TYCOON’S WAR: HOW CORNELIUS VANDERBILT INVADED A COUNTRY TO OVERTHROW AMERICA’S MOST FAMOUS MILITARY ADVENTURER by Stephen Dando-Collins is a riveting read of battle and adventure in Central America of the 1850s, but it’s also rather depressing when judged by the mores of today. Tennessee-born William Walker became a filibustero, an American mercenary fighting in the Nicaraguan civil war. His martial skill and innate generalship eventually led him to the presidency of Nicaragua.
His goal as president was to solidify Nicaragua’s borders, to create a Central American empire, and to maintain control of the Accessory Transit route, a method of conveying passengers from the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua to the Pacific Coast. East Coast Americans who wished to try their fortunes on the West Coast would use either this route or the Panama route, the latter of which took slightly longer.
The Accessory Transit route was run by two Americans, Morgan and Garrison, who had managed to wangle the route away, with the help of Walker, from the Great Tycoon himself, Cornelius Vanderbilt. Once Walker was in power, and once Vanderbilt had lost the route, the inevitable conflict could not be avoided.
Neither man seemed to feel that he perhaps did not have a right to be in Nicaragua at all. For his part, Vanderbilt could claim that he was protecting his business interests, though he was highly manipulative in getting the State Department to work for him against his competitors, and who was devious enough to supply rifles and ammunition to the Costa Rican Army who rose up in order to overthrow Walker.
For his part, Walker’s role in the Nicaraguan civil war was always going to mean half of the country was his enemy, but when he intimated that the institution of slavery could be re-established (after its abolition by the country in 1838), he sealed his fate among surrounding Central American countries. Supposedly, his decree was only meant to free up funding from the American South, but it was a position that could not be tolerated.
It’s an amazing story of how deeply entrenched Americans have been in Central American life and politics, and sadly, no one comes off well. If you have any interest in Central American history however, this is a fascinating book, and well worth your time. —Mark Rose
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