William Walker's Wars

How One Man's Private American Army Tried to Conquer Mexico, Nicaragua, and Honduras

By: Scott Martelle

Narrated by: David Colacci

In the decade before the onset of the Civil War, groups of Americans engaged in a series of longshot - and illegal - forays into Mexico, Cuba, and other Central American countries in hopes of taking them over. These efforts became known as filibustering, and their goal was to seize territory to create new independent fiefdoms, which would ultimately be annexed by the still-growing United States. Most failed miserably.

William Walker was the outlier. Short, slender, and soft-spoken with no military background - he trained as a doctor before becoming a lawyer and then a newspaper editor - Walker was an unlikely leader of rough-hewn men and adventurers. But in 1856 he managed to install himself as president of Nicaragua. Neighboring governments saw Walker as a risk to the region and worked together to drive him out - efforts aided, incongruously, by the United States' original tycoon, Cornelius Vanderbilt.

William Walker's Wars is a story of greedy dreams and ambitions, the fate of nations and personal fortunes, and the dark side of Manifest Destiny, for among Walker's many goals was to build his own empire based on slavery. This little-remembered story from US history is a cautionary tale for all who dream of empire.

©2019 Scott Martelle (P)2019 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Scott Martelle's page-turning account draws on thorough research to tell the story of William Walker as it has never been told before." (T.J. Stiles, author of The First Tycoon)

Fascinating neglected American History

It was a good biography of William Walker and his Fillabusters to various Latin American countries. Unfortunately, there was not a ton of context outside of a good aside about the Nicaragua route and American business interests, but it was so personally focused it was hard to grasp the bigger picture. It also had a crazy abrupt ending

The Little Tyrant That Could!

If there's one takeaway to be gleaned from Walker's adventures; it's an appreciation of the power of confidence! The idea of the drive, charisma, and alternately; narcissistic and deluded viciousness it takes to decide to mount a completely private attack on a foreign nation and attempt to become potentate is truly staggering. I kept thinking; "Man, the balls on this guy." The shenanigans that Walker and friends got up to in South America were far more fitting of that of Norse chiefs in the Dark Ages, or something from the Golden Age of Piracy rather than less than 200 years ago.

The book is nicely researched, and tries to explain the virtually inexplicable; what makes a slightly built, stuffy, and scholarly guy suddenly decide to become Emperor of an as of yet unformed South American union of nations? The battles and skirmishes, as well as the geography and river systems of the campaign are well explained, and the main players are characterized from their letters and historical accounts.

Something hinted toward, but not greatly explored is whether or not Walker was truly acting on his own, out of self aggrandizing adventure, or whether some Mephistophelian society like the Knights of the Golden Circle or something similar were whispering in his ear prompting these wild takeover attempts?

Overall a great read, about a truly intriguing, but not very good guy.

Great book.

I knew about William Walker but not like this. Loved this book. I now better understand my country's history.

Fascinating

This guy is unbelievable, I can’t believe I never heard of this man before this book. The book is well written, and well narrated. I finished it in two days. If you’re considering reading it just do it you won’t regret it.

The full story of William Walker and his insurgent wars

So William Walker is essentially a man who gathered mostly Americans as a small army and tried to take over the Sonora state of Mexico, Nicaragua, and Honduras back in the 18th century. This book is a straight telling of how it happened and the reaction of the U.S. public and the various governments. Really it is war focused as the beginning of the book is basically a short explain if his background before he got into the newspaper game. The ending just ends with his death and really after thoughts on how his activities ended up effect US policy today, which is a shame.
Also the last part of the book seems to remember to show Walker has having thoughts and feelings beyond being just a soldier, which were racist thoughts. But this book is good on Walker’s war and a good scope of his life and events beyond a Wikipedia entry

Riveting

This is the story of the 19th century adventurer William Walker. Walker was born in Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Nashville at age 14. He graduated medicine from the University of Pennsylvania at age 19. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Heidelberg and at the Sorbonne. While in France he also studied the sciences at the French Institute of Science. He then went to New Orleans to study law. He stayed and practice law briefly; then was off to San Francisco where he studied journalism. He got restless and went off to Central America where he created his own country and declared himself the ruler.

The book is well written and researched. Much of the book deals with Walker’s various wars and escapades in Central America and Mexico. I had come across Walker in other books I have read such as the biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt’s shipping company had continuous problems with Walker. The book read more like a novel than a non-fiction. Martelle’s writing style made history most exciting. If you would like to learn a bit of Central American history, this book would be an interesting read.

The book is twelve hours and seven minutes. David Colacci does a great job reading the book. Colacci is an award-winning audiobook narrator and one of my favorite narrators.

Stranger than Fiction

This is a bizarre tale of the hubris of William Walker, a failed physician, lawyer, and newspaperman, who one day decided he would reinvent himself as the savior of Central America. He first declared himself President of Baja, then of a made-up country he carved from Sonora in Mexico, then president of Nicaragua. Remarkably, he kept finding loyal mercenaries to join him in his uber-colonialist “adventures”—which included an attempt to legalize slavery in Central America, to outwit Cornelius Vanderbilt, and to create a shipping canal through Nicaragua instead of Panama.

The story is read in a measured tone at a comfortable pace, but I kept rewinding because I kept saying to myself, “he did what, now?” It’s truly unbelievable how much of a role luck played in his survival and successes.

William Walker

Very interesting bit of history. Shows that men without honor, dignity, humanity, and integrity have existed within the history of our great Republic and as they do today.

Not sure what I thought this book was!

Having traveled to Honduras for more than 20 yrs and maintaining good friendships there, i am drawn to books detailing some of their history. I am not sure what I thought this book was going to be. The story itself was interesting as a topic but the story seemed to get lost in the details. Very disappointing.

Frankly Boring

I had a difficult time finishing this book, to be quite honest. William Walker despite being an adventurer par excellence, was a rather boring person and the writer does very little to bring his somewhat reserved and self-contained personality to life.

In general the book does not bring Walker or the cast of characters surrounding him to life, even the extraordinarily flamboyant Parker H. French comes off rather flat and grey.

The book also might be improved if one read it with the accompanying maps from the book within convinient reach.