Walker, William (1824–1860)

US adventurer who for a short time established himself as president of a republic in northwestern Mexico, and was briefly president of Nicaragua 1856–57. He was eventually executed and is now regarded as a symbol of US imperialism in Central America.

Walker was born at Nashville, Tennessee, and educated at the universities of Nashville and Pennsylvania. Later he was admitted to the bar at New Orleans. In 1853 he went on an expedition to conquer Mexican territory, and in 1854 proclaimed Lower California and the State of Sonara an independent republic with himself as president. He was forced to abandon this project. Acquitted of violating the neutrality law, Walker made further expeditions to Nicaragua, where the government he set up was formally recognized by Washington 1856, to Mobile, and to Honduras, where he was executed.