Encyclopedia of American Studies

Monroe Doctrine

The set of principles that became known as the Monroe Doctrine, a basic tenet of American foreign policy, was enunciated by President James Monroe in his annual message to Congress of December 2, 1823. The portion of Monroe's message relating to foreign affairs consisted of three parts: a reaffirmation of American neutrality in European affairs, a warning to the European nations not to interfere with the independent nations of the Western Hemisphere, and a pronouncement that the Western Hemisphere was no longer open to new colonization.

Monroe's pronouncement encapsulated and codified several established facets of American foreign policy. Monroe's great contribution was the manner in which the doctrine was presented. By enunciating these principles as part of his annual message to Congress, Monroe gave them not only a coherent form but also a prominence and importance that they would not have otherwise received.

Over the years the Monroe Doctrine (that name was first applied in the 1850s) became a loosely defined policy of national defense that was invoked not as a response to threats against the independence or ideological underpinnings of the nations of the Americas (as Monroe envisioned) but in reaction to threats against the territorial and economic interests of the United States. Thus, the Monroe Doctrine was first revived and invoked when British and French interests threatened to impede American expansion into Texas, Oregon, and California. The European nations at first treated the Monroe Doctrine with disdain, but as the strength of the United States increased they begrudgingly acceded to the American position.

American interest in the Caribbean became particularly assertive in the late nineteenth century, when the construction of a canal across Central America became more likely. The presidential administrations of Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, and Woodrow Wilson were exceptionally active in intervening in the Caribbean and Central America. A belief that European financial domination of debt-ridden American nations was as dangerous to the security of the United States as actual territorial encroachment led to the enunciation of the Roosevelt Corollary in 1903. Expansion of this policy led to direct military intervention and control of the governments in Panama, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.

The Latin American nations, although resentful of the arrogance and power of the United States, nevertheless subscribed to the central principle of the Monroe Doctrine�protecting the Western Hemisphere from European encroachment. Early in the twentieth century these countries began to push for the formation of a pan-American union that would replace the unilateral power of the United States with a regional defense pact. During the 1920s and 1930s the United States embraced this movement with the Good Neighbor Policy and a repudiation of the Roosevelt Corollary as a justification of intervention. The threat posed by Germany in the 1930s strengthened this movement, which culminated in the creation of the Organization of American States in 1945. The threat of Communist expansion in Latin America in the 1950s revived interest in the Monroe Doctrine.

The status of the Monroe Doctrine remained murky at the end of the twentieth century. Increased sensitivity to the interests and concerns of the Latin American nations tempered the arrogance of the United States in delegating to itself the unilateral responsibility for determining the vital interests of the region. At the same time proponents of the Monroe Doctrine continued to argue that the need to guard against foreign encroachment on regions adjacent to the United States will keep the doctrine alive.

Daniel Preston

Bibliography

Dozer, Donald M., ed., The Monroe Doctrine: Its Modern Significance (Knopf 1965).

Loveman, Brian, No Higher Law: American Foreign Policy and the Western Hemisphere since 1776 (Univ. of N.C. Press 2010).

Murphy, Gretchen, Hemispheric Imaginings: The Monroe Doctrine and Narratives of U.S. Empire (Duke Univ. Press 2005).

Perkins, Dexter, A History of the Monroe Doctrine, rev. ed. (Little, Brown 1955).

Sexton, Jay, The Monroe Doctrine: Empire and Nation in Nineteenth-Century America (Hill and Wang 2011).

Smith, Gaddis, The Last Years of the Monroe Doctrine, 1945�1993 (Hill & Wang 1994).