Frederick Chatfield

Frederick Chatfield ( born February 6, 1801 in London, † September 30, 1872 in Brighton ) was from 1834 to 1852, the consul of the United Kingdom in Central America.

Consul in Central America

Chatfield's superior was the State Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston.

From 1834 to 1852 Frederick Chatfield represented the British government and represented the interests of British industry in Central America. In the 1840s, he sought investment protection for British investors and called the Royal Navy when he deemed it necessary to force concessions.

His office was in Guatemala City. Guatemala and Costa Rica were sphere of influence of the United Kingdom. Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua were sphere of influence of the United States. José María Castro Madriz requested the Government of Her Majesty Victoria (United Kingdom) the establishment of a protectorate over Costa Rica. Chatfield negotiated this concern with José Miguel Mora Porras, however, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office politely refused.

The British interests in Nicaragua were the vice - consuls John Forster in El Realejo and Thomas Manning in Leon (Nicaragua ). Both ran the largest export companies. It exported Brazilwood and indigo and had an import monopoly over the ports of the Pacific coast. The traders from the UK borrowed by the Nicaraguan government money against the tobacco monopoly and the income from the customs of El Realejo.

Frederick Chatfield originally supported José Francisco Morazán Quezada, 1838 considered the project of the Central American confederation failed and supported the emerging leader of the Partidos conservadores

In August 1840, the newspaper El redactor Constitucional appeared as a government organ of José Francisco Zelaya y Ayes in which it was received on the complaints of British citizens in November 1840, which recited the British Consul, Frederick Chatfield.

Miskito protectorate

Francisco Ferrera recognized under pressure from Chatfield, Thomas Lowry Robinson as monarch of the British Protectorate Miskito coast on 16 December 1843. From Chatfield advised defined in the June 1847 Lord Palmerston, the boundaries of the Kingdom of Miskito, in the north of Cabo Gracias a Dios in the south and the San Juan River. The Viceroyalty of New Granada was through an area at the Chiriqui Lagoon, which Costa Rica should be added, are kept at a distance. As Nicaraguan troops San Juan del Norte, at the mouth of the Río San Juan to occupied, it was by a British force, which was sent to the Governor of Jamaica by Charles Edward Gray [ wp 1] beaten. After Gray Graytown was named.

Interozeanischer channel

1826 British engineer John Baily ( 1811-1850 ) was commissioned by a British company, to prepare a study for a trans-oceanic connection through Nicaragua. In 1837 and 1838, Baily a project study for Nicaragua Canal with a route from San Juan del Sur on Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan River for the Nicaraguan government.

In February 1840 visited the confidant of Martin Van Buren, John Lloyd Stephens Nicaragua. He asked John Baily, made ​​detailed notes on the results of the study. Stephens left Nicaragua on El Realejo, where he met the influential merchant and British Vice-Consul John Foster. met. John Forster informed his superiors Frederick Chatfield in Guatemala.

Chatfield wanted to put the government of Honduras Juan Lindo under pressure so that they promised the British government the right to an inter- oceanic canal. He demanded that the Honduran government a debt, which the British government had been bought by British citizens. To slow Chatfield, convinced Ephraim George Squier, which Elisha Hise had replaced as U.S. consul in Central America in July 1849 in Nicaragua, the government of Honduras, the island of El Tigre [ wp 2] in the Gulf of Fonseca for 18 months under U.S. administration to ask. During this time, Squier hoped a channel contract to complete.

Chatfield ordered Captain James Aylmer Dorset Paynter of the HMS Gorgon (1837 ) [ wp 3], El Tigre to occupy it and to hoist the Union Jack. This happened on 16 October 1849. The British remained on the island until the British Foreign Secretary Palmerston in February 1850 as part of the negotiations for the Clayton - Bulwer Treaty mißbiligte the occupation.

Chatfield was 1852 in Pension.