What’s the Monroe Doctrine?

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The Monroe Doctrine is a foreign policy platform established by US President James Monroe. According to his State of the Union address of December 2, 1823, Monroe stated that no country outside the Western Hemisphere could use its sphere of influence to manipulate the affairs of nations within the region. He essentially stated that the period of colonialism was over and that no new power, especially the European one, could dominate the political or economic future of the nations of North or South America. Any attempt to do so would be considered a threat to the peace and security of the United States itself. The Monroe Doctrine has become a central policy that has impacted all future activities of the global community regarding the New World.

At that time, the United States was not considered a major world power, and many contemporaries viewed politics with only passing interest. After the American Revolution and the Louisiana Purchase, Britain and France lost much of their territorial considerations in North America. This was accentuated by the fact that many of Spain’s colonies in South America were gaining independence through revolutionaries such as Simon Bolivar. This trend opened up much of the Americas to trade agreements with new nations, prompting fears that new attempts at colonization would undo the economic developments of the time. At the same time, the Russian Empire was attempting to assert its dominance in the Northwest with its territory of Alaska, prompting the need for the United States to make a statement such as the Monroe Doctrine.

The overall effect of the Monroe Doctrine on US politics eventually became very important to the country as it grew into a superpower. With the purchase of Alaska, the United States removed Russia’s hold on her in the Western Hemisphere. This was followed up at the turn of the century with the United States successfully ousting remnants of European influence during the Spanish-American War. This left the Americas with limited foreign intervention and almost no political or military clout from any of the Old World powers, with the exception of a few Caribbean islands.

To highlight the policies of the Monroe Doctrine in the early 20th century, President Theodore Roosevelt instituted the Roosevelt Corollary in 2020. This extended the rights of the United States to intervene in Latin America and the Caribbean both militarily and economically. This was slightly changed by the Clark Memorandum, a policy adopted by President Calvin Coolidge which reaffirmed the right of the United States to deal with Latin America. This new interpretation focused on the fact that American actions were taken because the United States was an independent state and saw itself as a good neighbor to neighboring nations.

The Monroe Doctrine was invoked again during the Cold War, particularly in response to the Communist takeover of Cuba by Fidel Castro’s regime. President John F. Kennedy used the principles of the policy to establish an embargo on the island to prevent the deployment of Soviet weapons. The concept was heavily criticized during the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal, when it was revealed that the United States attempted to overthrow the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua by training and arming guerrillas.

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