Protection of the Nations of the Western Hemisphere
The United States has a long history of defending the nations of
the Western Hemisphere from European aggreeenth Centuries. Even the Russians begin to expand
their territorial claims down the Pacific Coast of western North America
toward, what is today known as California. European and British interest
in Latin America and portions of North America become so substantial that
American President James Monroe feels compelled to issue the "Monroe
Doctrine," establishing American protection for the nations of the Western
Hemisphere and insisting the Europeans limit their commercial interests,
their conflicts, and their wars to their own continent. The
Monroe Doctrine, included in President James Monroe's annual message to
Congress on December 2, 1823, states, in part:
"...the American continents, by the free and independent condition which
they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered
as subjects for future colonization by any European powers....
In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves
we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy
so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced
that we resent injuries or make preparation for our defense....
We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations
existing between the United States 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 safety.
With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European
power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with
the government who have declared their independence and maintained
it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on
just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition
for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other
manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than
as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United
States.... It is impossible that the allied powers should extend
their political system to any portion of either continent without
endangering our peace and happiness; nor can anyone believe that our southern
brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own accord.
(President James Madison, Annals, Vol. 5, 74-75.)
While President Monroe is credited with the "Monroe Doctrine," Secretary
of State John Quincy Adams, issues a similar statement five months earlier
on July 17, 1823, in a meeting with the Russian Minister to Washington.
Adams encourages Russia to cease her designs on North American territory,
and declares "the American continents are no longer subjects for
any new European colonial establishments." (Adams,
Annals, Vol. 5, 61)
American presidents, politicians and political parties frequently cite
the Monroe Doctrine to support their cause of the moment. For
example, the Democratic Party platform of 1856 evokes the doctrine to support
Central American pro-independence activity.
"The principles involved in the Monroe Doctrine... should be applied
with unending rigidity... The people of the United States cannot
but sympathize with efforts which are being made by the people of
Central America to regenerate that portion of the continent which
covers the passage across the Interoceanic Isthmus."
Resolved... that every proper effort
be made to insure our ascendancy in the Gulf of Mexico, and to maintain
the permanent protection of the great outlets through which are emptied
into its waters the products created by the industry of the people
of our Western valleys and the Union at large." (1856 Democratic
Party Platform)
Later in the Nineteenth Century and early Twentieth Century,
European nations again seek to insert themselves into the Western Hemisphere.
They make loans to various Latin American nations and, when the loans go
unpaid, the Europeans seek to put these debtor nations under direct European
control until the debts are paid. The United States often intervenes
to resolve the debt crisis. The most notable interventions involve
American intervention to defend Haiti. In the Twentieth Century,
the United States opposes efforts by the Soviet Union to establish major
political and military presences in Cuba, Grenada and Nicaragua.
The nations of the Western Hemisphere respond to American support
by offering their own support to the United States in World War I, World
War II and in United Nations-sponsored actions. Generally, the Latin Americans
avoid taking positions on international issues that America finds
offensive. This quid pro quo occasionally breaks down. For example,
the Canadian recognition of Fidel Castro and his revolutionary regime in
Cuba and Canadian trade with Cuba is seen as an insult to the United States
and an exhibition of Canadian arrogance. Latin American nations also
offend the U.S. with their own failures to reject Castro and their willingness
to consider socialist and communist policies within their own nations.
Americans are fully aware of their own immigrant connections with
Europe, Asia and Africa; Americans often forget, however, that most
Latin American nations also have European, Asian and African immigrant
connections. Germans settle in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil;
Dutch and English settle in the northern coast of South America; Italians
settle in Argentina; Japanese settle in Peru and Chile. With these immigrant
connections, it is only natural some Latin American nations have divided
loyalties in World Wars I and Il. Fascist Italy is Argentina's major market
for Argentine beef; Rio de Janeiro is a port of call for German warships;
several South American countries provide sanctuary for Nazi leaders fleeing
defeated Germany and the allied war crimes trials. These European
connections are significant in Latin America’s trading relations and pose
a significant challenge for United States foreign policy in the years to
come.
African emigrants arrive in both North and South America as slaves;
most remain in the Western Hemisphere even after obtaining freedom or after
the abolishment of slavery. In numbers and cultural influence, Africans
have a more substantial presence in many Latin American countries than
in the United States. In coming years, Latin American interest in
renewing cultural and economic ties to Africa is likely to increase, possibly at the
expense of their interest in ties to North America.
The Latin American connections with Europe and Africa may lead to
future alliances and foreign policy positions that make it difficult for
Latin Americans to remain under the "protection" of the United States.
While the U.S. continues to want to "protect," the Latin Americans may
reject that protection.
During most of the Nineteenth Century, the United States shelters the Latin
American nations under the Monroe Doctrine, but has little concern for
the domestic politics of most Latin American nations. There
is even some pessimism concerning the potential of these nations to become
truly liberal or democratic. This pessimism is expressed by
Secretary of State John Quincy Adams in a discussion with Henry Clay
on March 9, 1821, just a few years after the U.S. grants diplomatic
recognition to the new Latin American republics. According to his
Memoirs, Adams is pessimistic about their future and encourages America
to maintain its political distance from our Latin neighbors.
"So far as they are contending for independence, I wished well to their
cause; but I had seen and yet see, no prospect that they would establish
free or liberal institutions of government. They are
not likely to promote the spirit either of freedom or order by their
example. They have not the first elements of good or free government.
Arbitrary power, military and ecclesiastical, was stamped upon their
education, upon their habits, and upon all their institutions, Civil
dissension was infused into all their seminal principles. War
and mutual destruction was in every member of their organization,
moral, political, and physical. I had little expectation of
any beneficial result to this county from any future connection with them,
political or commercial. We should derive no improvement to
our own institutions by any communion with theirs, Nor was
there any appearance of a disposition in them to take any political
lesson from us." (Adams, Annals, Vol. 5, 26-27)
When America makes the transition from a natural resource and agrarian
power to an industrial power in the post-Civil War era, and especially
during the "Golden Age" of industrial growth in the 1890s, America begins
to see Latin America as both a resource base and a potential market.
With growing commercial activity, America begins to consider the
potential of Central America as a transportation route, both a land and
canal route, between the East and West. The American government,
spurred by industrial and commercial interests, takes an active interest
in the domestic politics of many Latin American nations, intervening with
spies and military invasions in Columbia, Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico and
other nations, often claiming that vital U.S. national security and national
autonomy interests are at stake. In recent years, U.S. intervention
in South and Central American domestic politics often includes the claim
the U.S. is promoting democracy and other western values, as well as promoting
U.S. national interests.
