16. The Manifest Destiny, Monroe's Doctrine, Olney (or Roosevelt) Collorary.

Monroe's Doctrine

In the early nineteent h century most of Central

and South America, or Latin America, was ruled

by Spain. In the 1820s these Spanish colon ies

rebelled.

Th e Spanish government asked the great powt'rs

o f Europe to help it to defeat the rebels. When

Amer icans heard this they were alarmed. T hey did

not wa nt the armies and navies of powerful

Eur opean natio ns m their part of the world, The

rebel Spanish colonies were the United States'

nearest neighbors. Americans felt that it was

important to their country's safety to make sure

that no foreign enemies gamed influen ce in them.

In lH23 Preside nt Monroe warned European

nations nor to interfere in Latin American affairs.

"The American continents arc henceforth not to

be cons ide red as subjects for future colon ization

by European powers," Monroe told Congress.

" We should cons ide r any attempt on their part to

extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere

[half o f the worldj as dangerous to our

peace and safety."

Monroe 's statement came to be caned the "Monroe

Doctrine," It became one of the mos t important

ideas in American fo reign policy.

And Ro osevelt' s Corollary

The original Monroe Doctrine [Old Europeans not

to interfere in Latin America. In 1904 President

Theodore Roosevelt made an addition, or "co rollary"

to it . He said that the Uni ted Stat es would

intervene th ere whenever it thought necessary.

Roosevelt believed tha t by do ing th is the United

States woul d be able [0 ensure the internal stability

of its Latin American neighbors and so remove

any excuse for Europ eans to inte rfere in their

affairs.

In the next twent y years American go vernments

often acted upon Roosevelt's Corollary. American

soldiers landed in countries like Nica ragua, Haiti

and the Dominican Republic, and took o ver their

governments for years at a time. Often the

Americans made big impro vemcnts -. payin g off

debts. d rainin g s",.·amps, building road s, Bur this

did not stop Latin Americans from resent ing their

interferen ce.

Manifest Destiny was the 19th century American belief that the United States was destined to expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic Seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. It was used by Democrats in the 1840s to justify the war with Mexico; the concept was denounced by Whigs, and fell into disuse after the mid-19th century.

Advocates of Manifest Destiny believed that expansion was not only wise but that it was readily apparent (manifest) and inexorable (destiny).

The concept of American expansion is much older, but John L. O'Sullivan coined the exact term "Manifest Destiny" in the July/August 1845 issue of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review in an article titled "Annexation." It was primarily used by Democrats to support the expansion plans of the Polk Administration, but the idea of expansion faced opposition from Whigs like Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Abraham Lincoln who wanted to deepen the economy rather than broaden its expanse. John C. Calhoun was a notable Democrat who generally opposed his party on the issue, which fell out of favor by 1860.

The belief in an American mission to promote and defend democracy throughout the world, as expounded by Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson, continues to have an influence on American political ideology.