MONROE DOCTRINE, The. The term "Monroe Doctrine* has been popularly used for a variety of principles intended to explain• or to define the policy of the United States toward Latin-American countries. The same words have had very different meanings at different periods of our history, but are now generally used to declare that it is contrary to the in terest of the United States that any European powers should establish new settlements or colonies in any part of the Americas, or should exercise preponderant influence in Latin Amer ica. The whole subject may best be taken up under the following topics: (1) Conditions of the doctrine from 1775 to 1823. (2) Mon roe's Doctrine as stated in his message of 1823 and applied down to 1845. (3) Theories as to Latin America put forward by Presidents and Secretaries of State from 1845 to 1900. (4) The modern doctrine of "the paramount interest* of the United States in American affairs, as developed since 1901. (5) The pres ent status of the doctrine in our relations to European, Asiatic and American powers.
I. Conditions of the Doctrine (1775-1823). — The prime reason for the Monroe Doctrine was the rise of a new kind of nation in the western hemisphere. Down to the American Revolution all the occupied parts of both con tinents and the Caribbean basin were simply outlying parts of European countries and shared in the religion, institutions, law, foreign policy and wares of their mother countries. They were in the same situation as Africa at the present time, a group of dependencies, incap able of direct influence upon the world at large.
The Revolution, with its theories of the right of every people to choose their own gov ernment, resulted in the creation of the first American state. The new United States had no territory, claims or ambitions outside of the continent of North America. During the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars it stood aside as a neutral and insisted on sev eral new principles of neutral rights in trade and citizenship. Europe quickly saw that this
example was likely to be followed elsewhere and was not surprised when in 1806 the colonies of Spain and Portugal in the New World began to drop off. In 15 years the process was com pleted, for by 1821 not a Spanish colony re mained loyal except Cuba and Porto Rico; and Brazil was forever lost to Portugal.
These new communities appealed to the ex ample of the United States, imitated its gov eminent and expected its friendship. By 1823 there appeared on the map the independent states of Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, La Plata, Haiti, Paraguay and Brazil. In the West Indies and on the north coast of South America small colonies remained to Great Britain, France, Holland, Sweden and Denmark. These, with Canada and the British plantation of Belize, were the only American colonies re maining to Europe. America boasted no longer a single star of liberty, but a brilliant constel lation of independent republics.
The people of the United States felt a natural and deep interest in what seemed a repetition of their own experience of breaking away from a mastering European government. They welcomed the liberal trade opened up to them in regions where for centuries Spain had restricted communication. They enjoyed the sensation of being the pioneers and leaders in what they hoped was a world movement in democracy.
The new states at once demanded recogni tion by their elder sister. In 1822 President Monroe, under powerful pressure from Henry Clay and other statesmen, received authority to recognize. the new countries, and soon ex changed ministers with Colombia, Chile, Mex ico, Brazil and LaPlata. This step gave the certificate of the American Republic to the new freedom of her neighbors. It committed the United States to the principle that they were self-sustaining, self-governing, genuinely inde pendent and entirely separated from their former European connections. They were too confidently accepted as equal sister states, a part of a free America.