Monroe Doctrine Selfie Post

At the Congress of Vienna in 1814, Europe’s major powers joined together to create the Quintuple Alliance. The Quintuple Alliance was conservative, as all the countries in it had monarchies, and it was created to stop revolutions throughout the world and to restore the monarchy to those countries.  The Quintuple Alliance created many issues for the United States. The United States responded to these issues with the Monroe Doctrine which was received in different ways in different parts of the world.

The Monroe Doctrine was the United States response to many issues posed by the Quintuple Alliance. One of those issues was Russia wanting to create a colony on the west coast of North America. The United States did not want Russians in the Western Hemisphere because they could help the alliance take back independent countries in Latin America. Also, the United States had claimed that land. This was resolved by negotiations with Russia. The Monroe Doctrine says, “a full power and instructions have been transmitted to the minister of the United States at St. Petersburg to arrange by amicable negotiation the respective rights and interests of the two nations on the northwest coast of this continent.” Another issue was the possibility of the Quintuple Alliance fighting to win back their former colonies in Latin America. The United States did not want to get involved in a war, but did not want to lose its major trade partners. The solution in the Monroe Doctrine was to say that interfering with the Latin American countries is a direct threat against the United States. It says, “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 d United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.” The other issue was Great Britain wanting to form an alliance with the United States against the Quintuple Alliance attacking Latin America. The Monroe Doctrine declined the alliance, but said the United States are friendly with everyone and set up the United States own foreign policy. It read, “Our policy in regard to Europe, which was adopted at an early stage of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter of the globe, nevertheless remains the same, which is, not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its powers.”

Different groups responded to the Monroe Doctrine in different ways. Russian diplomats, as the image below shows, were annoyed that America thought it had enough international power to negotiate with them. While they did not have any colonies in Latin America, they were part of the Quintuple Alliance and supported the countries that had colonies there. They also were not happy that the United States was threatening their power and was nervous about their potential alliance with Great Britain because it had the strongest navy in the world. United States congressmen were happy about the negation with Russia because they wanted to maintain good relationships with everyone. They also agreed with Monroe’s decision to turn down the alliance with Great Britain and to support the Latin American countries because they were important trade partners. Latin American revolutionaries did not want Russia to become a threat to them so they supported the United States negotiating to keep them away. They found it empowering that the United States turned down the alliance with Great Britain because it shows that a new country can have its own foreign presence. They were also happy that the United States was supporting their independence and willing to defend them. However, they were wary that the United States would try to influence their government.