored, the English as an official language And the arrival of Americans was encouraged, in addition to changing the constitution and flag of the country.

It also established by decree that all the assets of the “enemies of the State” would be confiscated in favor of the Republic and distributed by a specially generous special board with the interests of William Walker and the United States.

There is in fact the “germ” of the Panama Canal. Given the strategic nature of the area, this conquest did not go unnoticed by the United States, which rushed to recognize the legitimacy of the new republic created by William Walker.

The US interest in the control of this area was based on the importance of creating a Interoceanic Commercial Route that will connect the Atlantic with the Pacific. Immediately the traffic route that connected both oceans through the San Juan River in the south of the country was established.

The return of the hero. Attenny by the pressures of commercial interests and their neighboring countries, the Walker government is overthrown and the millionaire must return to his native Tennessee acclaimed as a victorious hero.

His banishment would not last long, since, three years later, William Walker returned to the streets and already planned the conquest of Honduras. This coup adventure lasted less than the previous one. Walker is arrested by the British troops settled in the area and is quickly delivered to local authorities in Trujillo, where without further delay he is judged and sentenced to death.

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Image | Wikimedia Commons (Mathew Benjamin Brady, Nicaragua-Cia_wfb_map.p), Pexels (ABODI VESAKARAN)

*An earlier version of this article was published in May 2024