Monroe Doctrine

The Monroe Doctrine, expressed in 1823, proclaimed that the Americas should be closed to future European colonization and free from European interference in sovereign countries' affairs. It further stated the United States' intention to stay neutral in European wars and in wars between European powers and their colonies but to consider any new colonies or interference with independent countries in the Americas as hostile acts toward the United States. It was issued by President James Monroe during his seventh annual address to Congress.

Background

The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 marked the breakup of the Spanish Empire in the New World. Between 1815 and 1822 José de San Martín led Argentina , Chile and Peru to independence, while Simón Bolívar in Venezuela guided his country out of colonialism. The new republics sought — and expected — recognition by the United States, and many in the United States endorsed that idea.

Related Topics:
Napoleonic Wars - 1815 - Spanish Empire - New World - 1822 - José de San Martín - Argentina - Chile - Peru - Simón Bolívar - Venezuela - Colonialism - United States

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But President James Monroe and his secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, were not willing to risk war for nations they did not know would survive. From their point of view, as long as the other European powers did not intervene, the government of the United States could just let Spain and her rebellious colonies fight it out.

Related Topics:
James Monroe - John Quincy Adams

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The United Kingdom was torn between monarchical principle and a desire for new markets; South America as a whole constituted, at the time, a much larger market for British goods than the United States. When Russia and France proposed that Britain join in helping Spain regain her New World colonies, Britain vetoed the idea.

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - South America - Russia - France - Spain

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The United States was also negotiating with Spain to purchase Florida, and once that treaty was ratified, the Monroe administration began to extend recognition to the new Latin American republics — Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico were all recognized in 1822.

Related Topics:
Florida - Argentina - Chile - Peru - Colombia - Mexico - 1822

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In 1823, France invited Spain to restore Bourbon to power, and there was talk of France and Spain warring upon the new republics with the backing of the Holy Alliance (Russia, Prussia and Austria). This news appalled the British government — all the work of James Wolfe, William Pitt and other eighteenth-century British statesmen to get France out of the New World would be undone, and France would again be a power in the Americas.

Related Topics:
Bourbon - Holy Alliance - James Wolfe - William Pitt

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British Foreign Minister George Canning proposed that the US and the UK join to warn off France and Spain from intervention. Both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison urged Monroe to accept the offer, but John Quincy Adams was more suspicious. Adams also was quite concerned about Russia and Mexico's efforts to extend their influence over the joint British-American claimed territory of Oregon Country (see New Albion).

Related Topics:
British Foreign Minister - George Canning - Thomas Jefferson - James Madison - John Quincy Adams - Oregon Country - New Albion

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At the Cabinet meeting of November 7, 1823, Adams argued against Canning's offer, and declared, "It would be more candid, as well as more dignified, to avow our principles explicitly to Russia and France, than to come in as a cockboat in the wake of the British man-of-war."

Related Topics:
November 7 - 1823

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He argued and finally won over the Cabinet to an independent policy. In Monroe's State of the Union message to Congress on December 2, 1823, he delivered what we have come to call the Monroe Doctrine. Essentially, the United States was informing the powers of the Old World that the Americas were no longer open to European colonization, and that any effort to extend European political influence into the New World would be considered by the United States "as dangerous to our peace and safety." The United States would not interfere in European wars or internal affairs, and expected Europe to stay out of the affairs of the New World.

Related Topics:
December 2 - 1823

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This explicitly stated intent was contradicted by cooperation with European powers in the repeated re-occupation of various territories of the island of Hispaniola, regions of which were in this period variously known as Santo Domingo and Haiti. Both France and Spain were interested in re-claiming their territories in Hispaniola, or re-exerting their influence, although Spain was more successful in the 19th century. In practice, the Monroe Doctrine sided with whatever side of Caribbean conflicts favoured the United States' short-term economic interests, rather than definitively drawing a barrier against European interventionism..

Related Topics:
Hispaniola - Santo Domingo - Haiti

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