Monroe Doctrine Dbq Essay

Southern territorial tensions linked to slavery in the mid 1800's. (Doc D) Opposition to annexation of Texas occurred because of avoidance to the problem of Texas being a free or slave state. The Wilmot Proviso provoked huge controversy about the status of the land gained after the Mexican War, the bill would be called upon and debated on furiously for decades to come. Popular sovereignty began to appear in some alternate plans for deciding slavery in the Louisiana Territory. Polk's plan, which proposed to extend the slavery line in the Missouri Compromise to the pacific, aroused further debates for the North and the South. California and New Mexico raised even more questions about the implementation of

The Mexican-American War was driven by the idea of "Manifest Destiny" (Which is the belief that America had a God-given right to expand the country's borders from sea to sea) This belief would eventually cause a great deal of suffering for many Mexicans, Native Americans and United States citizens. Following the earlier Texas War of Independence from Mexico, tensions between the two largest independent nations on the North American continent grew as Texas eventually became a U.S. state. Disputes over the border lines sparked military confrontation, helped by the fact that President Polk eagerly sought a war in order to seize large tracts of land from Mexico.

The election of 1844 pitted James Polk, a Democrat expansionist, against Whig leader Henry Clay. One of Polk’s slogan was called, 54°40 or Flight, which supported pushing foreign troops past that latitude and out of the Oregon Territory. Fundamentally, that was jointly administered by the United States and British in Canada. Polk’s supporters also wanted the immediate annexation of Texas as well as expansion into the Mexican-claimed territories of New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Clay, too, favored expansion, but at a slower rate. He also hoped to avoid war by negotiating with Mexico and Britain for the land America wanted. The election was close, but in the end Polk won. In the last days of his administration, President Tyler proposed the annexation of Texas, arguing that Polk’s victory amounted to a mandate for annexation. The annexation vote was passed, the United States annexed Texas, and Mexico broke off diplomatic relations. Under these circumstances, war with Mexico seemed likely.

In 1846, president Polk declared war on Mexico after many border disputes and 12 American deaths caused by the Mexican army. At the time, there was no set border between southern America and the northernmost area of Mexico. This caused each country’s army to protect their supposed border leading to American deaths in the disputed area. Just one year earlier, Texas was annexed which led to the addition of the new state to America. Although some people may argue that the war was for selfish American motives, the Mexican American war was justified because of the government’s obligation to improve the lives of American citizens and failure on Mexico’s side to negotiate.

Following the ratification of the treaty, some politicians felt the manifest destiny of the United States was to annex all of Mexico. The territory gains between 1845 and 1848 were enough to satisfy all but the most zealous advocates of manifest destiny. John O'Sullivan criticized the opponents of Texas annexation. He went beyond the immediate issue of Texas to argue that it is the fate of America to grow to encompass much, if not all of the North American continent. O'Sullivan is credited with inventing the term "manifest destiny" to describe his expansionist views for America. This phrase was coined in a New York Morning News editorial. (Wexler,153).

In 1823, the Monroe Doctrine, by 5th President James Monroe, stated that the US would not interfere with European nations. Later on, in 1946-1948 the Mexican War was fought between Mexico and the United States. One of the main causes of the war was the annexation of Texas. As a result of manifest destiny and America’s desire to expand westward a conflict with Indian tribes arose. President Jackson’s Indian Removal Act fabricated a dispute between a portion of the Americans and the Indians. Some tribes did not agree to move from their territories and as a result, wars broke out between them and the US Government. Consequently, westward expansion caused many disputes between foreign countries and Indian

The invasion of Texas was to arouse Northern part of the country and was against slavery. In 1844 President John Tyler, who was reinforcing the South, tried to extend Texas, because he was crushed by congressional Northerners and by some Southern members of the anti-Jacksonian Whig Party. The second reason

When the Monroe Doctrine was created in 1823 by Monroe and his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, and expressed to the world in the former’s annual message to Congress, neither could have foreseen the way its message and its intentions would later be warped beyond recognition.

“Following bloody encounters at places like the Alamo, the Texans finally won their independence from Mexico in 1836.” (Roden 317). Texas did the thing they wanted most, become part of the U.S. “Two times over the next nine years, Texas applied to the United States Congress for annexation.” (Roden 317). Congress said no both times because they didn’t want to anger Mexican officials. Since President Polk believed in Manifest Destiny, a belief that it is God’s plan that America’s territory should stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He would take present day California, Arizona, and the Oregon Territory. When the Texas was officially part of the U.S., the border became the Rio Grande. Mexico was furious and tried to make it seem that they had never given Texas their independence. Mexico gave Texas their independence, now they say they

“Buried in a routine annual message delivered to Congress by President James Monroe in December 1823, the doctrine warns European nations that the United States would not tolerate further colonization or puppet monarchs.” (Message of President James Monroe at the commencement of the first session of the 18th Congress) The Monroe Doctrine annual message was considered to meet the most significant concerns of the time.

Intended as an annual message to Congress in 1823, President James Monroe’s speech, The Monroe Doctrine, evolved into the modern framework for American domestic affairs. Monroe’s proposed domestic policy was the President’s way of attempting to secure The United States’ newly acquired land. Not even a decade after the War of 1812 was resolved, many Americans were concerned when it came to United States’ involvement in foreign wars. This unsettlement in America was largely due to a controlling and tyrannical British rule that continuously restricted the United States until the treaty of Ghent was signed in 1814. Despite this uneasiness within the young nation, the basic ideas that Monroe addressed to Congress in 1823 were not given much significance. However, many contemporary historians would consider The Monroe Doctrine to be one of the most “cherished principles” of American foreign policy (Tindall and Shi 320). These historians would likely argue to say that Monroe’s ideas to keep European forces out of the United States, to refrain from getting the American army involved in foreign wars, and to restrict the United States from imperializing with existing European colonies created an enduring policy for the future of America.

After Monroe’s proclamation (in the following decades), American lawmakers did not resort to the doctrine critical of the Great Powers of Europe in spite of their sporadic military ‘involvements’ in Latin America. The primary concern for Monroe had been making certain that European commercialism would not be re-enforced on a territory of growing economic and ideological significance to the US. However, when President Tyler made use of the doctrine in justifying the annexation of Texas in 1842, a newspaper in Venezuela criticized the move; the newspaper cautioned other republics in Latin America against the US, by stating: “Beware, brother, the wolf approaches the lambs” . During Tyler’s presidency, the US for the foremost time tried to really employ the Monroe Doctrine, when the British and the French had intervened in Texas after it had triumphed in 1836 in gaining independence from Mexico in the wake of an insurgence of US colonists there. Britain and France were involved in a power game in the territory, trying to counteract its occupation by the US. President Tyler thus resorted to reiterating the tenets of the Doctrine and admonishing the European powers to disengage themselves from matters concerning the Western Hemisphere. Tyler asserted (during his 1842 address) that, “Carefully abstaining from all interference in questions exclusively referring themselves to the

In the future, the Monroe Doctrine was used on various occasions. Most commonly quoted by United States of America presidents and during wars, the Monroe Doctrine introduced solid American ideas and ideals into on document. President James K Polk quoted the Monroe Doctrine often between 1845 and 1848 in an attempt to discourage Spain and Britain from establishing forts and trading posts in Oregon, California, and on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. Later, in 1865, the United States troops stationed along the Rio Grande helped encourage France to withdraw from Mexico. Then, in 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt decided to add a segment, known as the Roosevelt Corollary, stated that any wrongdoing to a Latin American state would allow the United States of America to interfere with its internal affairs. In response to rising concerns about European

Let us now view some important world affairs chronologically where the United States tried to implement her long tenet Monroe Doctrine.

Polk wanted some of the Mexican territory that prevented him from completing his goal of manifest destiny. “Polk sent John Slidell, a Spanish speaking ambassador, to offer Mexico $25 Million for Texas, California, and New Mexico.” Polk didn’t want to start a war with Mexico and offered a large sum of money to buy the land. Instead of listening, they refused all offers of peaceful trade, which left us with no way to obtain the land. After this Polk sent troops into Texas to protect the Americans living there he gave them strict orders to follow. His orders included, “Abstain from all aggressive acts toward Mexican citizens.” The troops followed these orders and not a single American soldier fired a shot at the Mexican troops that were at the border. Instead the Mexicans fired upon the United States soldiers, which was the official start of the war with Mexico. If Mexico had taken no action against the United States and tried to negotiate, then the war wouldn’t have