Filibuster (military)

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For the legislative tactic, see filibuster.

Filibuster William Walker launched several expeditions into Latin America. For a time he ruled Nicaragua, although he was eventually seized by the U.S. Navy and returned to United States. In 1860, he was captured and executed in Honduras.

A filibuster is an irregular military adventurer, especially one who engages in an unauthorized military expedition into a foreign country to foment or support a revolution. By extension the term also refers to the actions undertaken by a filibuster. The term filibuster and the variant "freebooter" are also applied more generally to individuals who attack foreign lands or interests for financial gain, without authority from their own government.

The term came into English from the Spanish filibustero (meaning pirate or buccaneer, and ultimately coming from the Dutch vrijbuiter [freebooter]) and was first applied to persons raiding Spanish colonies and ships in the West Indies, the most famous of which was Sir Francis Drake with his 1573 raid on Nombre de Dios. With the end of the era of Caribbean piracy in the early 18th century the term fell out of general currency.

The term was revived in the mid 19th century to describe the actions of Anglo-American adventurers who tried to take control of various Caribbean, Mexican, and Central-American territories by force of arms.

In the 1850s, William Walker attempted a filibustering campaign with a strategy involving his leading a private mercenary army. In 1853, he unsuccessfully attempted to stage an insurrection in the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California. Later, when a path through Lake Nicaragua was being considered as the possible site of a canal through Central America, he was hired as a mercenary by one of the factions in a civil war in Nicaragua. In 1856 he declared himself commander of the country's army and soon after President of the Republic. After attempting to take control of the rest of Central America and receiving no support from the U.S. government, he was defeated and eventually executed by the local authorities he tried to overthrow.

The three most prominent filibusters of that era were Walker, Narcisco López, and John Quitman. Some would also apply the term to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.^{[citation needed]}

The actions of the filibusters is what led to the name being applied figuratively to the political act of filibustering in the U.S. Senate.

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[edit] References

Brown, Charles H. Agents of Manifest Destiny: The Lives and Times of the Filibusters. University of North Carolina Press, 1980. ISBN 0-8078-1361-3.
May, Robert E. "Manifest Destiny's Filibusters" in Sam W. Haynes and Christopher Morris, eds. Manifest Destiny and Empire: American Antebellum Expansionism. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-89096-756-3.
———. Manifest Destiny's Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America. University of North Carolina Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8078-2703-7.