The Monroe Doctrine

Sexton (American history, Oxford Univ.; Debtor Diplomacy: Finance and American Foreign Relations in the Civil War Era: 1837–1873) reminds readers of the Monroe Doctrine's influence on 19th-century America's ambitions. What originated as a message to Congress by President Monroe in 1823 became a living doctrine open to a wide variety of subsequent uses, from President Polk's seeking to annex California in 1847 to America's entrance into the Spanish-American War and the building of the Panama Canal. Sexton, most interestingly, goes beyond the typical examples of the Monroe Doctrine in action to show how it has been used to support a variety of aims and philosophies, from the territorial to the imperialist to the noninterventionist, right up to the start of the 20th century. Although the doctrine may have originally dictated supposed American preeminence in Latin America, it came to mean a lot more.