Transporting tourists
William Walker was an interesting guy.
He was an American mercenary who, in the era of the expansion of the United States, driven by the doctrine of ‘manifest destiny’, organised unauthorised military expeditions into Mexico and Central America with the intention of establishing private colonies. Such an enterprise was known at the time as ‘filibustering’.
Walker originally went to Nicaragua in 1855 as leader of a mercenary army employed by the Nicaraguan Democratic Party (based in Leon) in its civil war against the Legitimists (based in Granada), and then attempted to split the country by playing one city off against the other.
However, he made some powerful enemies in the US. Since there was no inter-oceanic route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at the time, and the transcontinental railway did not yet exist, a major trade route between New York City and San Francisco (to service the new goldfields) ran through southern Nicaragua. Ships from New York entered the San Juan River from the Atlantic and sailed across Lake Nicaragua. People and goods were then transported by stagecoach across a narrow strip of land near the city of Rivas, about 50km south of Granada and the narrowest part of the country, before reaching the Pacific and boarding ships to San Francisco. Controlling this route, and becoming rich from controlling the trade was Walker’s chief goal, but the commercial exploitation of this route had been granted by Nicaragua to a company controlled by shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Vanderbilt applied all of his influence within the US to discredit and topple Walker.
Also concerned about Walker’s intentions in the region, Costa Rican President Juan Porras rejected his diplomatic overtures and began preparing the country’s military for a potential conflict. The Costa Rican army, led by Porras, defeated the Filibusters in Rivas on April 11, 1856.
With defeat looming, Walker deliberately contaminated the water wells of Rivas with corpses. Later, a cholera epidemic spread to the Costa Rican troops and the civilian population of Rivas. Within a few months nearly 10,000 civilians had died, almost ten per cent of the population of Costa Rica.
Back in Leon, he took control of the Nicaraguan government and in July 1856 set himself up as the country’s president. On October 13, he conquered Granada and took effective control of the country. Walker’s regime was recognised as the legitimate government of Nicaragua by US President Franklin Pierce.
As ruler of Nicaragua, Walker then re-legalised slavery and threatened the independence of neighbouring Central American republics in an effort to negate Vanderbilt, and gain support for his regime in the southern states of the US.
On December 14, 1856, as Granada was surrounded by 4,000 troops from Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, along with independent Nicaraguan allies, Charles Henningsen, one of Walker’s generals, ordered his men to set the city ablaze before escaping and fighting their way to Lake Nicaragua. While retreating from Granada, the oldest Spanish colonial city in Nicaragua, he left a detachment with orders to level it in order to instil, as he put it, “a salutary dread of American justice”. It took them over two weeks to smash, burn and flatten the city. All that remained were inscriptions on the ruins that read “Aqui Fue Granada”(“Here was Granada”).
The military coalition led by Costa Rica finally defeated Walker and forced him to resign the presidency of Nicaragua on May 1, 1857. He surrendered to Commander Charles Davis of the United States Navy, and was repatriated to the US.
Walker sought to gain renewed support from pro-slavery forces in the southern states of the US on the eve of the American Civil War, and returned to Central America, but was arrested by the British Royal Navy, who handed him over to the Honduran government which executed him.
50 years later in 1912, whilst they built the Panama Canal, in an effort to protect Vanderbilt’s contract to control the Nicaraguan trade route and ensure that no other country would create an alternative route to threaten their investment in Panama, the US invaded Nicaragua, and stayed until 1933. They then propped up the dictator Somoza until 1956.
Sigh. Not much hope for Nicaragua is there. No wonder they have remained poor.
This morning, after our walking tour guide failed to turn up (even though we have received a confirmation email), we walked ourselves around Granada, and saw many of the old buildings with plaques on the wall indicating that the original building had been burned down by William Walker, and that the current building was a reconstruction.
Granada is a lovely little town. Quite Spanish in it’s architecture, and a lot of effort has been put into making it family and tourist friendly with it’s lovely square, and several pedestrian-only walking and eating precincts.
Our last evening meal in Central America was in the garden restaurant at one of the hotels. Then it was home to pack for flights to America with all the attendant palaver.
The Cathedral
Night Tours
Central Square
Nighttime in the Plaza
Breakfast