Central America's Encounter with U.S. Manifest Destiny, 1848-1860

FAIN: FA-54152-08

Michel Gobat
University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA 52242-1320)

This project explores the rise and fall of the United States' first overseas empire, which was built in Central America by William Walker and his band of nearly 10,000 colonists. Walker's imperial venture eventually drove thousands of Central Americans to expel the intruders in the name of Catholic nationalism. Contrary to conventional wisdom, many other Central Americans supported Walker because they deemed his "empire of liberty" a more democratic polity than their own nation-state. By explaining why many Central Americans backed Walker's regime, even as most others sought to destroy it, this project illuminates the transnational nature of U.S. expansionism and its apparently democratic appeal. It also reveals religion's key role in forging the most successful anti-U.S. movement in Latin American history. This study elucidates a critical but overlooked moment in the history of pro- and anti-Americanism, a moment with profound implications for the meaning of those sentiments today.

Associated Products

"The Invention of Latin America: A Transnational History of Anti-Imperialism, Democracy, and Race" (Article)
Title: "The Invention of Latin America: A Transnational History of Anti-Imperialism, Democracy, and Race"
Author: Michel Gobat
Abstract: This essay analyzes how continents are imagined by rethinking the origins and significance of the idea of Latin America. Most scholars assume that French imperialists invented the term in order to justify their country’s occupation of Mexico (1862-1867). In reality, it was first used in 1856 by elites in the region who were protesting U.S. diplomatic recognition of the filibuster regime that William Walker’s band of U.S. expansionists had established in Nicaragua in 1855. “Latin America” was based on elites’ embrace of a transatlantic ideology of whiteness associated with the European concept of a “Latin race.” Nevertheless, the idea of Latin America cannot be reduced to what some scholars consider a form of coloniality. However much “Latin America” rested on racial foundations, it was also imbued with a democratic ethos constructed against U.S. and European expansionism. By showing how “Latin America” resulted from the transnational mobilization of an imperial concept for anti-imperial ends, the article underscores a hidden tension that marked the origins of the idea—a tension that in many ways lives on, as evident in the current debate in the United States over the meaning of Latino/a America. Charting the rise of “Latin America” can help us better understand why certain geopolitical constructions thrive while others fade away.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://http://ahr.oxfordjournals.org/content/118/5/1345.extract
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: American Historical Review

Prizes

Vanderwood Prize
Date: 1/3/2015
Organization: Conference on Latin American History
Abstract: Received for “The Invention of Latin America: A Transnational History of Anti-Imperialism, Democracy, and Race,” American Historical Review (2013).

Empire by Invitation: William Walker and Manifest Destiny in Central America (Book)
Title: Empire by Invitation: William Walker and Manifest Destiny in Central America
Author: Michel Gobat
Abstract: "Empire By Invitation" traces the untold story of the rise and fall of the first U.S. overseas empire to William Walker, a believer in the nation’s manifest destiny to spread its blessings not only westward but abroad as well. In the 1850s Walker and a small group of U.S. expansionists migrated to Nicaragua determined to forge a tropical “empire of liberty.” His quest to free Central American masses from allegedly despotic elites initially enjoyed strong local support from liberal Nicaraguans who hoped U.S.-style democracy and progress would spread across the land. As Walker’s group of “filibusters” proceeded to help Nicaraguans battle the ruling conservatives, their seizure of power electrified the U.S. public and attracted some 12,000 colonists, including moral reformers. But what began with promises of liberation devolved into a reign of terror. After two years, Walker was driven out. Nicaraguans’ initial embrace of Walker complicates assumptions about U.S. imperialism. "Empire by Invitation" refuses to place Walker among American slaveholders who sought to extend human bondage southward. Instead, Walker and his followers, most of whom were Northerners, must be understood as liberals and democracy promoters. Their ambition was to establish a democratic state by force. Much like their successors in liberal-internationalist and neoconservative foreign policy circles a century later in Washington, D.C., Walker and his fellow imperialists inspired a global anti-U.S. backlash. Fear of a “northern colossus” precipitated a hemispheric alliance against the United States and gave birth to the idea of Latin America.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/empire-by-invitation-william-walker-and-manifest-destiny-in-central-america/oclc/1031437688&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: worldcat.org
Secondary URL: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674737495
Secondary URL Description: Harvard Univ. Press
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780674737495
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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