William Walker was an American physician and adventurer who settled in
California during the
gold rush. He had tried to take over the state of
Sonora before launching the campaign against Baja California, with the support of American moguls. Walker left California with 45 American mercenaries on October 15, 1853, with the intention of arriving at
Guaymas (
Sonora), and occupying the Mexican state. However, one year before, the Mexicans had already repelled an expedition of French filibusters, increased their troops and had military preparedness. Perhaps this made Walker refrain. He chose to first attack and take the
Baja California peninsula as a first step to seize Sonora. Aboard the schooner
Caroline, Walker's expedition arrived at
Cabo San Lucas on October 28 of that year. He moved by sea to
La Paz, capital of Baja California territory, which he occupied five days after the capture of Rafael Espinosa, political head of the territory. There, the filibusters hauled down the Mexican flag and hoisted in place a flag of three horizontal stripes, two red and a white center, with two stars representing Baja California and Sonora. On November 3, 1853, the mercenaries proclaimed the independence of the peninsula which they called the Republic of Lower California. Later, the expedition captured Colonel Juan Clímaco Rebolledo, who came to replace Espinosa in the office of a political leader without knowing that the capital of Baja California had been seized by the American invaders. Since the expedition of reinforcements from California were slow in coming, Walker decided to move its headquarters to the north of the peninsula, near the border with U.S. and the land passage to Sonora, which was the goal of their ambitions and also the US government, which had already expressed its intention to buy northwestern Mexico. In La Paz, there were some clashes between civilian residents and filibusters, Walker played as military victories over the Mexican government, which he accused of being tyrant and decadent. And in
Ensenada, the filibusters established their headquarters in what is now the Third and Gastélum streets of that city From there, Walker issued a proclamation to the American people, requesting their support to defend the independence of Baja California, which had a self-appointed president. Many American volunteers joined the call of Walker, to add a number of 253 climbers who arrived in Ensenada on the boat
Anita. == See also ==