Donald Trump has likened his recent actions in Venezuela to the Monroe Doctrine in terms of exerting American influence in the Western Hemisphere. While the Monroe Doctrine and the self-proclaimed “Don-Roe Doctrine” cover the same geographic area, the historically uninformed Trump likely has no understanding of what the Monroe Doctrine was or did; he likely thought it impressive that people thought he was smart enough to have a doctrine at all.
In the two decades before James Monroe gave a 1823 message to Congress, which was later labeled the Monroe Doctrine, over a dozen South American, Caribbean, and Central American nations had declared their independence from Spain and Portugal, to a lesser degree. These included: Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Brazil. Every one of those nations still had slavery, except Haiti, which eliminated slavery when it gained independence from France in 1804.
Monroe’s 1823 address articulated four primary principles, all intended to define the Western Hemisphere as a U.S. sphere of influence.
1. The Western Hemisphere is closed to new European colonization
Monroe declared that the Americas were “no longer open to further colonization.”
This was the core of the doctrine: Europe must not expand its empires into the New World.
2. Any European attempt to control nations in the Americas is a threat to U.S. security
Monroe warned that any attempt by European powers “to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere” would be considered dangerous to our peace and safety.
Monroe had Spain, France, and Russia in mind as nations that might seek to reassert their presence in Spain’s case and assert themselves in the others.
3. The U.S. will not interfere in European internal affairs or existing colonies
Monroe balanced his warning by promising the U.S. would not meddle in European wars and would not disturb existing European colonies in the Americas. This was meant to avoid provoking conflict.
4. The New World and Old World are separate spheres of influence
Monroe asserted that the political systems of Europe and the Americas were fundamentally different and should remain separate. Europe is a monarchy, whereas the Americas have republican governments. Monroe insisted that European powers must not impose their system on the Western Hemisphere. While Monroe didn’t expand U.S. territory himself, the doctrine became the ideological basis for:
- Manifest Destiny
- The Mexican-American War
- The annexation of Texas
- The Acquisition of California and the Southwest
Donald Trump, through others in his administration more literate than himself, explained what the Don-Roe Doctrine is:
- A “reset” of U.S. foreign policy
- A return to strong and decisive action
- A rejection of “forgotten” or “ignored” American principles
- A signal that America will act unilaterally in the hemisphere when necessary
Trump himself has said it’s about the oil, and what makes this incursion different from when George W. Bush invaded Iraq is that this time, “we’ll keep the oil.” Stephen Miller said in the real world, strength, force, and power dictate governance. Miller was addressing the rationale for taking over Greenland at the time.
“We live in a world… that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power," Miller said. "These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of the world.”
While promoting his policy as protecting the interests of the Western Hemisphere, Monroe actually safeguarded the interests of slave holding nations and expanding enslavement in America. Monroe personally owned slaves since he inherited 20–30 slaves at age 16. Monroe never owned the estimated 600 enslaved people Thomas Jefferson did during his lifetime, but did have 50–60 slaves at his Highland plantation. He was against abolition, and as Governor of Virginia, he protected the slave system.
As president, Monroe backed the admission of slave states and refused to recognize Haiti, because it threatened the order of things. He also believed the only way America could ever end slavery was to deport Black people to Africa or the Caribbean. Monroe didn’t think Black and white people could live together as equals.
There are those pushing a narrative that Monroe was personally against slavery, though all of his actions belied that possibility. Monroe freed one man during his lifetime. Peter Marks had been accused of stealing a horse with extremely weak evidence against him. Virginia law called for execution if found guilty. Monroe pardoned Marks and freed him as part of the pardon. Had Marks remained enslaved, he could still have been punished under slave laws. Monroe didn’t free Marks’s wife and children, enacting a family separation policy long before Trump ever did. To be fair to Monroe, family separation of slaves was widespread, and he was nowhere near the exception.
The Monroe Doctrine protected slavery in all the nations that gained their freedom, yet depended on slavery as the engine for their economy. Monroe isolated Haiti, like Jefferson and Madison before him, punishing Haiti for having dared gain its freedom in a revolution against the French. Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe were neighbors in Virginia whose plantations depended on slavery. The trio laid the foundation for making domestic breeding (including forced breeding and rape) the mechanism for replacing imported slaves after Jefferson ended the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Monroe ensured America’s trade partners in the South kept their economies afloat by protecting them from European colonizers and supporting the institution of slavery, which was critical to their economies.
If Donald Trump knew that the Monroe Doctrine supported slavery, that probably wouldn’t have dissuaded him from making comparisons. What he’s done is to make the case that Russia should take Ukraine and that China should take Taiwan because they are neighbors in the same hemisphere. What’s good for the goose. Maybe I should see it as a plus that Trump is referencing history at all, given his efforts to destroy it. Baby steps.