MONROE DOCTRINE AND U. S. FOREIGN POLICY (1776-1830)
This research paper discusses whether the Monroe Doctrine formed part of a coherent and consistent American foreign policy during the period 1776 to 1830. The Monroe Doctrine was issued in reaction to a specific set of circumstances related to American perceptions of threatened intervention by European powers in North and South America. It, nevertheless, reaffirmed and was consistent with mainstream themes of American foreign policy since the American Revolution, namely, the avoidance of entanglement of the United States in the affairs of the rest of the world, except as required for the protection of its commercial interests and its own defense against attack. It reflected American commitment to the ideals of the Revolution, individual liberty and a republican form of government. In warning European powers against intervening in the Western Hemisphere, establishing further colonies there or trading among themselves the colonies they already had, the Monroe Doctrine expressed a growing sense of American nationalism and its determination to preserve not only North America but also Latin America as an exclusive zone for the furtherance of American commercial and political interests. The addition of Latin America to this exclusive American sphere of interest was new, but was consistent with actions which had already been taken by the United States to take advantage of the weakness of Spain and its burgeoning interest in the possible acquisition of Cuba and Puerto Rico, which the United States wished to prevent other powers from seizing, and Texas. The Monroe Doctrine was not explicitly or implicitly backed by force or the threat of force, which was dictated by the young nation's relative weakness as a world power, but its issuance was also accompanied by an undercurrent of a more aggressive American expansionist impulse, which was to ripen after 1830.
In December, 1823, Presid...