The Monroe Doctrine and Roosevelt Corollary

The Monroe Doctrine was based on the United States and it is position to Europe and did not concern he United States' position with Latin America. Theodore Roosevelt had to interpret the Monroe Doctrine to say that only the US could collect debts owed by Latin American nations. Also to justify US military intervention there so that the European countries would not take over since they wanted their money.

Roosevelt's reinterpretation was dedicated to order in world affairs. Eventual independence for undeveloped or developing nations once they had conformed to the American model of government and democracy and a world in which international disputes would be settled by arbitration instead of war was the new thing. The Latin American countries were seen as uncivilized regions of the world that needed to be civilized and Roosevelt used this concept to justify U.S. involvement.

Roosevelt justified American's intervention in these matters by stating his corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. He advocated that a powerful chief executive must be willing to use force when necessary while practicing the art of persuasion.

When it came it the conflicts of foreign affairs the Monroe Doctrine clearly stated:

"Not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its powers; to consider the government de facto as the legitimate government for us; to cultivate friendly relations with it,... It is impossible that the allied powers should extend their political system to any portion of either continent without endangering our peace and happiness,...It is still the true policy of the United States to leave the parties to themselves, in hope that other powers will pursue the same course."#

The United States government was supposed to leave other governments alone in hope that they would be able to figure out a solution to their problems without United States intervention.

Roosevelt's corollary stated "All that this country desires is to see the neighboring countries stable, orderly, and prosperous. Any country whose people conduct themselves well can count upon our hearty friendship. If a nation shows that it knows how to act with reasonable efficiency and decency in social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it need fear no interference from the United States."# He claimed that the United States had the right not only to oppose European intervention in the Western Hemisphere but to intervene itself in the domestic affairs of its neighbors if those neighbors proved unable to protect U.S. investments in that region. He announced in his annual address that "in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power."# Tying it in with the Monroe Doctrine helped to win favor when he said that an international police power, or basically just military force, was going to be used.

The U.S. intervened in the dispute between the Dominicans and the Europeans. Roosevelt seized control over Dominican customs