"America for Americans" is the essence of the Monroe Doctrine, which is almost as old as the United States of America (US). It warned the British and other European colonial powers to respect the independence of the young American nations. Trump interprets it in his own way.
When the United States wants to justify its power policy, it likes to invoke the Monroe Doctrine.
And in the year when the US celebrates 250 years of independence on July 4th, the foreign policy course of the 47th US President Donald Trump is based on the doctrine presented by his predecessor – the 5th US President James Monroe, at a time when the US had only existed for 47 years.
James Monroe was the last president of the "Founding Fathers" generation. He fought in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) against the British and their allies. The war, which was partly a civil war, was won by the American colonists with crucial assistance from France, and later from Spain and the Netherlands.
The USA initially consisted of only 13 states, and the territory was about a third the size of the present-day United States. It was precisely the awareness of its own vulnerability and limited space that was one of the reasons why Washington turned relatively quickly to territorial expansion.
Two decades after the end of the Revolutionary War, in 1803, under President Thomas Jefferson, they purchased the vast colony of Louisiana from France, namely Napoleon Bonaparte.
Thus, for 15 million dollars, the USA doubled its territory, on which many new federal states were later created.
However, all areas west of Louisiana (not to be confused with the present-day state of the same name), from Texas to California, still belonged to Spain.
Second War of Independence from the British
In mid-1812, the United States declared war on Great Britain. Tensions were high: British warships were constantly seizing American merchant ships en route to Europe. In addition, the British kidnapped thousands of American sailors and forced them to serve in the Royal Navy.
The British held fortified strongholds along the western border of the colonies, in the Appalachian Mountains, the Ohio River Valley, the Great Lakes, and the upper Mississippi River, preventing the Americans from expanding westward into Native American territories.
An additional source of conflict were the territorial claims of both states – towards Canada.
President James Madison called the Anglo-American War the Second American War of Independence. The conflict ended on December 24, 1814, with the signing of a peace treaty.
The Americans then felt for the first time as an internationally recognized, independent power.
Five years later, the USA again increased its territory: in 1819, an agreement was reached with Spain to assume debts worth five million dollars – for the territory of Florida.
The Monroe Doctrine – a message to European colonial powers
So, this is the USA at the time of the Monroe Doctrine: to the north it borders Canada, which was a British colony, to the south it borders Mexico, which had become an independent state just two years earlier. To the northwest is Alaska, then a territory of Tsarist Russia.
By 1823, most South American countries had already won independence from Spain or Portugal, while some were still fighting for it.
If European monarchies tried to reconquer them and suppress republican movements, the United States would be isolated – and perhaps even at risk of invasion, believed then-US Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, Monroe's successor as president.
On December 2, 1823, in his address to Congress, James Monroe said, among other things, that the United States had never interfered in the wars of European powers, nor did it intend to do so in the future.
He also made it clear that "our rights will not be tolerated if they are attacked or seriously threatened." If that were to happen, "we will initiate preparations for our defense."
In his speech, Monroe specifically mentioned the Caribbean and Latin America. The United States, he assured, would never "leave our southern brothers to fend for themselves," and any European interference there would be a manifestation of "a hostile attitude toward the United States."
In return, the US would respect the survival of the then-existing colonies.
Continued dollar expansion
A quarter of a century later, in 1848, after a two-year war, Mexico ceded to the United States – for a price of $15 million – the territories of the present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, as well as large parts of Arizona and Colorado. The US government also pledged to settle the debts of American citizens to Mexico.
In 1854, the US paid Mexico an additional $10 million for additional territories in Arizona and New Mexico.
In 1867, the administration of President Andrew Johnson purchased Alaska from Tsarist Russia for the symbolic price of $7,2 million.
Tsar Alexander II Romanov believed that he would have difficulty defending the territory in the event of another conflict with Great Britain and that he might lose it without any compensation, while at the same time he wanted to strengthen the US position in relation to the British.
After that, the idea of purchasing two islands – Greenland and Iceland – which then belonged to Denmark was also floated in Washington. However, a formal offer was never made.
During World War I, under President Woodrow Wilson, the United States purchased the Caribbean islands of St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas—then known as the Danish West Indies—from Denmark in 1917 for $25 million in gold. The islands are now known as the Virgin Islands.
Ruzveltov i Ajzenhauerov dodatak
In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt expanded the Monroe Doctrine with an addition known as the "Roosevelt Corollary," which gave the United States the right to intervene in Latin American states to prevent "chronic mismanagement" and "instability."
Since then, the US has been seen as a "policeman" in the eyes of its "southern brothers", and Latin America has been treated in Washington as the "backyard" of the United States.
Another extension of the Monroe Doctrine was proclaimed by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1954, during the Cold War. It was the so-called "domino theory," or domino effect, and its goal was to combat communism and prevent countries from falling under the influence of the Soviet Union, one after another.
Thus, the war against North Vietnam was justified, and numerous secret intelligence operations and military interventions in Nicaragua, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Guatemala, Chile, and Grenada followed.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Monroe Doctrine fell into some oblivion. But Donald Trump invoked it during his first term as president: he considered China's involvement "in our backyard," that is, in Latin America, an unacceptable violation of Washington's interests.
Trampling in the Donro doctrine
In his second term, Trump is making a fresh appeal. "After years of neglect, the United States will reaffirm and implement the Monroe Doctrine to restore American dominance in the Western Hemisphere," states the US National Security Strategy, released in late 2025.
After the arrest of Nicolas Maduro, the controversial president of Venezuela, Trump declared: "The Monroe Doctrine is a great thing, but we have surpassed it many times over - now they call it the Donro Doctrine." The New York Post first referred to Trump's reactivated Monroe Doctrine as the "Donro Doctrine," alluding to the president's first name, Donald.
After the "action" in Venezuela, Trump is already thinking out loud about what to do next. "Colombia is also very sick and is ruled by a sick man who likes to produce cocaine and sell it to the United States," Trump said. "That won't be around for long either." And with Mexico, he says, he will probably also "have to do something" - although he "respects" the president of that country. Because Mexico, as Trump claims, is controlled by drug cartels.
And then there's the largest island in the world – Greenland, which, as Trump says, is needed to protect US security: "I'd like to make a deal the easy way. But if it doesn't go easy, then we'll do it the hard way."
After World War II, the United States, under President Harry S. Truman, offered Denmark $100 million in gold for Greenland. The territories of Greenland (2,16 million km²) and the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon (2,14 million km²) are almost identical.
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