The Process of Making the Monroe Doctrine

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The Process of Making the Monroe Doctrine

United States president Theodore Roosevelt announced the Roosevelt Corollary, an addendum to the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, in response to European nations that were trying to force Venezuela to repay its debts. Roosevelt threatened to send naval ships to Venezuela if those nations sought to forcibly collect the debt. Stability must be preserved, Roosevelt said in his 1904 annual message to Congress, even if it requires an “exercise of international police power.” The Roosevelt Corollary, based on the 1901 Platt Amendment, became the cornerstone of U.S. policy in Latin America. Herbert S. Parmet

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In 1904 President Theodore Roosevelt claimed, in what became known as the Roosevelt Corollary, that the United States could intervene in any Latin American nation guilty of internal or external misconduct. Roosevelt's statement was precipitated by Germany, Britain, and Italy, which were trying to force Venezuela to repay debts to those countries. Roosevelt involved the United States in settling the matter. The corollary was part of President Roosevelt's address to Congress that year. Roosevelt's corollary to the Monroe Doctrine set a precedent and therefore justified subsequent U.S. intervention in Caribbean states during the administrations of Presidents William Taft and Woodrow Wilson. By the 1920s Latin American countries were protesting U.S. involvement.

In 1900, Theodore Roosevelt, then governor of New York and candid...

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