Filibustering

Areas of Filibuster Activity

Mexico became a focus of filibuster activity after its defeat in the Mexican War. Many Americans saw the defeated nation as a fruit ripe for the picking by enterprising young men eager to gain fame and fortune. Mexico was also seen as a place where new slave states for the United States could be created. Western Mexico drew the attention of Americans and foreigners living in California who had heard claims of gold deposits in the Sonora region.

One of the most famous of the filibusters, William Walker, was the first leader of filibuster expeditions to western Mexico. He occupied Baja California in November 1853, declaring the Republic of Sonora. This first attempt by Walker soon failed, and by 1854 Walker was back in the United States. A sizable contingent of French immigrants also attempted to move into Sonora, but they were defeated by local forces. One of the last filibuster schemes in Mexico was the Henry Crabb expedition that met a disastrous fate in Caborca, Mexico, in 1857—his expedition was captured and summarily executed by local government officials. Other filibuster groups also operated in areas south of the Rio Grande.

Filibusters also turned their attention toward Cuba after the end of the Mexican War in 1848, considering that island as the logical next focus of Manifest Destiny (the belief that the United States had the God-given right to expand its borders throughout the Americas). In Cuba, Southerners saw a perfect location for new slave states that might serve as a counterweight to new free states. They viewed Spain, Cuba's colonial ruler, as a declining European power that would offer little serious defense of the island. Also, Cuba's tropical climate was a perfect environment for the introduction of cash crops, cotton, and tobacco, from the southern United States.

Narciso Lopez conducted two major expeditions against the Spanish authorities on Cuba in 1850 and 1851. Many of [Page 278]his filibusters were Southerners from the United States, including Roberdeau Wheat and William L. Crittenden; other wealthy Southerners provided funds for military equipment. Lopez and his men were defeated by the Spanish garrison during their last foray into Cuba and were put to death by the island authorities in August 1851.

William Walker's filibuster army in Nicaragua drew the most attention in the press and came the nearest to success in Central America between 1855 and 1860. The large profits being made by men like Cornelius Vanderbilt in the transcontinental route through Nicaragua to the Pacific Ocean drew American attention to the region. The internal politics and British diplomacy began to affect the profits from Vanderbilt's endeavor. The British government attempted to control the eastern shore of Nicaragua and the departure points for the transcontinental railroad. Their efforts prevented American companies from controlling the overland route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Walker became interested in the economic opportunities presented by Nicaraguan agriculture and transportation routes due to the influence of Byron Cole and Henry Crabb. Cole owned the San Francisco Commercial-Advertiser, for which Walker worked as an editor. Cole became involved in colonization and mining in Central America, and soon began to recruit Americans to fight in the Nicaraguan civil war. Crabb, a boyhood friend of Walker's, also began to recruit for the war in Nicaragua. While Cole traveled with Walker to Nicaragua, Crabb soon gave up on any moneymaking schemes in Central America, choosing to remain in California.

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