The Monroe Doctrine

26.4.2: The Monroe Doctrine

The Monroe Doctrine, first expressed in 1823 by U.S. President James Monroe, proclaimed that European powers should no longer colonize or interfere in the Americas.

Learning Objective

Synthesize the Monroe Doctrine and its place in global affairs

Key Points

  • The Monroe Doctrine, first promoted in James Monroe’s State of the Union Address in 1823, stated that Europe should no longer interfere in the affairs of the American continent, particularly opposing any new colonial efforts.
  • At the same time, the doctrine noted that the United States would recognize and not interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal concerns of European countries.
  • Initially, because the United States was not seen as a major military power, the doctrine was largely ignored by Europe, although Britain generally agreed with its terms for its own reasons.
  • The doctrine was welcomed and applauded by most Latin Americans, many of whom were in the midst of freeing themselves from European colonialism.
  • In many instances, the United States did not intervene against European actions in the Americas and thus the doctrine was often not enforced. Later in the century, the United States backed Cuba in their fight for independence from Spain in what became the Spanish-American War.

Key Terms

Spanish–American War
A conflict fought between Spain and the United States in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of the USS Maine in Havana harbor in Cuba, leading to United States intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. American acquisition of Spain’s Pacific possessions led to its involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately in the Philippine-American War.
James Monroe
An American statesman who served as the fifth President of the United States from 1817 to 1825. He was the last president who was a founding father of the United States and the last president from the Virginian dynasty and the Republican Generation. In 1823, he announced the United States’ opposition to any European intervention in the recently independent countries of the Americas with the Monroe Doctrine, which became a landmark in American foreign policy.
Pax Britannica
The period of relative peace in Europe (1815–1914) during which the British Empire became the global hegemonic power and adopted the role of a global police force.

The Monroe Doctrine was a U.S. policy of opposing European colonialism in the Americas beginning in 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to take control of any independent state in North or South America would be viewed as “the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.” At the same time, the doctrine noted that the United States would recognize and not interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal concerns of European countries. The Doctrine was issued in 1823 at a time when nearly all Latin American colonies of Spain and Portugal had achieved or were at the point of gaining independence from the Portuguese and Spanish Empires.

President James Monroe first stated the doctrine during his seventh annual State of the Union Address to Congress. The term “Monroe Doctrine” itself was coined in 1850. By the end of the 19th century, Monroe’s declaration was seen as a defining moment in the foreign policy of the United States and one of its longest-standing tenets. It would be invoked by many U.S. statesmen and several U.S. presidents, including Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan.

The intent and impact of the Monroe Doctrine persisted with only minor variations for more than a century. Its stated objective was to free the newly independent colonies of Latin America from European intervention and avoid situations that could make the New World a battleground for the Old World powers, so that the United States could exert its own influence undisturbed. The doctrine asserted that the New World and the Old World were to remain distinctly separate spheres of influence, for they were composed of entirely separate and independent nations.

After 1898, Latin American lawyers and intellectuals reinterpreted the Monroe doctrine in terms of multilateralism and non-intervention. In 1933, under President Franklin Roosevelt, the United States went along with the new reinterpretation, especially in terms of the Organization of American States.

 

International Response

Because the United States lacked both a credible navy and army at the time, the doctrine was largely disregarded internationally. Prince Metternich of Austria was angered by the statement, and wrote privately that the doctrine was a “new act of revolt” by the United States that would grant “new strength to the apostles of sedition and reanimate the courage of every conspirator.”

The doctrine, however, met with tacit British approval. They enforced it tactically as part of the wider Pax Britannica, which included enforcement of the neutrality of the seas. This was in line with the developing British policy of laissez-faire free trade against mercantilism. Fast-growing British industry sought markets for its manufactured goods, and if the newly independent Latin American states became Spanish colonies again, British access to these markets would be cut off by Spanish mercantilist policy.

The reaction in Latin America to the Monroe Doctrine was generally favorable but in some occasions suspicious. Historian John Crow states, “Simón Bolívar himself, still in the midst of his last campaign against the Spaniards, Santander in Colombia, Rivadavia in Argentina, Victoria in Mexico—leaders of the emancipation movement everywhere—received Monroe’s words with sincerest gratitude.” Crow argues that the leaders of Latin America were realists. They knew that the President of the United States wielded very little power at the time, particularly without the backing of the British forces, and figured that the Monroe Doctrine was unenforceable if the United States stood alone against the Holy Alliance. While they appreciated and praised their support in the north, they knew that the future of their independence was in the hands of the British and their powerful navy. In 1826, Bolivar called upon his Congress of Panama to host the first “Pan-American” meeting. In the eyes of Bolivar and his men, the Monroe Doctrine was to become nothing more than a tool of national policy. According to Crow, “It was not meant to be, and was never intended to be a charter for concerted hemispheric action.”

 

Enforcement

In early 1843, the British reasserted their sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. No action was taken by the United States, and George C. Herring wrote that the inaction “confirmed Latin American and especially Argentine suspicions of the United States.” In 1838-50 Argentina was blockaded by the French and later by the British. No action was taken by the United States, despite protestations.

In 1842, U.S. President John Tyler applied the Monroe Doctrine to Hawaii and warned Britain not to interfere there. This began the process of annexing Hawaii to the United States.

On December 2, 1845, U.S. President James Polk announced that the principle of the Monroe Doctrine should be strictly enforced, reinterpreting it to argue that no European nation should interfere with the American western expansion (“Manifest Destiny”).

In 1862, French forces under Napoleon III invaded and conquered Mexico, giving control to the puppet monarch Emperor Maximilian. Washington denounced this as a violation of the doctrine but was unable to intervene because of the American Civil War. This marked the first time the Monroe Doctrine was widely referred to as a “doctrine.” In 1865 the United States stationed a large combat army on the border to emphasize its demand that France leave. France did pull out, and Mexican nationalists executed Maximilian.

In 1862, Belize was turned into a crown colony of the British empire and renamed British Honduras. The United States took no action against Britain, either during or after the Civil War.

In the 1870s, President Ulysses S. Grant and his Secretary of State Hamilton Fish endeavored to supplant European influence in Latin America with that of the United States. In 1870, the Monroe Doctrine was expanded under the proclamation “hereafter no territory on this continent [referring to Central and South America] shall be regarded as subject to transfer to a European power.”

In 1898, the United States intervened in support of Cuba during its war for independence from Spain. The United States won what is known in the United States as the Spanish-American War and in Cuba as the Cuban War for Independence. Under the terms of the peace treaty from which Cuba was excluded, Spain ceded Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam to the United States in exchange for $20 million. Cuba came under U.S. control and remained so until it was granted formal independence in 1902.

A painting depicting Teddy Roosevelt atop a horse leading soldier through a field during the Spanish-American War.

Spanish-American War Spanish–American War, the result of U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence, which released Cuba from European influence as per the Monroe Doctrine.

Attributions