May 3, 1855: American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua



William Walker was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1824. At age 14, he attended the University of Nashville to study law. He went on to attend the University of Edinburgh, and Heidelberg before receiving a degree in medicine from the University of Pennsylvania. He moved to New Orleans to practice law. While in New Orleans, he became an ardent advocate for slavery and its expansion into the new territories in the United States. He then moved to San Francisco to work for a local newspaper. In 1851, he conceived the idea of filibustering, or the idea that foreign countries should be conquered in the name of the United States, in order to create new slave states.

In the summer of 1853, Walker traveled to Mexico to ask the government for land in order to make a colony. He told them he intended to create a buffer state against native American attack. They refused him. That October, he recruited 45 men to take the territory by force. They captured the Mexican town of La Paz and established the Republic of Lower California. Fearful of a Mexican attack, he fled back to California. Upon his arrival, he was arrested. He was charged with conducting an illegal war, but was quickly acquitted by a pro-slavery jury. In 1854, a popular uprising erupted in Nicaragua. Walker, now financially supported by the Democratic Party, saw his chance at conquest. He recruited 60 men to his cause. On May 3, 1855, they left San Francisco for Nicaragua, prepared to conquer the South American country in order to expand the institution of slavery.

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