The Monroe Doctrine Was Never Meant to Be This

The corruption of a once-anti-colonial doctrine

The Otter examines how a doctrine born in anti-colonial idealism hardened into a creed of dominance.

On December 2, 1823, President James Monroe delivered his seventh annual message to Congress. Amid a lengthy address covering domestic achievements and foreign affairs, he embedded a bold assertion: that the American continents, “by the free and independe…