Greytown is no more!: The 1854 Razing of a Central American Port, the U.S. Businesses Behind Its Demise, and the Lasting Foreign Policy Legacy

The Central American port of Greytown was destroyed by the U.S. Navy in 1854­ to "avenge an insult to the American Minister to Nicaragua," according to official history. Two weeks later, the New York Tribune reported the intrigues that doomed the port: Greytown had been a hindrance to establishment of a colony by a U.S.-owned steamboat company backed by American speculators, in whose interests the city was leveled. The U.S. government did the dirty work. When an American sued for damages, he lost, resulting in case law still cited to justify military interventions without the congressional approval required by the Constitution. This book corrects the record regarding the causes of Greytown's destruction, and challenges case law's basis in a gross misapprehension of events.