Roosevelt Corollary

Informal addendum to the Monroe Doctrine articulated by President Theodore Roosevelt stipulating American involvement in Latin America.

In a 1904 address to Congress, President Theodore Roosevelt asserted the right of the United States to exercise international police power and intervene in [Page 635]Latin America if European debt collectors interfered in the Western Hemisphere. This declaration by the president became known as the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine because of its implicit warning to Europeans to stay out of Latin America.

Written in 1823, the Monroe Doctrine was a response to increasing European involvement in the affairs of Latin American countries. It cautioned Europeans from any ambitions to colonize Western-Hemisphere territories because this would represent “an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.”

The Roosevelt Corollary is notable because it reasserts the Monroe Doctrine. However, it provides justification for U.S. intervention in the western hemisphere. It also rationalizes a U.S. international police role to stabilize Western-Hemisphere countries when deemed necessary.

The Roosevelt Corollary emerged in a climate of increasing European involvement in debt collection in the Western Hemisphere, primarily in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Both Haiti and the Dominican Republic amassed substantial foreign debt in the late 19th century. The dictator of the Dominican Republic, Ulises Heureaux, in an attempt to prevent his country from falling into bankruptcy, entered into corrupt and complex refinancing schemes with European nations, skimming millions of dollars for himself. Under Heureaux's regime, the Dominican Republic found itself bearing the burden of the crippling debt owed to French and English creditors. Following his assassination in 1896, the Dominican Republic was too weak financially to repay these creditors, and in response, the French and English governments positioned warships in the Caribbean.

These French and English warships signified a European presence that threatened to displace the significant economic and political interests of the United States in the region. Thus, Roosevelt reacted by creating the corollary to the Monroe Doctrine to make clear the U.S. position on European interference.

Similarly, using the justification for intervention outlined in the Roosevelt Corollary, the United States encouraged the Dominican government to seek U.S. assistance for the collection of duties and debt repayment. As a result, the United States assumed responsibility for customs collection in the Dominican Republic. Despite suspicions that Roosevelt and the United States had territorial ambitions in the Western Hemisphere, the president maintained that his sole motive was the recovery of the Dominican economy.

However, scholars have debated whether President Roosevelt's intentions were purely benevolent. In fact, subsequent to the debt crisis in the Dominican Republic, the United States intervened about a dozen times with military force in Latin America. Roosevelt himself avowed that his aim of reasserting the Monroe Doctrine was not for the purpose of U.S. territorial expansion into the region as many critics suggested, but rather an acceptance of responsibility to the United States' neighbors to the south.

However, Theodore Roosevelt's presidency suggests a highly assertive approach to Latin America and the Caribbean. While limiting European interests in the region, Roosevelt worked aggressively to promote U.S. interests in Latin America, including his ambitious project for the Panama Canal. Working to link the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, Roosevelt supported Panama's separation from Colombia to facilitate the construction of the canal.

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