's 1896 political cartoon depicting
Uncle Sam standing with a rifle between the Europeans and Latin Americans
International response Because the United States lacked both a credible navy and army at the time, the doctrine was largely disregarded internationally.
Latin American reaction The reaction in Latin America to the Monroe Doctrine was generally favorable but on some occasions suspicious. John A. Crow, author of
The Epic of Latin America, states, "
Simón Bolívar himself, still in the midst of his
last campaign against the Spaniards,
Santander in
Colombia,
Rivadavia in
Argentina,
Victoria in Mexico—leaders of the
emancipation movement everywhere—received Monroe's words with sincerest gratitude". Crow argues that the leaders of Latin America were realists. They knew that the president of the United States wielded very little power at the time, particularly without an alliance with Britain, and figured that the Monroe Doctrine was unenforceable if the U.S. stood alone against the Holy Alliance.
Post-Bolívar events in 1829 In Spanish America, royalist guerrillas continued the war in several countries, and Spain
attempted to retake Mexico in 1829. Only Cuba and
Puerto Rico remained under Spanish rule, until the
Spanish–American War in 1898. In early 1833, the British
reasserted their sovereignty over the Falkland islands, thus violating the Monroe Doctrine. No action was taken by the U.S. and the historian
George C. Herring wrote that inaction "confirmed Latin American and especially Argentine suspicions of the United States." From 1838 to 1850, the
Río de la Plata of Argentina was blockaded
first by the French navy and then
by the British and French navies. As before, no action was undertaken by the U.S. to support Argentina as stipulated in the doctrine. On December 2, 1845, U.S. president
James K. Polk announced that the principle of the Monroe Doctrine should be strictly enforced, reinterpreting it to argue that no European nation should interfere with American western expansion ("
manifest destiny"). , 1861–1867 In 1861, Dominican military commander and royalist politician
Pedro Santana signed a pact with the Spanish Crown and reverted the
Dominican nation to colonial status. Spain was wary at first, but with the United States occupied with its own civil war, Spain believed it had an opportunity to reassert control in Latin America. On March 18, 1861, the
Spanish annexation of the Dominican Republic was announced. The
American Civil War ended in 1865, and following the reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine by the U.S. government, this prompted Spanish forces stationed within the Dominican Republic to extradite back to Cuba within that same year. In 1862, French forces under
Napoleon III invaded and
conquered Mexico, giving control to the puppet monarch
Maximilian I. Washington denounced this as a violation of the doctrine but was unable to intervene because of the American Civil War. This marked the first time the Monroe Doctrine was widely referred to as a "doctrine". In 1865 the U.S. garrisoned an army on its border to encourage Napoleon III to leave Mexican territory, and they did subsequently remove their forces, which was followed by Mexican nationalists capturing and then executing Maximilian. After the expulsion of France from Mexico, Secretary of State
William H. Seward proclaimed in 1868 that the "Monroe doctrine, which eight years ago was merely a theory, is now an irreversible fact." In 1865, Spain occupied the
Chincha Islands in violation of the Monroe Doctrine. In the 1870s, President
Ulysses S. Grant and Secretary of State
Hamilton Fish endeavored to supplant European influence in Latin America with that of the U.S. In 1870, the Monroe Doctrine was expanded under the proclamation "hereafter no territory on this continent [referring to Central and South America] shall be regarded as subject to transfer to a European power." twisting the tail of the British Lion; cartoon in
Puck by J. S. Pughe, 1895 The
Venezuelan crisis of 1895 became "one of the most momentous episodes in the history of Anglo-American relations in general and of Anglo-American rivalries in Latin America in particular."
Venezuela sought to involve the U.S. in a
territorial dispute with Britain and hired former U.S. ambassador
William Lindsay Scruggs to argue that Britain's actions over the issue violated the Monroe Doctrine. President
Grover Cleveland, through Secretary of State
Richard Olney, cited the doctrine in 1895, threatening strong action against Britain if the British failed to arbitrate their
dispute with Venezuela. In a July 20, 1895, note to Britain,
Olney stated, "The United States is practically sovereign on this continent, and its fiat is law upon the subjects to which it confines its interposition." Sitting in
Paris, the Tribunal of Arbitration finalized its decision on October 3, 1899. and all of the gold mines. using the Monroe Doctrine to keep European powers out of the
Dominican Republic. The reaction to the award was of surprise, with the award's lack of reasoning a particular concern. In 1898, the U.S. intervened in support of
Cuba during its war for independence from Spain. The resulting
Spanish–American War ended in a peace treaty requiring Spain to cede Puerto Rico, the
Philippines, and
Guam to the U.S. in exchange for $20 million. Spain was additionally forced to recognize Cuban independence, though the island remained under U.S. occupation until 1902.
Big Brother The "Big Brother" policy was an extension of the Monroe Doctrine formulated by
James G. Blaine in the 1880s that aimed to rally Latin American nations behind U.S. leadership and open their markets to U.S. traders. Blaine served as Secretary of State in 1881 under President
James A. Garfield and again from 1889 to 1892 under President
Benjamin Harrison. As a part of the policy, Blaine arranged and led the First
International Conference of American States in 1889.
Olney Corollary The Olney Corollary, also known as the
Olney interpretation or
Olney declaration was U.S. secretary of state
Richard Olney's interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine when the border dispute for the Essequibo occurred between the British and Venezuelan governments in 1895. Olney claimed that the Monroe Doctrine gave the U.S. authority to mediate border disputes in the Western Hemisphere. Olney extended the meaning of the Monroe Doctrine, which had previously stated merely that the Western Hemisphere was closed to additional European colonization. The statement reinforced the original purpose of the Monroe Doctrine, that the U.S. had the right to intervene in its own
hemisphere and foreshadowed the events of the Spanish–American War three years later. The Olney interpretation was defunct by 1933.
Canada In 1902, Canadian prime minister
Wilfrid Laurier acknowledged that the Monroe Doctrine was essential to his country's protection. The doctrine provided Canada with a
de facto security guarantee by the United States; the U.S. Navy in the Pacific, and the Royal Navy in the Atlantic, made invading North America almost impossible. Because of the
peaceful relations between the two countries, Canada could assist Britain in a European war without having to defend itself at home.
Roosevelt Corollary intimidating
Colombia to acquire the
Panama Canal Zone The doctrine has subsequently been reinterpreted and applied in a variety of instances. As the U.S. began to emerge as a world power, the Monroe Doctrine came to define a recognized sphere of control that few dared to challenge. The Venezuela crisis, and in particular the arbitral award, were key in the development of the Corollary. The corollary was invoked to intervene militarily in Latin America to stop the spread of European influence. It was the most significant amendment to the original doctrine and was widely opposed by critics, who argued that the Monroe Doctrine was originally meant to stop European influence in the Americas. Other critics have argued that the Corollary asserted U.S. domination in the area, effectively making them a "hemispheric policeman". The early decades of the 20th century saw a number of
interventions in Latin America by the U.S. government often justified under the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. President
William Howard Taft viewed
dollar diplomacy as a way for American corporations to benefit while assisting in the national security goal of preventing European powers from filling any possible financial power vacuum. The United States launched multiple interventions into Latin America, resulting in U.S. military presence in
Cuba,
Honduras,
Panama (via the
Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty and
Isthmian Canal Commission),
Haiti (1915–1935), the
Dominican Republic (1916–1924) and
Nicaragua (1912–1925 and 1926–1933). U.S. marines began to specialize in long-term military occupation of these countries, primarily to safeguard customs revenues which were the cause of local civil wars. The
Platt Amendment amended a treaty between the U.S. and the
Republic of Cuba after the Spanish–American War, virtually making Cuba a U.S. protectorate. The amendment outlined conditions for the U.S. to intervene in Cuban affairs and permitted the United States to lease or buy lands for the purpose of establishing naval bases, including
Guantánamo Bay.
Lodge Corollary The so-called "
Lodge Corollary" was passed by the
U.S. Senate on August 2, 1912, in response to a reported attempt by a Japan-backed private company to acquire
Magdalena Bay in
Baja California Sur. It extended the reach of the Monroe Doctrine to cover actions of corporations and associations controlled by foreign states.
Clark Memorandum The
Clark Memorandum, written on December 17, 1928, by President
Calvin Coolidge's
undersecretary of state J. Reuben Clark, concerned American use of military force to intervene in Latin American nations. This memorandum was officially released in 1930 by the administration of President
Herbert Hoover. The Clark Memorandum rejected the view that the Roosevelt Corollary was based on the Monroe Doctrine. However, it was not a complete repudiation of the Roosevelt Corollary but was rather a statement that any intervention by the U.S. was not sanctioned by the Monroe Doctrine but rather was the right of the U.S. as a state. This separated the Roosevelt Corollary from the Monroe Doctrine by noting that the doctrine only applied to situations involving European countries. One main point in the Clark Memorandum was to note that the Monroe Doctrine was based on conflicts of interest only between the United States and European nations, rather than between the U.S. and Latin American nations.
World War II during World War II After
World War II began, a majority of Americans supported defending the entire Western Hemisphere against foreign invasion. A 1940 national survey found that 81% supported defending Canada; 75%
Mexico and Central America; 69%
South America; 66%
West Indies; and 59%
Greenland. The December 1941
conquest of
Saint Pierre and Miquelon by
Free French forces from the control of
Vichy France was seen as a violation of the Monroe Doctrine by Secretary of State
Cordell Hull. During World War II, the US invoked its Monroe Doctrine and
occupied Greenland to prevent use by Germany following the
German occupation of Denmark. The US military remained in Greenland after the war, and by 1948, Denmark abandoned attempts to persuade the US to leave. The following year, both countries became members of the
NATO military alliance. A 1951 treaty gave the US a significant role in Greenland's defense. As of 2025, the US Space Force maintains
Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, and the US military frequently takes part in NATO exercises in Greenlandic waters.
Latin American reinterpretation After 1898, jurists and intellectuals in Argentina,
Brazil,
Chile, and
Uruguay, especially Luis María Drago,
Alejandro Álvarez, and
Baltasar Brum, reinterpreted the Monroe Doctrine. They sought a fresh continental approach to international law in terms of multilateralism and non-intervention. Indeed, an alternative Spanish American origin of the idea was proposed, attributing it to
Manuel Torres. However, U.S. officials were reluctant to renounce unilateral interventionism until the
Good Neighbor policy enunciated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. The era of the Good Neighbor Policy ended with the ramp-up of the
Cold War in 1945, as the United States felt there was a greater need to protect the western hemisphere from Soviet influence. These changes conflicted with the Good Neighbor Policy's fundamental principle of non-intervention and led to a new wave of U.S. involvement in Latin American affairs. Control of the Monroe doctrine thus shifted to the multilateral
Organization of American States (OAS) founded in 1948. When the
Cuban Revolution (1953–1959) established a communist government with ties to the
Soviet Union, it was argued that the Monroe Doctrine should be invoked to prevent the spread of Soviet-backed communism in Latin America. Under this rationale, the U.S. provided intelligence and military aid to Latin and South American governments that claimed or appeared to be threatened by communist subversion (as in the case of
Operation Condor). During the
Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, Kennedy cited the Monroe Doctrine as grounds for the United States' confrontation with the Soviet Union over the installation of Soviet ballistic missiles on Cuban soil. The debate over this new interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine burgeoned in reaction to the
Iran–Contra affair. It was revealed that the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency had been covertly training "
Contra" guerrilla soldiers in
Honduras in an attempt to destabilize and overthrow the
Sandinista revolutionary government of
Nicaragua and its president,
Daniel Ortega.
CIA director Robert Gates vigorously defended the Contra operation in 1984, arguing that eschewing U.S. intervention in Nicaragua would be "totally to abandon the Monroe Doctrine".
21st-century approaches Kerry Doctrine Secretary of State
John Kerry told the Organization of American States in November 2013 that the "era of the Monroe Doctrine is over." Several commentators have noted that Kerry's call for a mutual partnership with other countries in the Americas is more in keeping with the intentions of the policy's namesake than the policies that were enacted after Monroe's death.
America First and Trump Corollary: The "Donroe Doctrine" President
Donald Trump implied potential use of the doctrine in August 2017 when he mentioned the
possibility of military intervention in Venezuela, after CIA director
Mike Pompeo declared that the nation's deterioration was the result of interference from Iranian- and Russian-backed groups. In February 2018, Secretary of State
Rex Tillerson praised the Monroe Doctrine as "clearly… a success", warning of "imperial"
Chinese trade ambitions and touting the United States as the region's preferred trade partner. Pompeo replaced Tillerson as Secretary of State in May 2018. Trump reiterated his commitment to the implementation of the Monroe Doctrine at the 73rd UN General Assembly in 2018.
Russian permanent representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya criticized the U.S. for what Russia perceived as an implementation of the Monroe Doctrine at the 8,452nd emergency meeting of the
UN Security Council on January 26, 2019. Venezuela's representative listed 27 interventions in Latin America that Venezuela considers to be implementations of the Monroe Doctrine and stated that, in the context of the statements, they considered it "a direct military threat to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela". Cuba's representative formulated a similar opinion, "The current Administration of the United States of America has declared the Monroe Doctrine to be in effect..." On March 3, 2019,
National Security Advisor John Bolton invoked the Monroe Doctrine in describing the Trump administration's policy in the Americas, saying "In this administration, we're not afraid to use the word Monroe Doctrine...It's been the objective of US presidents going back to President
Ronald Reagan to have a completely democratic hemisphere." Trump's determination to treat the Western Hemisphere as a U.S. sphere of influence has been characterized as a revival of the Monroe Doctrine. The final draft of the 2025
National Security Strategy called upon the United States to "reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American [i.e., U.S.] pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere." That same document announces the "Trump Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine. Foreign policy experts described the move as a desire to divide the world into "spheres of influence" between the United States, Russia, and China, and American officials later explained the strategy in those terms. Trump's
large-scale naval deployment and
military strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean were described by experts speaking to Reuters and the
BBC as examples of
gunboat diplomacy. The designation of drug cartels as terrorist organizations and Trump's promise of land-based military strikes were described as providing a legal rationale for possible military action and
regime change in Venezuela. In 2025,
The New York Times noted that "top [Donald Trump] administration officials have been explicit that their overarching goal is to assert American dominance over its half of the planet." Following the capture of Venezuelan President
Nicolás Maduro in a
January 2026 raid, Trump claimed that the action was an application of the Monroe Doctrine, stylizing it as the "
Donroe Doctrine" and telling reporters that "American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again". ==Criticism==