Monroe Doctrine
in American politics, a doctrine that European powers are not to acquire territory in America and are not to interfere with the sovereignty of an independent state in the New World. The doctrine takes its name from certain sentences in President Monroe's annual message to Congress in December, 1823. John Quincy Adams, secretary of state, is credited with the real authorship. It was called forth by a popular belief that the European powers were contemplating interference in South America, in order to put a stop to the formation of republics and consequent loss of territory by Spain. The position taken by the United States government at this time was an encouragement to the struggling republics of South America. The doctrine was put to a practical test during the Civil War. Napoleon III placed Maximilian on the throne of Mexico by means of French bayonets. When the war was off our hands the French government was notified to withdraw its forces and did so.
As late as 1902 the German, English, and Italian governments united to bombard and occupy the ports of Venezuela in order to collect a debt which the authorities of that country refused to pay. Our government took the ground that it was no part of the Monroe Doctrine to protect an American republic from the payment of its just debts. The European powers concerned understood clearly, however, that they would not be permitted to seize territory or to occupy South American ports permanently. In accordance with the Monroe Doctrine, which means practically, "America for Americans," the nations of Europe recognized "the paramount interest" of the United States in the construction of a Panama Canal. No protest has been raised against the acquisition by the United States of the territory and privileges requisite to the construction and control of the proposed canal. A discussion of the Monroe Doctrine has taken on a new phase ever since the Spanish-American War. The acquisition of the Philippines has given the United States the attitude of a world power. In 1905 President Roosevelt acted as mediator between Russia and Japan. He was instrumental, largely, in bringing together the commissioners who drew up the final treaty of peace. The question of the extent to which our government may justly exclude Europe from participation in American affairs, and yet claim a seat at the world's council, is one of international importance.
The Monroe Doctrine was more than a saucy command to the Old World to keep hands off the New. It was a protest against despotism. After the Napoleonic wars were by, the powers of continental Europe formed a "Holy Alliance" for the restoration and perpetuation of despotic government. Spain was forced to abandon a constitutional form of government. In 1823 it was believed that a design was on foot to restore Mexico and the recently formed republics of South America to Spain and despotism. About the same time Russia undertook to extend the limits of Alaska southward in a manner that threatened our claim to Oregon; and there was more than talk of Russian colonization on the coast of what was then the Mexican state of California. John Quincy Adams then told the Russian minister that "we should contest the right of Russia to any territorial establishment on this continent, and that we should assume distinctly the principle that the American continents are no longer subjects for any new European colonial establishments." The crisis soon passed. The Holy Alliance was dissolved. Russia, by treaty of 1824, relinquished all claim to American territory outside of Alaska.
Popular estimation has given a more defiant meaning to Monroe's language than was intended.--Justin Winsor.
Our first and fundamental maxim should be never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe; our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle with cis-Atlantic affairs.--Jefferson.
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
I. At the proposal of the Russian imperial government . . . a full power and instructions have been transmitted to the minister of the United States at St. Petersburg, to arrange, by amicable negotiation, the respective rights and interests of the two nations on the northwest coast of this continent. . . 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.
II. In the wars of the European powers, in matters relating to themselves, we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded, or seriously menaced, that we resent injuries or make preparations for our defence. With the movements in this hemisphere we are, of necessity, more immediately connected and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political system of the Allied Powers is essentially different in this respect from that of America. . . . 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. --Monroe Message.