The Monroe Doctrine Didnt Allow America to Dominate Latin America

If you look at the U.S. now, what do you see? Well, what you do not see is this nation owning much of Latin America. In fact, there are 24 Latin American countries, and the U.S. controls only 1 out of those 24. The Monroe Doctrine did not allow the U.S. to dominate Latin America, if it really did help a lot, we would be in control of many more countries. The Monroe Doctrine was a policy written by the U.S. in 1823, it stated that efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with the states or countries in North or South America would be seen as acts of aggression, requiring U.S. intervention. It also said that the U.S. would not interfere with existing European colonies, nor meddle in the internal concerns of European countries. Now, this stated that the U.S. would not meddle in internal concerns of European nations. So, say Paraguay had a rebellion against France, the Monroe Doctrine would not allow the U.S. to help in anyway. How would that help the U.S. dominate Latin America, if they could not defend a country and possibly control that country? The Monroe Doctrine also stated that the United States would not interfere with existing European nations.

All of the land in Latin America was already conquered by people, and were established countries. This means that if the U.S. followed the guidelines of the Monroe Doctrine, they could not mess with all of those countries. What does that leave the U.S.? There is no more land for them to dominate. Did the U.S. follow this set of instructions when Cuba rebelled against Spain? The answer to that is no, no they did not. So, why would the other European Nations, take the Monroe Doctrine seriously, and follow its guidelines? There is an example of this when British and Venezuela had a border dispute. The Secretary of state sent a note to Britain informing them that their actions were trespassing the Monroe Doctrine. They replied that the Monroe Doctrine did not exist. This was a common thought throughout the European nations. How could the Monroe doctrine help the U.S. dominate Latin America if the other nations did not even recognize its existence? The Monroe Doctrine also made all of the other European nations aware of this budding new nation.

Therefore, the U.S. was now on many countries’ radars, including Latin America. As grateful as those Latin American countries were for the protection by the U.S. they also were not very fond of this new document. Moreover, they felt the need to prove themselves to the world as good enough countries, so they tried specifically to stay away from the U.S. controlling them. The U.S. did get control of some areas of Latin America. However, they did not get that control with the help of the Monroe Doctrine. They got it with military force & determination. The U.S. got control of Guam, the Philippines, and Cuba with their own strength and toughness. Even if the Monroe Doctrine had never been issued, the U.S. still would have needed to use their military and eventually gotten control of those areas. (Even if they did not keep control.) So yes, the U.S. might have had some good domination in Latin America, but was it really due to the Monroe Doctrine?