Thread by @pptsapper

Ok, so by now most of you have heard of this ex-SOF dude who decided to invade Venezuela, and if you hadn't, damn, you should check that shit out because whoo boy, it is nuts.

Wish I could say it was the first time some ex-service member did something like this, but uh

Nope

https://twitter.com/bellingcat/status/1257734566950899720

Lemme introduce you to the wild and batshit crazy world of filibustering - that's right, not the thing where senators talk till someone has to pee, but that thing where private citizens go & try to invade Latin America in the 1850s

Like ya do

A thread, if you will

And I will

Grab a drink & set your ass down, because we've got a lot of ground to cover here. Now, the term itself, filibuster, is a derivation of filibustero, a Spanish translation of an old Dutch term for freebooter or interloper. It pops up in the 1850s, but you KNOW it didn't start then

The ink was barely dry on the Constitution before Americans were setting out on private expeditions to go conquer the neighbors. Hell, the first federal impeachment trial came when one of TN's senators planned to attack French-controlled New Orleans but got caught

Then you've got Ira Allen - Ethan's younger and somehow weirder brother -who plotted in 1796 to invade Canada up Lake Champlain with French help. The whole thing collapsed when the British seized a French shipment of 15k muskets bound for the Vermonter

That damn family

For the most part, tho, filibustering expeditions were motivated by southerners upset at federal treaties or policies that restricted movement west - and, as time went on, restricted the spread of slavery

I know, I'm shocked too. This is my shocked face

Now, all this was very illegal under the Neutrality Law of 1818 that said "NO YOU CANT MAKE YOUR OWN FUCKING WAR YOU IDIOTS, WE'RE GONNA ARREST AND FINE YO ASS" in so many words
Not that it seemed to stop all the people running into northern Mexico and Texas to start revolutions

Basically what ensures that filibustering was gonna keep happening was the most successful of these escapades that was of course the Texas Revolution, backed by thousands of volunteers from the southern states, resulting in the acceptance of the "Republic" of Texas as a state

Good, now that I've pissed off alllll the Texans we can continue

Altho if I hadn't mentioned them they woulda been even more butthurt. Such a sensitive state

Where was I. Right. The only one that worked.

Things sorta chilled after this until the War of 1848 kicked off

After Scott seized Mexico City and the US and Mexico sign a treaty, you've got thousands and thousands of US troops sitting in Mexico, making Venezuela and Cuba pretty nervous

Rightly so, because private plots are being made to detour on the way home to add some territory

President Polk gets wind of it and lays the smackdown, ordering military commanders to get their asses straight home before they make the US look bad. Or, well, worse than they already did.

In 1849, we get our first real pro of a filibusterer. Narciso López, a Venezuelan ex-spanish army adventurer who arrived in NY full of ideas about liberating Cuba

Zachary Taylor got word of his 600 man expedition and had his ships seized

Undeterred, López moves south

Once New Orleans, López, a supporter of slavery, gets the idea of getting some slaveholders involved in his scheme, to make Cuba a US slaveholding possession. He solicits Jeff Davis (future traitor in Chief) who turns him down but points him to his friend Bobby Lee

Lee reluctantly declines as well, but López finds enough supporters, including the governor of Mississippi John Quitman, that he can mount an expedition in 1850. He manages to land his force, capture Cárdenas, and issue a proclamation inviting everyone to rise up

They don't

Instead, most abandon the town and join the Spanish in crushing the invasion. López runs back to Key West to keep plotting.

Oh no, he ain't done yet.
ONE YEAR later he's back at it, raising more volunteers in the US, when he gets some big news: a major insurrection in Cuba!

This is it! The moment he's been waiting for, he's got to strike while the iron is hot, so he gathers whatever volunteers he can and pushes off for Cuba

But the news of the Cuban revolution was, uh, greatly exaggerated. It had been small and quickly put down

So when López arrives in Cuba with his pickup force, the Spanish are pretty much waiting for him - their ship got lost en route and kinda maybe ended up in Havana by accident. This escapade fails, too, López and many of his men are executed and...filibustering rises in popularity

You get all these private filibustering organizations popping up, like the Order of the Lone Star in Louisiana (1852-54) and the later Knights of the Golden Circle. These were bizarre secret societies were formed by men who generally failed at everything in life

They had one common purpose: invade Latin American and Caribbean nations to annex to the US as slave states. The Knights went one further & advocated a new country

Kinda like a dystopic Pirates of the Caribbean, really

Now in the 1850s there's a few forays into northern Mexico that are pretty easily crushed by the Mexican government because like I said, these guys were generally failures at everything in life and they continued the trend when it came to invading other countries

Until, that is, the fucking king of doing stupid shit and almost getting away with it, William Walker

Walker was born in Tennessee in 1824. He managed to not fail at getting his law degree, then studied medicine, then journalism, then WHAM began invading other countries

Like, who the fuck knows when the desire to go annex part of Mexico is gonna hit, but for Walker, it was in 1853 - possibly as a result of having lost some duels & needing to leave San Francisco quickly

Walker invades Baja, captures La Paz, and declares a Republic

Figures

Over the next few months he manages to so antagonize the locals - who weren't too enthusiastic about the Mexican government at first - that they begin resisting. Mexican forces gather as well and by April, Walker is scooting back to the US to avoid a firing squad

Then in 1855, Walker fixes on his best plan yet: hop on one side of a civil war going on in Nicaragua. With 56 dudes, he arrives in Nicaragua, is commissioned a colonel, and proceeds to win a few key victories leading to a cease-fire and Walker's side in power, weirdly enough

President Rivas makes Walker his military commander. Walker then manages to get his key rival executed for treason, then - in some bizarre political theater - calls Rivas a traitor, gets new elections, & engineers himself to be elected president.

Like. What.

In a bid to get US support from the south, Walker legalizes slavery. Pretty much every country around Walker is like "fuck this shit" and so is Great Britain and so is millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt who is NOT THE GUY TO PISS OFF (Walker had double crossed Vanderbilt)

DRAMA

In an effort to destabilize Costa Rica, then arming to invade, Walker INVADES THEM, believing that the best defense is a good offense, gets his ass kicked & retreats. Costa Rica, Honduras, Gautemala, El Salvador now invade, & the Nicaraguans who Walker pissed off all rise up too.

In one of the shittiest moves by an incredibly shitty man, Walker orders the ancient city of Granada burned before he retreats, and taints the water supply like the little bitch that he was

He then surrendered to the US Navy who brought him back to the US where he decided...

TO DO IT AGAIN

In 1857, Walker sets off AGAIN for Nicaragua, but the Navy catches his ass and sends him back home, tired of his bullshit. The Navy in this time is literally chasing after these assholes and pulling them off of islands they've invaded, & sending them home

Finally, in 1860, Walker manages to slip by the US Navy and lands in an area of British controlled Honduras. Now the Royal Navy has to deal with Walker, and after a chase of several days, HMS Icarus captures Walker, who expects to get a slap on the wrist & sent home

BUT WAIT

Commander Nowell Salmon decides against this and hands Walker over to the Honduran authorities

Oh, they remembered William Walker VERY WELL

So well that they court martialed him and shot him on September 12, 1860

Pretty much took care of that problem

And that pretty much took care of filibustering in Central and Latin America at the time, because the American Civil War kicked off a year later - in part because slaveholders realized that they weren't going to get that Caribbean expansion they'd hoped for

Many filibusterers wound up in the Slaver's Rebellion, compiling a mediocre battlefield record fighting against the US Army. In an utter debacle of a move, Davis appointed a former filibusterer as ambassador to Mexico, where he was arrested and ejected from the country

Indeed, filibusters so damaged relations with Central and Latin American nations that the CSA received no support and plenty of animosity from these countries, who cooperated with the US to stop blockade runners and black market profiteering during the ACW

Anyways, that's pre war filibustering. It would happen again after the war of course - the Fenian Raids into Canada, of course, which kept the US and British Armies busy - and then lots more attempts to get Cuba...and then a war in 1898, which got it. But that's another story

For more on the Navy dealing with these pains in the ass, checkout the latest Preble Hall podcast

And don't forget to tip your delivery drivers

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pre…