A. Plan of The Investigation This investigation asks the question: to what extent did the United States fail to implement the policies set forth in the Monroe Doctrine during the fifty years after it was issued? The investigation will be carried out by evaluating the policies of the Monroe Doctrine as well as analyzing the shortcomings and the failures of it. The policies of the Monroe Doctrine will be evaluated by how effective they were overall and the extent to which they changed over time. The analysis of failures will consist of discussion of specific events in which the United States failed to implement the policies of the Doctrine. Word Count: 100 B. Summary of Evidence The Monroe Doctrine was created to ensure that European powers would have no influence over the independence of countries in the western hemisphere of the world. Whether the Doctrine was constantly implemented or not is debatable, but the commonly held opinion is that it was generally successful in preventing European colonization of the Americas. Over the time period the policies of the Doctrine have existed, it has created much conflict with other countries as well as with citizens of the United States. Gaston Nerval argues in his book Autopsy of The Monroe Doctrine that “There was no problem with Pan Americanism, political or economic, which had not been, in one way or another, at one time or another, related to the Monroe doctrine or one of its multiple derivatives.”(v). The reasons for the Doctrine’s existence as a center of conflict can be split into the issues of its transformation over time and the instances in which the US did or did not implement it. During the nineteenth century, the Monroe Doctrine had multiple additions “e... ... middle of paper ... ...and C°, 1916. Print. Pastor, Robert A. "Brazil, the United States and the South American Subsystem: Regional Polities and the Absent Empire." Political Science Quarterly 128.3 (2013): 583+. Student Resources in Context. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. Nerval, Gaston. Autopsy of the Monroe Doctrine: The Strange Story of Inter-American Relations. New York: Macmillan, 1934. Print. Reddaway, William Fiddian. The Monroe Doctrine. New York: G.E. Stechert, 1905. Http://babel.hathitrust.org/. Hathi Trust. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. Russell, Greg. "Theodore Roosevelt's diplomacy and the quest for great power equilibrium in Asia." Presidential Studies Quarterly 38.3 (2008): 433+. Student Resources in Context. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. Tucker, George Fox. The Monroe Doctrine: A Concise History of Its Origin and Growth. Boston: G.B. Reed, 1885. Http://babel.hathitrust.org/. Hathi Trust. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
James Monroe will always be best known by his Doctrine, but what most people don’t know is that most of the Monroe Doctrine was written by the Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams. Also, Adams was the one who told him to do it. The Monroe Doctrine was originally a letter to Congress in 1823. The document stated that it was the end of colonizing the Americas. When James and Elizabeth Monroe retired, they moved to their Virginia estate called Oak Hill.
The Monroe Doctrine reflected the concerns and ambitions of a fledgling nation that was brave enough to declare its sovereignty on the world stage. The Doctrine, in stating that European powers ought not to intervene in America’s affairs, established the US as a world power, although one that had inadequate, hemispheric aspirations. However, these aspirations would extend, and in future years the Doctrine would substantiate its usefulness for interventionists, as well as protectionists. Being conceivably the most distinguishable and the most revered as regards principles of diplomacy, the doctrine’s influence on the popular imagination was so great that it described the limits of standard decisions on policy, in turn influencing the choice of preferences that US Presidents had for most of the last two centuries.
5 Robert H. Ferrell, America as a World Power, 1872-1945, (New York: Harper & Row
In regards to Britain’s currently existing colony, the Monroe doctrine professed no disavowal of the right of the British to manage their respective colony (Yale Law School). Yet, the British territorial claims in Oregon, supported by the notion of preexisting settlements by their fur trading company, were naturally at direct odds with the United States’ belief in Manifest Destiny. This issue already provided a reason for Monroe and Adam’s to be uneasy over British presence in the new world.
Burns, E. B., & Charlip, J. A. (2007). Latin America: an interpretive history (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Primarily, the United States foreign policy behind the Monroe Doctrine was introduced by President James Monroe in the midst of many Latin American countries gaining their independence from Spain. The doctrine stated that attempts by European countries to colonize or interfere with states in the Western Hemisphere would be viewed as acts of aggression and U.S. intervention would be necessary. The Monroe Doctrine set the precedent for various foreign policies that would result in U.S. involvement in Latin America.
Offner, Arnold. “‘Another Such Victory’: President Truman, American Foreign Policy, and the Cold War.” Taking Sides: Clashing Views On Controversial Issues in United States History. Ed. Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle. 14th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 291-301.
Before considering Professor X’s assertion that the Roosevelt Corollary actually corrupted the Monroe Doctrine’s “benevolent intent,” it is worth considering whether or not the Monroe Docterine was as benevolent as the unnamed professor seems to suggest. Professor X considers Monroe’s 1823 Doctrine an act of benevolence, in which an increasingly dominant world power generously extends protection over its continental neighbors. Yet the Professor ignores the inherently imperialistic subtext that is contained within the Doctrine, and thus his comparison of the Monroe Doctrine to the Roosevelt Corollary omits a fundamental aspect of America’s colonialist history.
The United States of America has never been content with stagnation. The landmass of the Thirteen Colonies was enough to rival that of the Mother country from which they separated. The forefathers believed that it was the manifest destiny of this nation to eventually claim the expansion from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. By 1890, nearly a hundred years following the original claim of Manifest Destiny, the land that was once open, was now under American control. But no sooner was the Great American Frontier closed, than was the door to East Asian expansion opened with the great gold key of American diplomacy. In a world where imperialism was contagious, and cartographers had to work around the clock to keep up with an ever-changing geopolitical landscape, the United States seized the opportunity to establish herself as a significant world power. With great expansionist minds at her helm, such as Theodore Roosevelt and Howard Taft the United States began to grow beyond her border to claim stake in this wide-open world. This new expansionism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was a different institution than its early to mid nineteenth century counterpart. Still, the drive to exercise the sovereignty of the United State and to propel itself over the world’s stage was the same then as it was in the time of Thomas Jefferson. In order to understand this assertion, attention must be given to three levels of analysis. First, the similarities that exist between the drive and purpose of old and new expansion must be taken into account. Second, the differences in the global political scene must be considered. Finally, there exits differences in the means by which expansion occurred.
Filh, Alfredo Saad. "Neoliberalism, Democracy, and Development Policy in Brazil." DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIETY June 2010: 1-28.
As we approach the next Presidential election the topic of American foreign policy is once again in the spotlight. In this paper, I will examine four major objectives of U.S. foreign policy that have persisted throughout the twentieth century and will discuss the effect of each on our nation’s recent history, with particular focus on key leaders who espoused each objective at various times. In addition, I will relate the effects of American foreign policy objectives, with special attention to their impact on the American middle class. Most importantly, this paper will discuss America’s involvement in WWI, WWII, and the Cold War to the anticipated fulfillment of these objectives—democracy, manifest destiny, humanitarianism, and economic expansion.
On December 2, 1823, President James Monroe articulated his seventh annual message to Congress. This message presented Americans with a statement that changed the way the Western Hemisphere would be view and how international affairs toward the new Latin colonies would be handle from this point forward. It addressed European nations in particular and stated that “the United States would not tolerate further colonization or puppet nations” The Monroe Doctrine was initially designed to protect the Latin colonies but later President Theodore Roosevelt extended the Doctrine to include the United States would be the policing powers of the Western Hemisphere, this became known as the Roosevelt Corollary. Roosevelt stated that the United States had a “morale mandate” to ensure that other nations used appropriate attitudes toward Latin America. Roosevelt felt strongly in about the conduct of other nations and further stated: “It is not that the United States feels and land hunger or entertains any projects as regards the other nations of the Western Hemisphere save such as are for their welfare. All that this country desires is to see the neighboring countries stable, orderly, and prosperous. Any country whose people conduct themselves well can count upon our hearty friendship. If a nation shows that it knows how to act with reasonable efficiency and decency in social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it need fear no interference from the United States. Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the U...
George Browm Tindall, David Emory Shi. American History: 5th Brief edition, W. W. Norton & Company; November 1999
The Monroe Doctrine and the Manifest Destiny stated America's philosophies regarding foreign policy. The Monroe Doctrine (1823), crafted by President Monroe and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, was a statem...
“A formal public commitment to legal racial equality, for example, had been the price of mass support for Latin American’s independence movements. In the generation following independence, the various mixed-race classifications typical of the caste system were optimistically banished from census forms and parish record keeping.” This was meant to make all slaves citizens, equal to all other citizens. Slavery receded in Latin America, except in non-republican Brazil, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. However, Brazil’s pursuit of independence was the least violent and provoked the least amount of change. The case of Brazil suggests that retention of colonial institutions such as monarchies lent to stability. “Brazil had retained a European dynasty; a nobility of dukes, counts, and barons sporting coats of arms; a tight relationship between church and state; and a full commitment to the institution of chattel slavery, in which some people worked others to death.”