Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
It's early morning in Washington, D.C. Inside the White House, the executive offices already hum with activity as senior advisors debate how to respond to reports trickling in from abroad. Military and civilian staffers pore over maps and charts of the country at the center of a burgeoning crisis. Venezuela. From the cabinet room comes talk of invoking an idea born in another era.
A principle, once a polite admonition to the monarchies of the old world, but which now carries the weight of hemispheric authority. Implications are real. Looming diplomatic rupture, suspicion of Washington's true motives. This move could plunge the U.S. deep into a Latin American conflict it doesn't want.
And for those clustered around the president's desk, every decision carries the weight of history itself. If you thought this scene unfolded in recent weeks, think again. This is the Venezuelan Crisis of 1895, a pivotal moment in the long, long history of the Monroe Doctrine. Good day, American History Hit listeners. Glad to be with you. I'm Don Wildman.
For more than 200 years, 203 as I speak, one speech made by a U.S. president has done more to shape our place and identity in the world than any other.
From diplomatic standoffs and territorial disputes to military interventions and regime change, the Monroe Doctrine has been the United States of America's stubborn claim to hemispheric authority, invoked as a shield, enforced as a rule, and debated for two centuries as the line between protection and power.
Today, we explore the whole story of the Monroe Doctrine, how it came to pass, and then evolve into what is still such a fundamental plank in our foreign policy platform, still shaping the world right to the present day. And we'll do this with Christopher Nichols of The Ohio State University. Professor of history, he holds the Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies.
His work includes Rethinking American Grand Strategy, and Promise and Peril, America at the Dawn of the Golden Age, previously heard on our episode 261, President Eisenhower, War on the Soviets, and Segregation. Chris, thanks for coming back around. Really appreciate it. Nice to see you. Great to be back on with you, Don. Thanks for having me.
The origin, expansion, and modern legacy of the modern doctrine. A lot to cover here. Let's start with a speech... I've mentioned here, when James Monroe gives that speech that introduces this policy, it is 1823. What was happening in the world at that time that alarmed him and his people? What was the problem he was trying to solve? This is the perfect question to start with.
So it's the historical context of the Monroe Doctrine is essential to understand why it happened in 1823, what it meant in its moment, and then gives us some grounding for where it went afterwards and the sort of winding path that it took. So
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Chapter 2: What is the historical context of the Monroe Doctrine?
We're not going to meddle in Europe. And there's a real old world, new world divide. And then, you know, they go they goes on to say, we owe it, therefore, to candor and the amicable relations existing between the US and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and comfort.
Though that sounds rather anodyne and moderate, that's basically saying we'll declare war on you if you try to colonize the hemisphere. And really, that's also about extending monarchy. So back to your point about a sort of Republican government versus monarchical systems or tyranny, as they would have referred to it. And then there's a bunch else.
But the key other element is that with the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power, we have not interfered and shall not interfere. And that also suggests the U.S. won't come in and directly support the revolutionaries against Spain.
But they are saying, hey, if Russia wants in or France is attempting to come in, which is a piece of this holy alliance puzzle that's happening, the U.S. will object to that. So the U.S. won't interfere if it's what's happening now, but will object to any further escalation, essentially. Yeah. It's a hard document to parse.
And I think that's, as you say, very carefully written about maintaining neutrality. And it's an extension of those early formative principles for U.S. foreign policy, which is what I've written a lot about. So it goes from Washington in 1796 to Jefferson in 1801. There's a continuity through different parties, saying no entanglement, neutrality, right?
Just keep this fledgling, weak nation growing without getting too involved. And then this 1823 Monroe Doctrine move, is the first assertion beyond that, right? And it suggests the U.S. is going to take a more proactive role in the hemisphere, but it's still cautious. It's still, you know, carefully worded.
And it's a nation that recognizes, you know, that its weakness rather than its strength, which it's hard for us to read back into the past and recognize just how tenuous this project was. But in the 1820s, it's, you know, as you just said, the war with the British is in recent memory. The Capitol was burned. I mean, this is not a strong state.
At this moment, it's one way to look at a pivotal moment in our history when the early republic years are transitioning. You know, you still have the last kind of, you know, founding father, President James Monroe in power. And at this moment, he's consulting these famous personalities, as you've suggested, Jefferson, Adams.
Then John, you know, John Adams' son, John Quincy Adams, who he leans on heavily, who is his secretary of state. It's a really interesting pivot that that history is having is making right now. Totally. And I'll just add one addendum. So, yeah, he consults John Adams and John Quincy Adams is the secretary of state.
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Chapter 3: How did the Monroe Doctrine evolve in the 19th century?
And I pulled for our conversation, actually, how he described this two years after the Venezuela crisis in Congress. Roosevelt said in asserting the Monroe Doctrine and taking such steps as we have taken in regard to Cuba, Venezuela and Panama. We have acted in our own interest as well as in the interest of humanity at large. In the Western Hemisphere, the adherence of the U.S.
to the Monroe Doctrine may force the U.S., however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of wrongdoing or impotence to the exercise of an international police power. That's 1904. Further American involvement comes along pretty soon afterwards. Haiti, as you mentioned, 1915 to 1934, we occupy there. Nicaragua, 1912 to 1933. Dominican Republic, 1916 to 24.
We had wanted to annex that for a while there way back when. That's just a few of these Caribbean Latin American places that America becomes very close to becoming this major global power way beyond, you know, our original idea of ourselves. That comes to flower, of course, after World War I, and we've really done that.
But all of this is basically the vacuum that's been created by these monarchies not being able to keep up with their own colonies, right? Yes, the monarchies. And it's also the fits and starts of these new republics. You know, they're trying to build government, trying to, you know, taking out debt, expanding, industrializing all of those things.
And, you know, and they take different trajectories. And so working through that, the U.S. winds up taking a taking on a bigger role that it didn't necessarily have to do. So one, these are all conflicts of choice or interventions of choice.
I think the thing I would add to what you just said, too, and I was just at a conference talking to some folks doing public history, thinking about what is an empire. You know, if you look at this sort of circa 1898 to 1914 period to the beginning of the Great War, the U.S. is intervening and has troops all over the place, as you were noting, and even into the 1930s.
I mean, if you've got Marines and customs houses all throughout the Caribbean and have a significant military naval presence, you know, all along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, having just acquired colonies and territories as far ranging as the Philippines and Puerto Rico, you know, so really spreading across both major oceans. Whatever you think of it, the U.S. actually is that world power.
You know, you said almost or it's getting there, but actually in this period, it really is. And then I think the next critical question is for policymakers and in terms of applying the Monroe Doctrine is, you know, are there broader principles to guide this than intervention or police power?
And so you get in the 30s, I don't want to fast forward the story too much, but you get a good neighbor policy under FDR. You get ideas about Pan-Americanism come back. These have been there in the 19th century. And you get real pushback from Latin American countries, lawyers and sort of legal thinkers throughout Latin America.
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