What is the Monroe Doctrine that Trump has now revived?

BarcelonaIn future history books, Donald Trump's name will appear alongside those of other presidents who shaped U.S. policy toward the Americas. This list begins 200 years ago with the birth of the famous Monroe Doctrine..

Interestingly, this famous doctrine The phrase being cited these days in the wake of events in Venezuela originally had a rather different meaning. "The Monroe Doctrine, introduced in 1823, represents a paradoxical reality, since it was initially formulated to prevent European colonization in America and evolved into a justification for US dominance," argues historian Daniel Immerwahr, author of the book How to hide an empire (Captain Swing), On American imperialism.

What is the Monroe Doctrine?

James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States (1817-1825), ushered in what became known as the "Age of Good Feelings," although he didn't address issues like slavery extensively. He was a president who championed a young nation eager to expand. In fact, it was during his presidency that the United States purchased the state of Florida from Spain.

It was in this context that he promoted his famous doctrine. On December 2, 1823, during his seventh annual State of the Union address to Congress, he urged Europeans to stay away from the American continent. "America for the Americans," he declared, proposing a kind of pact: if Europeans did nothing in the Americas, they would also ignore events in the rest of the world. It was an anti-imperialist speech in which the United States offered to defend the young independent states of the Americas.

European imperialism was then spreading unchecked throughout the world. But in the Americas, the opposite was happening: the United States had freed itself from British rule, and Spain had lost almost all its possessions, giving rise to young states. Thus, the Monroe Doctrine defended the right of these new American countries to have their own governments. "Any action with the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other way their destiny, will be regarded as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States," Monroe would say.

Simón Bolívar, the father of independence for much of Latin America, even celebrated this doctrine, stating in 1824: "The United States and England protect us." England? Yes, England. The United States did not then have the naval capacity to protect Latin America. The doctrine was a powerful statement, but they could not implement it without the support of the British, who pledged their assistance in exchange for securing control of the seas and trade in the Americas. They controlled transportation and provided loans to the young American states, ignoring the Monroe Doctrine when necessary, just as they would later do during their occupation of Spanish possessions like Jamaica. The United States was not yet powerful enough to defend itself. It was a young, liberal state, opposed to the old empires. But destined to change.

The temptation to have an empire

The United States was growing older. They expanded their frontier westward. The nation became increasingly wealthy and powerful. President James K. Polk (1845-1849) was the first to reinterpret the Monroe Doctrine, understanding that they could intervene in neighboring states if necessary to defend their agenda. They did so when Mexico rejected the annexation of Texas, and a war began in which the Mexicans lost a large portion of their territory that is now part of the United States. Polk purchased Oregon from the British and made an offer to buy Cuba from the Spanish, leading targeted interventions in what is now the Dominican Republic and Panama. The American Civil War halted American expansionism, but it returned with Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881), who asserted that Central America and the Caribbean were a region under the United States' exclusive influence and intervened in several states.

The Age of the Club

"Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you'll go far," said President Theodore Roosevelt in 1901. It was Roosevelt who gave new meaning to the old Monroe Doctrine, transforming it into the ideological foundation for giving the United States its own empire. With Roosevelt, the era of [the American Empire] began. big stick ideologyThe era of the big stick, to intervene time and again throughout the continent.

The United States would win the famous war against Spain in 1898, gaining control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Shortly after, in 1904, Roosevelt publicly declared the right of the United States to intervene in Latin American countries to protect its interests. It was his famous "corollary," where he declared: "All this country desires is to see its neighboring countries stable, orderly, and prosperous. Any country whose people behave well can count on our sincere friendship. If a nation shows that it knows how to act with efficiency and decency, it has its reasonable issues in social and political matters; interference from the United States. Chronic misconduct, or impotence which causes a general loosening of the bonds of civilized society, may, in America, as elsewhere, finally require the intervention of some civilized nation and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine, impotence, in the exercise of an international police power."

If the Monroe Doctrine spoke of defending the independence of the American states, with Roosevelt it became possible to intervene, as they would do in 1904 in the Dominican Republic, where they sent soldiers to ensure that American companies would collect on their debts.

"America," a state and a continent.

The United States, obsessed with continued growth, would come to have "a hidden empire," as Immerwahr argues. It didn't officially annex territories, but it controlled and intervened in them. And clear evidence of this imperial mentality would be its use of the word America"During the 19th century, the state had been called USA, The Union either The Republic For short. The term was not used. AmericaBut in the decade after 1898 we already find the expression Great America "in the title of seven published books," Immerwahr explains. In all presidential speeches up to 1898, "only 11 unequivocal references appear in the country as United States of America"However, after 1898, things changed rapidly. Theodore Roosevelt, the first president to assume the presidency after the war against Spain, used the word America"In its first annual message and then frequently thereafter. In the years after 1898, it was obvious that the United States was an empire," Immerwahr concludes. Entering the 20th century, the United States began to call itself America. Like the entire continent.

The Cold War

After World War II and with the onset of the Cold War, the Americas became another stage in the struggle between Washington and Moscow, with key events such as the Cuban Revolution, a major blow to Washington due to the Castro regime's victory. The United States government sought to keep communist ideas as far away as possible and implemented plans such as the infamous Operation Condor, a campaign of political repression that involved training Latin American military personnel, conducting intelligence operations, and orchestrating coups like the one in Chile, as well as assassinating communist sympathizers. President Ronald Reagan was particularly aggressive, with numerous interventions across the continent.

"The Monroe Doctrine is very important, but we've long since outgrown it, seriously. Now they call it the Donroe Document. American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned," Trump said recently, making a semantic play on his name. Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth used social media to circulate an image that was a parody of old newspaper cartoons about the Monroe Doctrine, depicting Trump with a baseball bat protecting the continent. "This is our hemisphere," he added, defying the State Department. Heir to a long tradition, Trump wants to maintain control of a continent he wants to dominate from Greenland to Patagonia. The biggest backyard on the planet.