The Monroe Doctrine

                The United States did not approve of the dominant conservative ideology of the Quintuple Alliance, but tried to stay neutral in all situations.  Russia wanted to start establishing colonies in Oregon because they felt the territory belonged to them and not the United States, even though the United States unofficially claimed the area.  In order to not upset Russia, but to make it clear the United States was a strong country, the United States decided, “to arrange by amicable negotiation the respective rights and interests of the two nations on the northwest coast of this continent”¹.  The United States also tried to maintain positive relationships with the European countries, but be firm about issues the Quintuple Alliance was dealing with.  The Quintuple Alliance was deciding whether or not to help Spain recover the colonies it lost to independence in Latin America.  The United States did not side with the Quintuple Alliance and “we [the United States] should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety”¹.  By taking this position, the United States did not side with all the Latin American countries.  They just said they would defend the already independent countries and consider any threat to them a threat to the United States.  The United States took this stance because trading with the independent Latin American countries was economically beneficial to the United States.  To continue preserving friendly relationships with the Quintuple Alliance, the United States did not accept an alliance with Britain and stated they would not “interfere in the internal concerns of any of its powers” and would “cultivate friendly relations with it, and to preserve those relations by a frank, firm, and manly policy, meeting in all instances the just claims of every power, submitting to injuries from none” meaning they would never choose a side in European conflicts¹.  They would remain friendly, neutral and would try not to get involved.  To remain friendly and neutral with the Quintuple Alliance the United States did not react too severely to any of the dominant conservative ideology and tried to maintain a neutral stance when possible.

                My “Me Thinks” is very annoyed, yet confident, like a Russian diplomat would have been when the United States proposed a meeting to negotiate the territory claims on the northwestern coast of the North American continent. 

The Russian diplomat would have felt that the United States did not even have a chance of keeping the land, if Russia wanted to claim it.  The diplomat would have felt that the United States was wasting his time and was just like a child needing to be disciplined.  He would have been very confident in Russia’s ability to gain the territory no matter what the United States did as long as Britain’s army did not support the United States since Britain had one of the best army’s in the world at the time, while the United States army was very weak.  Since the Monroe Doctrine turned down an alliance with Britain, that would have surprised the Russians but made them even more confident in being able to defeat the United States if necessary.  When the United States decided to back up the independent Latin American colonies, the diplomat would have once again been annoyed because he would have believed the United States had no power to back up the Latin American colonies and again was just misbehaving like a child.  The Russian diplomat would have felt annoyed at most of the decisions in the Monroe Doctrine but also confident in Russia’s ability to defeat the United States whenever necessary. 

¹  President Monroe James, The Monroe Doctrine,  http://www.ushistory.org/documents/monroe.htm.