Many people believed in the idea of Manifest Destiny, but not many could accomplish their dreams. One of these people was William Walker, an American lawyer, journalist, and conquer. In Tennessee on May 8, 1824, William Walker was born to parents James Walker and Mary Norvell. He graduated from the University of Nashville at age 14 and received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania a the age of 19.
Walker lived a fascinating life, from fighting three duels to conquering Nicaragua. One of the duels that Walker fought was against William Hicks Graham on January 12, 1851. Walker had criticized many of Graham's newspaper articles, which angered him and lead to a duel. During the duel, Walker was shot twice, one bullet in his pantaloons and the other in his thigh. Graham, on the other hand, was left unharmed as Walker was unable to fire a single shot at Graham. Walker was left with fatal injuries because of this duel. Although Walker fought in three major duels over the course of his life, this isn’t the main reason why he is remembered.
William Walker was a strong believer in Manifest Destiny and was determined to take over Central America. He ensured his dream would become a reality when he moved to San Francisco in 1849. When Walker was in San Francisco, he gathered an army of 45 men to conquer Baja California and Sonora State. Walker’s attempt to take over Central America was successful and he soon became president of his newly acquired territory, known as the Republic of Lower California. When Walker returned to California he was put on trial for violating a neutrality contract with Mexico, but what mattered was Walker’s popularity in both the United States and Mexico grew, leading to a 400 person expansion to his army. Another conquest was the Conquest of Nicaragua. Nicaragua, a country in which Walker called an economic jackpot, was in the midst of fighting a civil war and Walker took advantage of this to conquer Nicaragua. With an army consisting of only 60 men Walker sailed to Nicaragua and fought his way around the country until he gained control of Granada, a major city of Nicaragua. With control of Granada, William Walker was able to establish himself as the President of Nicaragua from 1855 Granada, In 1857, Costa Rica declared war on Walker and fought until Walker was taken out of office in Nicaragua.
Walker was killed by a firing squad in Honduras after being captured by the British who disapproved of his filibustering efforts. Although Walker may not be a main character in United States history, he changed the idea of Manifest Destiny and helped other countries recognize the United States as one of the strongest nations in the world.
A photo of William Walker
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_(filibuster)
https://allthatsinteresting.com/william-walker
http://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2018/4/24/man-of-destiny-william-walker-and-the-conquest-of-nicaragua#.XZq7qudKjzI=
I enjoyed your post on William Walker very much as it taught me more on how his motives were directly related to the Manifest Destiny. I was wondering if there were other people who tried conquering other territories but never succeeded like William Walker did. I was wondering this because if others many others tried to succeed at conquering new territory like Walker, I think it would make the Manifest Destiny less achievable.
ReplyDeleteI found it surprising how only with the accompaniment of 45 men, Walker was able to conquer both Baja and Sonora State, successfully achieving part of his dream of Manifesting Destiny. Some further research found that this group of 45's incursion on South California occurred between October 28th, and November 3rd, where Walker first reached Cabo, followed by La Paz, whereby taking the city by surprise he was able to successfully appoint himself as president of the Republic of Lower California, in such a brief time period. I am very intrigued as to how this platoon of men was able to take over a reasonably sized portion of territory in such little time, especially with the lack of personnel to do so.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/mx_wal.html
I found your post regarding William Walker very interesting and informative as it taught me how Walker's motives from the beginning (manifest destiny) led to something so grand and helped him really achieve his dreams. I also noticed that in his conquest in Nicaragua, Walker's main motives for acquiring Nicaragua was for financial gain, but he also worked with the Leonese, the "losing" faction in the war against the Granadans. Cornelius Vanderbilt had also advocated to create a canal to connect the Caribbean with the Pacific, and so Walker's involvement in Nicaragua would help Vanderbilt's process in doing so, hence Walker calling Nicaragua an "economic jackpot".
ReplyDeleteSource:
http://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2018/4/24/man-of-destiny-william-walker-and-the-conquest-of-nicaragua#.XZq7qudKjzI=