Monroe Doctrine

Although initially disregarded by the great powers of Europe, the Monroe Doctrine became a mainstay of U.S. foreign policy. In 1823 U.S. President James Monroe proclaimed the U.S. protector of the Western Hemisphere by forbidding European powers from colonizing additional territories in the Americas. In return, Monroe committed to not interfere in the affairs, conflicts, and extant colonial enterprises of European states. Although initially a hands-off approach to foreign policy, the Monroe Doctrine—and the 1904 Roosevelt Corollary, which supplemented it—laid the groundwork for U.S. expansionist and interventionist practices in the decades to come.

As articulated in 1823, the Monroe Doctrine laid out four basic tenets that would define U.S. foreign policy for decades. The first two promised that the U.S. would not interfere in the affairs of European states, be they wars or internal politics, and that the U.S. would not interfere with European states’ extant colonial enterprises. In exchange, it stipulated that the Western Hemisphere was no longer open to further colonization and that any attempt on the part of a European power to colonize territory in the Western Hemisphere would be understood by the U.S. as an act of aggression.

The Monroe Doctrine was drafted because the U.S. government was worried that European powers would encroach on the U.S. sphere of influence by carving out colonial territories in the Americas. The U.S. government was particularly wary of Russia, because of its aims to extend its influence into the Oregon Territory, and of Spain and France, because of their potential designs to recolonize the Latin American territories that had recently gained independence. Although the British urged the U.S. to make a joint declaration with them, the U.S. ultimately opted for a unilateral one to avoid any hindrance to its own expansionist designs.

George Canning, British foreign minister to the U.S., had the idea to issue a declaration forbidding future colonization in the Americas. Canning suggested that the U.S. and Britain make a joint declaration, because both nations had motives for limiting colonialism (besides their own) in the Americas. U.S. President James Monroe and former presidents James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were receptive to the idea. U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams was vehemently against it, fearing that a bilateral declaration would limit the U.S.’s own expansionist designs. President Monroe eventually sided with Adams and issued a unilateral declaration.

Although it forbade European powers from colonizing more American territories, the Monroe Doctrine was drafted while the U.S. did not have the military might to enforce it. That changed as the U.S. emerged as a global power. The 1904 Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine asserted the U.S. role as policeman of the Western Hemisphere and its right to involve itself in the affairs of Latin American countries. Although justified under the auspices of limiting European interference in the Americas, the Roosevelt Corollary did more to lay the groundwork for the U.S. in its own interventionist practices in the decades to come.