Hise-Selva Treaty (1849)
Hise-Selva Treaty (1849)
Hise-Selva Treaty (1849), an agreement between the United States and Nicaragua that was signed on 21 June 1849 but never presented to the U.S. Senate. It was negotiated by U.S. chargé Elijah Hise and Buenaventura Selva, a Nicaraguan special agent sent to Guatemala to collaborate with Hise. Although he had not been given specific instructions, Hise was aware that he was to advance U.S. transit possibilities and stop British encroachments, which undermined U.S. transit options. The U.S. government supported the Nicaraguan claim to Greytown (San Juan del Norte) and the whole Mosquito coast.
The Hise-Selva Treaty granted the U.S. government and its citizens the right of transit and fortification of transit routes. In return, the United States pledged to protect Nicaraguan soil from foreign incursions. U.S. Secretary of State John Clayton used this and a treaty by Ephraim George Squier with Honduras to persuade the British to negotiate the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty in 1850.
See alsoClayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850) .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mario Rodríquez, A Palmerstonian Diplomat in Central America: Frederick Chatfield, Esq. (1964).
Wilbur Devereau Jones, The American Problem in British Diplomacy, 1841–1861 (1974).
Karl Berman, Under the Big Stick: Nicaragua and the United States Since 1848 (1986).
Thomas Schoonover