American Foreign Policy in the 1820s: The Monroe Doctrine

The emergence of a new American foreign policy began with the end of the War of 1812. The more substantial problems with the British were solved in the Treaty of Ghent in 1815, leaving only border disputes in the north and west for the next couple of decades. America’s concerns with the southern border of the new nation were solved by the 1812 acquisition of Florida with the Spanish and with the acquisition and exploration of the Louisiana Territory beginning of 1804. But the most important development in foreign policy during the 1820s was the Monroe Doctrine, a new approach toward other colonies and nations in the Western Hemisphere.

The Spanish and Portugese colonies in Central and South America began to agitate and gain independence in the 19th century, against the desires of Western European nations to continue spreading mercantilism throughout the undeveloped world. Great Britain, thwarted by its former American colonies and searching for a new presence in the Americas, was disappointed by the efforts of Latin Americans at gaining independence. The British had been successful at promoting mercantilism on a large scale in the Americas and felt that they could potentially do the same in South America given the right political situation. However, the British decided that they did not want any multilateral coalitions to gain control of the Americas and if they could not have a colony in North or South America, no one else should. Following the re-election of James Monroe in 1820, the British approached the Americans with a proposal. They wanted to come to a joint proclamation on the status of colonial powers in Latin America, principally that neither of the two states would encroach upon Latin American independence and that other states would sign on later.

Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, a gifted diplomat and veteran of international politics, was leery of joining with the British so soon after war with Great Britain. Adams instead wanted to draft an American declaration against involvement with Latin America. Though it is referred to as the Monroe Doctrine, Adams was the architect of the message. Essentially, the American stance was that the American continents were closed off to any new European involvement, the New World was closed to any military intervention from the Old World and vice versa. The reason why such a declaration was successful was that the Americans now had a battle tested, organized military and the political will to take European nations to task. While this doctrine was a way of keeping Americans out of further conflicts within the hemisphere, it did not preclude government involvement with independence movements elsewhere. Monroe and Adams were sensitive to the attempts by Greek fighters for independence from the Ottoman Empire and charity societies worked to aid the Greeks in their revolution.