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Definition: Monroe Doctrine |
Monroe DoctrineNoun1. An American foreign policy opposing interference in the Western hemisphere from outside powers. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Monroe Doctrine The American States are never to entangle themselves in the broils of Europe, nor to suffer the powers of the Old World to interfere in the affairs of the New; and they are to account any attempt on the part of the Old World to plant their systems of government in any part of North America dangerous to American peace and safety. James Monroe was twice president of the United States. (1816 and 1820.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Monroe Doctrine, expressed in 1823, proclaimed the Americas should be free from future European colonization and free from European interference in sovereign countries' affairs. It further stated United States's intention to stay neutral in European wars and wars between European powers and their colonies but to consider any new colonies or interference with independent countries in the Americas as hostile acts toward the United States. It was issued by President James Monroe during his seventh annual address to Congress.
The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 marked the breakup of the Spanish empire in the New World. Between 1815 and 1822 Jose de San Martin led Argentina to independence, while Bernardo O'Higgins in Chile and Simon Bolivar in Venezuela guided their countries out of colonialism. The new republics sought -- and expected -- recognition by the United States, and many Americans endorsed that idea.
But President James Monroe and his secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, were not willing to risk war for nations they did not know would survive. From their point of view, as long as the other European powers did not intervene, the government of the United States could just let Spain and her rebellious colonies fight it out.
Great Britain was torn between monarchical principle and a desire for new markets; South America as a whole constituted, at the time, a much larger market for English goods than the United States. When Russia and France proposed that England join in helping Spain regain her New World colonies, Great Britain vetoed the idea.
The United States was also negotiating with Spain to purchase Florida, and once that treaty was ratified, the Monroe administration began to extend recognition to the new Latin American republics -- Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico were all recognized in 1822.
In 1823, France invited Spain to restore the Bourbon power, and there was talk of France and Spain warring upon the new republics with the backing of the Holy Alliance (Russia, Prussia and Austria). This news appalled the British government -- all the work of Wolfe, Chatham and other eighteenth-century British statesmen to get France out of the New World would be undone, and France would again be a power in the Americas.
George Canning, the British foreign minister, proposed that the United States and Great Britain join to warn off France and Spain from intervention. Both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison urged Monroe to accept the offer, but John Quincy Adams was more suspicious. Adams also was quite concerned about Russia's efforts to extend its influence down the Pacific coast from Alaska south to California, then owned by Mexico.
At the Cabinet meeting of November 7, 1823, Adams argued against Canning's offer, and declared, "It would be more candid, as well as more dignified, to avow our principles explicitly to Russia and France, than to come in as a cockboat in the wake of the British man-of-war."
He argued and finally won over the Cabinet to an independent policy. In Monroe's message to Congress on December 2, 1823, he delivered what we have always called the Monroe Doctrine, although in truth it should have been called the Adams Doctrine. Essentially, the United States was informing the powers of the Old World that the American continents were no longer open to European colonization, and that any effort to extend European political influence into the New World would be considered by the United States "as dangerous to our peace and safety." The United States would not interfere in European wars or internal affairs, and expected Europe to stay out of American affairs.
Although it would take decades to coalesce into an identifiable policy, John Quincy Adams did raise a standard of an independent American foreign policy so strongly that future administrations could not ignore it. One should note, however, that the policy succeeded because it met British interests as well as American, and for the next 100 years was secured by the backing of the British fleet.
On December 2, 1845 US President James Polk announced to Congress that the Monroe Doctrine should be strictly enforced and that the United States should aggressively expand into the West (see Manifest Destiny).
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Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Monroe Doctrine."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Freedom | Autonomy, self-government, liberalism, free trade; noninterference; Monroe Doctrine. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Monroe Doctrine |
| English words defined with "Monroe doctrine": The Monroe doctrine. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "Monroe doctrine": MONROE. (references) |
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Movie/TV Titles | American History: Our Monroe Doctrine (1941) The Monroe Doctrine (1939) Monroe Doctrine (1896) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
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| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | The (Fort) Monroe Doctrine. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Keep off! Monroe doctrine. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Treaty of Versailles | 1919 | Nothing in this Covenant shall be deemed to affect the validity of international engagements, such as treaties of arbitration or regional understandings like the Monroe doctrine, for securing the maintenance of peace. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Expression using "Monroe doctrine": The Monroe doctrine. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
monroe doctrine | 242 |
monroe doctrine picture | 3 |
1823 monroe doctrine | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "Monroe doctrine"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||
French | doctrine Monroe. (various references) | ||||
Greek | δόγμα του μονρόε. (various references) | ||||
Pig Latin | onroemay octrineday | ||||
Misspellings | |
"Monroe Doctrine" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: monroe doctorine, monroe doctrin. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-d-e-e-i-m-n-n-o-o-o-r-r-t" | |
-2 letters: reconnoitred. | |
-3 letters: reconnoiter, reconnoitre. | |
-4 letters: cointerred, entodermic. | |
-5 letters: condemner, condemnor, condiment, conominee, contemned, contemner, contemnor, contender, cornermen, endocrine, ideomotor, increment, internode, mentioned, mentioner, merocrine, meteoroid, microtone, monitored, monotonic, netminder, noncredit, nondoctor, nonerotic, nonmetric, nonrioter, recondite, rencontre. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)4D 6F 6E 72 6F 65 44 6F 63 74 72 69 6E 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001101 01101111 01101110 01110010 01101111 01100101 00100000 01000100 01101111 01100011 01110100 01110010 01101001 01101110 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)M o n r o e   D o c t r i n e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)004D 006F 006E 0072 006F 0065 0044 006F 0063 0074 0072 0069 006E 0065 |
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)47818084817123881698684758071 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Quotations: Historic 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Derivations 11. Anagrams 12. Orthography | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
