In the early 1850s, an American doctor, lawyer, and journalist named William Walker decided that traditional careers were simply too boring. He became the most notorious practitioner of "filibustering," an era of private mercenaries raising their own armies to conquer foreign nations and set up personal fiefdoms.
His first attempt in Mexico failed miserably, but Walker was not deterred. In 1855, during a vicious civil war in Nicaragua, one of the warring factions invited Walker to bring a small mercenary squad to fight as guns for hire.
Walker arrived in Central America with only fifty-seven armed men, famously dubbed "The Immortals."
Rather than serving as loyal foreign contractors, Walker and his band of armed adventurers seized the initiative. They captured the strategic city of Granada, overwhelmed opposing forces through aggressive guerrilla tactics, and essentially took control of the entire nation.
Walker did not just want to run military operations. He wanted total dominion.
He established a puppet government, staged a completely rigged election where citizens were forced to vote under armed guard, and on July 12, 1856, William Walker officially inaugurated himself as the President of the Republic of Nicaragua.
His presidential tenure was an unhinged disaster. He immediately declared English the official national language, legalized slavery, confiscated major property from native landowners, and declared intentions to conquer the rest of Central America into a united empire.
His megalomania backfired when he made the fatal mistake of seizing the local transit and shipping routes owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt, the ruthless American railroad and shipping tycoon.
Vanderbilt used his vast fortune to finance, arm, and organize a coalition of rival Central American armies to wipe Walker out. Surrounded and outgunned by four neighboring nations, Walker was forced to surrender to the United States Navy and was escorted back home.
Incredibly, he tried to invade Central America two more times before he was finally captured by British naval forces, handed over to local authorities in Honduras, and executed by a firing squad in 1860.
Showing up to a foreign country with fifty-seven mercenaries, taking over the entire government, and declaring yourself supreme ruler until an angry railroad tycoon funds an international coalition to kick you out is wild history at its finest. That wraps up Day 17 of Crazy History Facts!
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