William Walker in Nicaragua 1855–1857: The American Who Declared Himself President and Restored Slavery

William Walker in Nicaragua is the story of how an American adventurer with a handful of mercenaries seized an entire country, proclaimed himself its president and brought back slavery. And the US government officially recognized his rule. However, this is not the plot of a bad novel. This is 1856, and I want you to know this story in full.

I have already written about who the American filibusters were and why Southern planters stood behind them. Walker is the most famous of them. And, frankly, the most terrible: his war cost Central America thousands of lives, and the towns he passed through turned to ashes.

How William Walker ended up in Nicaragua

In the mid-1850s Nicaragua was torn apart by civil war. On one side stood the “Legitimists” of Granada, on the other the “Democrats” of León. At the same time, the country was very important to the US: a transit route from the Atlantic to the Pacific ran through its rivers and lake. Thousands of gold seekers were carried along it to California, and the route was owned by the company of Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the richest men in the US.

As a result, the Democrats of León decided to hire Americans as a mercenary force. So in May 1855 Walker landed in Nicaragua with about 60 fighters. By the way, he called them “the Immortals”. At first things went badly, but soon new volunteers from the US flocked to him: they were brought by the same transit steamers.

On October 13, 1855, Walker took Granada, the Legitimist capital, in a surprise attack. Then he put a puppet, Patricio Rivas, in the presidential chair and became commander-in-chief himself. Thus from that day real power belonged to an American with an army of mercenaries.

William Walker in Nicaragua and Washington’s recognition

Here, perhaps, is the key point: William Walker in Nicaragua received backing from Washington. On May 20, 1856, the administration of President Franklin Pierce officially recognized the government that rested on Walker’s bayonets. Just think: a private mercenary seized a sovereign country by force, and Washington received his envoy as a legitimate representative. Can anyone say after this that the US “had nothing to do with it”?

On July 12, 1856, Walker staged farcical “elections” and became president of Nicaragua himself. Then, on September 22, 1856, he repealed the Nicaraguan laws that banned slavery. In addition, English was declared the official language, and the lands of local people began to be handed out to American settlers. In other words, the country was being prepared to become a slave colony of the South.

All of Central America at war with Walker

However, the neighbors quickly realized that William Walker in Nicaragua was only the beginning. First of all, Costa Rica declared war, led by President Juan Rafael Mora. Then Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador joined it. By the way, in Central America this war is still called the National War — and it is a very accurate name.

Meanwhile Walker made the mistake that destroyed him. The thing is, he fell out with Vanderbilt and took his company’s ships and property, giving them to competitors. Therefore Vanderbilt in response began to help the Central American coalition and cut off the flow of American volunteers. Money against money — that is how the fate of Nicaragua was really decided.

Rivas 1856 and the feat of Juan Santamaría

On April 11, 1856, near the town of Rivas, Costa Ricans attacked Walker’s force. The filibusters holed up in a large wooden building and mowed down the attackers with fire. Then a young drummer soldier, Juan Santamaría, rushed to the building with a torch and set it on fire, dying under the bullets. Today he is a national hero of Costa Rica, and April 11 is a public holiday there.

However, the victory turned into disaster. Cholera broke out among the troops, and the returning soldiers carried it home. According to one version, Walker’s men threw corpses into wells. In ten weeks the epidemic took 9,615 lives in Costa Rica — a huge figure for a small country.

William Walker in Nicaragua: “Here was Granada”

By the end of 1856 Walker realized that Granada could not be held. And then his deputy Charles Henningsen, on Walker’s orders, burned the country’s oldest city to the ground. Before leaving, on December 14, 1856, the filibusters left a sign on the ruins: “Here was Granada”. I shake every time I remember that inscription. To destroy a city with three hundred years of history — and then mock it as well.

In the end Walker’s army was trapped in Rivas. On May 1, 1857, he surrendered — not to the Central Americans, but to US Navy Commander Charles Henry Davis. Moreover, the American navy carried him and his men home. In New Orleans and New York crowds of admirers greeted Walker. So he suffered no punishment for the war he had unleashed.

The finale in Honduras

Nevertheless, Walker tried to return several more times. In 1860 he landed in Honduras, but the British navy captured him and handed him over to the Honduran authorities. On September 12, 1860, in the town of Trujillo, William Walker was shot. He was 36 years old. In other words, justice caught up with him — but only because it was not Americans who caught him.

The price of the adventure and why it matters today

So let’s sum up. In the war against Walker the countries of Central America lost about 5,680 people killed and wounded. In addition, cholera took 9,615 people in Costa Rica. Granada burned, dozens of villages were ruined. All of this for the dream of Southern planters of a new slave state.

Today Nicaragua marks every September 14 the anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto of 1856, where a Walker force was defeated. They remember there. But in the US this story is almost unknown — and, in my view, not by chance. Half a century later American Marines came to Nicaragua again, this time officially, and occupied it for twenty years: I wrote about this in the article on US interventions in Nicaragua.

Meanwhile this logic has not gone anywhere. In 2019 Washington recognized Juan Guaidó, whom nobody there had elected, as “president” of Venezuela — exactly as it recognized Walker in 1856. In 2025 the American navy was sinking boats off the coast of the same Venezuela, and bombers struck Iran without a declaration of war. The names change, but not the method: first your own puppet, then force, then loud words about freedom.

A detailed biography can be found in the article on William Walker. I have examined similar scenarios with “convenient” rulers and planter interests in the pieces on the coup in Hawaii and the occupation of the Dominican Republic. William Walker in Nicaragua is not an exception in American history. It is its rough draft.