The
Monroe Doctrine was a
United States policy that opposed
European colonialism in the
Americas. It argued that
any intervention in the politics of the Americas by foreign powers was a
potentially hostile act against the United States. It began in
1823; however, the
term "Monroe Doctrine" itself was not coined until
1850.
Despite America's
beginnings as an isolationist country, the foundation of the Monroe Doctrine was already being laid even during
George Washington's
presidency. According to
S.E. Morison, "as early as
1783, then, the United States adopted the policy of isolation and announced its intention to keep out of Europe. The supplementary principle of the Monroe Doctrine, that Europe must keep out of America, was still over the horizon".
While not specifically the Monroe Doctrine,
Alexander Hamilton desired to control the sphere of influence in the
Western Hemisphere, particularly in North America, but this was extended to the Latin American colonies by the Monroe Doctrine. But Hamilton, writing in the
Federalist Papers, was already wanting to establish America as a world power and hoped that America would suddenly become strong enough to keep the European powers outside of the Americas, despite the fact that
the European countries controlled much more of the Americas than the U.S. itself. Hamilton expected that the United States would become the dominant power in the New World and would, in the
future, act as an intermediary between the European powers and any new countries blossoming near the U.S.
In a note from
James Madison (
Thomas Jefferson's
Secretary of State and a future president) to the U.S. ambassador to Spain, the federal government expressed the opposition of the American government to further territorial acquisition by European powers. Madison's sentiment might have been meaningless because, as was noted before, the European powers held much more territory in comparison to the territory held by the U.S. Although Thomas Jefferson was pro-French, in an attempt to keep the British–French rivalry out the U.S., the federal government under Jefferson made it clear to its ambassadors that the U.S. would not support any future colonization efforts on the North American continent.
The U.S. government feared the victorious European powers that emerged from the
Congress of Vienna (1814–1815) would revive
monarchical government.
France had already agreed to restore the
Spanish monarchy in exchange for
Cuba. As the revolutionary
Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) ended,
Prussia, Austria, and Russia formed the
Holy Alliance to defend monarchism. In particular, the Holy Alliance authorized military incursions to re-establish
Bourbon rule over
Spain and its colonies,
which were establishing their independence.
Great Britain shared the general objective of the Monroe Doctrine, and even wanted to declare a joint statement to keep other European powers from further colonizing the New World. The British feared their trade with the New World would be harmed if the other European powers further colonized it. In fact, for many years after the doctrine took effect,
Britain, through the
Royal Navy, was the
sole nation enforcing the
doctrine, the U.S. lacking sufficient naval capability. The U.S. resisted a joint statement because of the recent memory of the
War of 1812; however, the
immediate provocation was the
Russian Ukase of 1821 a
sserting rights to the Pacific Northwest and
forbidding non-Russian ships from approaching the coast.
The Monroe Doctrine was issued on
December 2, 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. It stated that further efforts by various
European states to take control of any independent state in the
Americas would be viewed as "the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States." At the same time, the doctrine noted that the U.S. would recognize and not interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal affairs of European countries.
The full document of the Monroe Doctrine, written chiefly by future-President and then-Secretary of State
John Quincy Adams, is
long and couched in
diplomatic language, but its essence is expressed in
two key passages. The first is the
introductory statement, which asserts that the New World is no longer subject to colonization by the European countries:
The occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.
The second key passage, which contains a
fuller statement of the Doctrine, is
addressed to the "allied powers" of Europe; it clarifies that the U.S. remains neutral on existing European colonies in the Americas but is opposed to "interpositions" that would create new colonies among the newly independent Spanish American republics:
We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power, we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.
President
James Monroe first stated the
doctrine during his seventh annual
State of the Union Address to the
Congress. The doctrine asserted that the
New World and the
Old World were to remain
distinctly separate spheres of influence. The separation intended to avoid situations that could make the
New World a battleground for the
Old World powers so that the U.S. could exert its influence undisturbed. 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. The intent and impact of the
doctrine persisted more than a century, with only small variations, and 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.
After
1898, the
Monroe Doctrine was
reinterpreted in terms of
multilateralism and
non-intervention by Latin American lawyers and intellectuals. In
1933, under President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, the U.S. went along with this new reinterpretation, especially in terms of the
Organization of American States.
