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Winning the war was clearly a higher priority for the Confederacy than conquering Latin America, but growth was certainly on the post-war agenda. CONFEDERATE COLONIES, SOUTH OF THE BORDER

The anti-slavery president refused to compromise on the issue, and war broke out in April 1861. Vice President John Breckinridge of Kentucky warned that "the Southern states cannot afford to be shut off from all possibility of expansion towards the tropics by the hostile action of the federal government."īut Abraham Lincoln's election in November 1860 put an end to the argument. Abolitionist factions in the North greatly opposed their efforts, and the debate over Southern expansion only increased tensions in a divided nation. Others, however, were Southern imperialists who wanted to conquer new territories in the tropics. One particularly successful filibuster, William Walker, actually made himself president of Nicaragua and ruled from 1856 to 1857.įor the most part, these filibusters were just men in search of adventure. They raised small armies illegally ventured into Mexico, Cuba, and South America and attempted to seize control of the lands.

In fact, some private citizens, known as filibusters, took matters into their own hands. In the years leading up to the Civil War, many Northerners and Southerners alike wanted the federal government to take a more aggressive approach toward acquiring new territory.