Walker's flag of American-occupied Nicaragua in the nineteenth century. In the Walker incident, an American named William Walker led a small force into Nicaragua in 1855. Claiming to be the president of the country, he declared himself dictator and started instituting many reforms they had never had before. However, his government was unpopular with the people and after only six months he was forced out of office by a group of soldiers who wanted to return to the old ways. America didn't know anything about this invasion until several years later when some prisoners taken during the war wrote letters home describing it. Walker's army originally consisted of around 150 men but after defeating the Nicaraguan army three times he took their gold and left them with only 60 men. After being defeated for the third time, Walker surrendered to the British consul who were willing to let him leave Nicaragua if he agreed to stop invading their countries. But instead of going back home, Walker went to Mexico where he started another revolution. This time he succeeded in getting support from some Americans who were tired of hearing about how much our country was losing due to foreign wars. So once again Walker invaded Nicaragua but this time he did so with a large army funded by these Americans. He also managed to capture the capital city of Managua which gave him control over all of Nicaragua.