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Nicaragua Foreign Intervention, 1850-68
British and United States interests in Nicaragua grew
during
the mid-1800s because of the country's strategic
importance as a
transit route across the isthmus. British settlers seized
the
port of San Juan del Norte--at the mouth of the Río San
Juan on
the southern Caribbean coast--and expelled all Nicaraguan
officials on January 1, 1848. The following year, Britain
forced
Nicaragua to sign a treaty recognizing British rights over
the
Miskito on the Caribbean coast. Britain's control over
much of
the Caribbean lowlands, which the British called the
Mosquito
Coast (present-day Costa de Mosquitos), from 1678 until
1894 was
a constant irritant to Nicaraguan nationalists. The start
of the
gold rush in California in 1849 increased United States
interests
in Central America as a transoceanic route, and Nicaragua
at
first encouraged a United States presence to
counterbalance the
British.
The possibility of economic riches in Nicaragua
attracted
international business development. Afraid of Britain's
colonial
intentions, Nicaragua held discussions with the United
States in
1849, leading to a treaty that gave the United States
exclusive
rights to a transit route across Nicaragua. In return, the
United
States promised protection of Nicaragua from other foreign
intervention. On June 22, 1849, the first official United
States
representative, Ephraim George Squier, arrived in
Nicaragua. Both
liberals and conservatives welcomed the United States
diplomat. A
contract between Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, a United
States
businessman, and the Nicaraguan government was signed on
August
26, 1849, granting Vanderbilt's company--the Accessory
Transit
Company--exclusive rights to build a transisthmian canal
within
twelve years. The contract also gave Vanderbilt exclusive
rights,
while the canal was being completed, to use a
land-and-water
transit route across Nicaragua, part of a larger scheme to
move
passengers from the eastern United States to California.
The
westbound journey across Nicaragua began by small boat
from San
Juan del Norte on the Caribbean coast, traveled up the Río
San
Juan to San Carlos on Lago de Nicaragua, crossed Lago de
Nicaragua to La Virgen on the west shore, and then
continued by
railroad or stagecoach to San Juan del Sur on the Pacific
coast.
In September 1849, the United States-Nicaragua treaty,
along with
Vanderbilt's contract, was approved by the Nicaraguan
Congress.
British economic interests were threatened by the
United
States enterprise led by Vanderbilt, and violence erupted
in 1850
when the British tried to block the operations of the
Accessory
Transit Company. As a result, United States and British
government officials held diplomatic talks and on April
19, 1850,
without consulting the Nicaraguan government, signed the
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, in which both countries agreed that
neither would claim exclusive power over a future canal in
Central America nor gain exclusive control over any part
of the
region. Although the Nicaraguan government originally
accepted
the idea of a transit route because of the economic
benefit it
would bring Nicaragua, the operation remained under United
States
and British control. Britain retained control of the
Caribbean
port of San Juan del Norte, and the United States owned
the
vessels, hotels, restaurants, and land transportation
along the
entire transit route.
Continued unrest in the 1850s set the stage for two
additional elements in Nicaragua history: frequent United
States
military interventions in Nicaragua and a propensity for
Nicaragua politicians to call on the United States to
settle
domestic disputes. In 1855 a group of armed United States
filibusters headed by William Walker, a soldier of fortune
from
Tennessee who had previously invaded Mexico, sailed to
Nicaragua
intent on taking over. Internal conflict facilitated
Walker's
entry into Nicaragua. In 1853 conservative General Fruto
Chamorro
had taken over the government and exiled his leading
liberal
opponents. Aided by the liberal government in neighboring
Honduras, an exile army entered Nicaragua on May 5, 1854.
The
subsequent conflict proved prolonged and bloody; Chamorro
declared that his forces would execute all armed rebels
who fell
into their hands, and the liberal leader, General Máximo
Jérez,
proclaimed that all government supporters were traitors to
the
nation.
The liberals enjoyed initial success in the fighting,
but the
tide turned in 1854 when Guatemala's conservative
government
invaded Honduras, forcing that nation to end its support
of the
liberals in Nicaragua. Chamorro's death from natural
causes in
March 1855 brought little respite to the beleaguered
liberals,
who began to look abroad for support. Through an agent,
they
offered Walker funds and generous land grants if he would
bring a
force of United States adventurers to their aid. Walker
leaped at
the chance--he quickly recruited a force of fifty-six
followers
and landed with them in Nicaragua on May 4, 1855.
Walker's initial band was soon reinforced by other
recruits
from the United States. Strengthened by this augmented
force,
Walker seized Granada, center of conservative power. The
stunned
conservative government surrendered, and the United States
quickly recognized a new puppet liberal government with
Patricio
Rivas as president. Real power, however, remained with
Walker,
who had assumed command of the Nicaraguan army.
As Walker's power and the size of his army grew,
conservative
politicians throughout Central America became increasingly
anxious. Encouraged by Britain, the conservative
governments of
the other four Central America governments agreed to send
troops
to Nicaragua. In March 1856, Costa Rica declared war on
the
adventurer, but an epidemic of cholera decimated the Costa
Rican
forces and forced their withdrawal. Encouraged by this
victory,
Walker began plans to have himself elected president and
to
encourage colonization of Nicaragua by North Americans.
This
scheme was too much even for his puppet president Rivas,
who
broke with Walker and his followers and sent messages to
Guatemala and El Salvador requesting their help in
expelling the
filibusters.
Undeterred, Walker proceeded to hold a farcical
election and
install himself as president. Making English the country's
official language and legalizing slavery, Walker also
allied
himself with Vanderbilt's rivals in the contest for
control of
the transit route, hoping that this alliance would provide
both
funds and transportation for future recruits. His call for
Nicaragua's annexation by the United States as a slave
state
garnered some support from United States proslavery
forces.
In the meantime, forces opposing Walker were rapidly
gaining
the upper hand, leading him to attack his liberal allies,
accusing them of half-hearted support. Most Nicaraguans
were
offended by Walker's proslavery, pro-United States stance;
Vanderbilt was determined to destroy him, and the rest of
Central
America actively sought his demise. The British also
encouraged
opposition to Walker as a means of curbing United States
influence in the region. Even the United States
government,
fearful that plans to annex Nicaragua as a new slave state
would
fan the fires of sectional conflict growing within the
United
States, became opposed to his ambitions.
The struggle to expel Walker and his army from
Nicaragua
proved to be long and costly. In the process, the colonial
city
of Granada was burned, and thousands of Central Americans
lost
their lives. The combined opposition of Vanderbilt, the
British
Navy, and the forces of all of Central America, however,
eventually defeated the filibusters. A key factor in
Walker's
defeat was the Costa Rican seizure of the transit route;
the
seizure permitted Walker's opponents to take control of
the
steamers on Lago de Nicaragua and thereby cut off much of
Walker's access to additional recruits and finances.
Vanderbilt
played a major role in this effort and also supplied funds
that
enabled the Costa Ricans to offer free return passage to
the
United States to any of the filibusters who would abandon
the
cause. Many took advantage of this opportunity, and
Walker's
forces began to dwindle.
The final battle of what Nicaraguans called the
"National
War" (1856-57) took place in the spring of 1857 in the
town of
Rivas, near the Costa Rican border. Walker beat off the
attacks
of the Central Americans, but the strength and morale of
his
forces were declining, and it would be only a matter of
time
until he would be overwhelmed. At this point, Commander
Charles
H. Davis of the United States Navy, whose ship had been
sent to
Nicaragua's Pacific coast to protect United States
economic
interests, arranged a truce. On May 1, 1857, Walker and
his
remaining followers, escorted by a force of United States
marines, evacuated Rivas, marched down to the coast, and
took the
ships back to the United States.
Walker's forced exile was short-lived, however; he made
four
more attempts to return to Central America (in 1857, 1858,
1859,
and 1860). In 1860 Walker was captured by a British
warship as he
tried to enter Honduras. The British Navy turned him over
to
local authorities, and he was executed by a Honduran
firing
squad. Walker's activities provided Nicaraguans with a
long-
lasting suspicion of United States activities and designs
upon
their nation.
Originally a product of interparty strife, the National
War
ironically served as a catalyst for cooperation between
the
liberal and conservative parties. The capital was moved to
Managua in an effort to dampen interparty strife, and on
September 12, 1856, both parties had signed an agreement
to join
efforts against Walker. This pact marked the beginning of
an era
of peaceful coexistence between Nicaragua's political
parties,
although the onus of the liberals' initial support of
Walker
allowed the conservatives to rule Nicaragua for the next
three
decades. After Walker's departure, Patricio Rivas served
as
president for the third time. He remained in office until
June
1857, when liberal General Máximo Jérez and conservative
General
Tomás Martínez assumed a bipartisan presidency. A
Constituent
Assembly convened in November of that year and named
General
Martínez as president (r. 1858-67).
The devastation and instability caused by the war in
Nicaragua, as well as the opening of a railroad across
Panama,
adversely affected the country's transit route. After only
a few
years of operation in the early 1850s, the transit route
was
closed for five years from 1857 to 1862, and the entire
effort
was subsequently abandoned in April 1868. Despite the
failure of
the transit plan, United States interest in building a
canal
across Nicaragua persisted throughout most of the
nineteenth
century. By 1902, however, there was increasing support
from the
administration of United States president Theodore
Roosevelt to
build a transisthmian canal in Panama. The opening of the
Panama
Canal in 1914 effectively ended serious discussion of a
canal
across Nicaragua.
Data as of December 1993
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