1. What did the issuing of the Monroe Doctrine express from an American perspective post War of 1812?
The War of 1812 occurred because the US felt as though it was being pushed around by Great Britain, and still being treated like a colony. The British freely regulated American trade and impressed sailors on their ships, with basically no repercussions. By issuing this doctrine, James Monroe sent a message to all European nations that this would not happen again. America was a strong, independent nation who didn't need no mother country to control them. The Monroe Doctrine made it clear that further colonizing the Americas, or interfering with the United States, or the other independent countries situated in the Americas would prompt US intervention, and would carry serious repercussions.
2. What was Secretary of State Adams' hope when he wrote the Monroe Doctrine?
John Quincy Adams hoped that this document would make the position of the United States on the matter of European interference and colonization of lands claimed by the US and its neighboring countries clear. He also wished that they would take this message, and the United States themselves, seriously, trusting that intervention was a serious enough consequence, and that the powerful European nations could not put aside their differences to invade the Americas regardless of the involvement of the US. It worked, and as such is often regarded as an effective form of diplomacy.
3. What is the key phrase in the entire document that you need to remember as the cornerstone of American Foreign Policy?
"But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintain 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."
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