MONROE DOCTRINE. A policy adopted by the United States according to which this government will consider any attempt on the part of a European power to colonize, or to extend its system of government to, any part of the Western Hemisphere as an act of unfriendliness to the United States. The policy was foreshadowed by Jefferson in 1793, and again in 1801, when the United States expressed to Great Britain its willing ness that the Floridas should remain in the hands of Spain, but its unwillingness that they should be transferred to any other pow er. The doctrine was definitely stated in a message of President Monroe to congress on December 2, 1823, in which he says : "The American continents, by the free and inde pendent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be con sidered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers. . . . 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 hemi sphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not inter fered and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their inde pendence and maintained it, and whose in dependence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the pur pose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any Eu ropean power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. . . " In an other part of the message it is declared that "the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have as sumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future coloniza tion by any European powers." This doctrine is now the settled policy of the United States, and while it has not been formally recognized by foreign powers, it has for the most part been generally acqui esced in. The policy with respect to the
colonization of America by European powers was occasioned by discussions with Russia as to territorial rights on the northwest coast of America. Existing colonies of Great Brit ain and other countries were not, of course, affected by the declaration. In 1848 Presi dent Polk stated that a transfer of the sov ereignty of Yucatan to either Spain, Great Britain or any other power could not be con sented to by the United States. The same principle was reasserted in 1888 when there were rumors that Haiti might became a pro tectorate of France, and that the French government might take charge of the work of digging the Panama Canal.
The island of Cuba was for a long time a subject for the application of the Monroe Doctrine. As early as 1825 the United States felt that any change in the sovereignty of that island would be detrimental to its in terests; again in 1848 the position was taken with regard to a possible control by Great Britain over the island. During the Ameri can civil war the emperor of France attempt ed to establish Prince Maximilian of Austria upon the throne of Mexico. The United States protested, and at the end of the war brought pressure to bear upon France to withdraw her troops, which were in Mexico in support of Maximilian. A boundary dis pute between Great Britain and Venezuela gave occasion to President Cleveland to ap ply the Monroe Doctrine in a very positive way. As it appeared that Great Britain would be likely to press her claim by force, the United States recommended arbitration between the two countries, and then under took itself to appoint a commission to deter mine what seemed to be the just boundary line. Finally a commission of arbitration was appointed under treaty between Great Britain and Venezuela, which rendered an award on October 3, 1899.