Filibusters

Filibusters, a kind of buccaneers, who did much injury to Spanish commerce in the West Indian seas. The term is probably derived through French and Spanish, from a Dutch word akin to the English "freebooter." The modern filibusters are adventurers who seek to upset the government of a foreign state - as, for example, the American William Walker, who made himself ruler in Nicaragua in 1855-58.