Dominating the Americas

What is the Monroe Doctrine?

It’s a foreign policy vision that was first articulated by President James Monroe in 1823. Monroe declared that the Western Hemisphere was off-limits to European colonization, and that political meddling in the Americas by Old World powers would be considered a threat to U.S. “peace and safety.” This policy—which in the 1850s became known as the Monroe Doctrine—landed after a decade-long stretch in which Venezuela, Mexico, Guatemala, and a dozen other former...