Roosevelt corollary

The December 6th 1904, the US president Theodore Roosevelt makes a speech which will clarify what is called the “corollary of the doctrines of Monroe” or the “ corollary Roosevelt ”, an expansionist interpretation of the Doctrine of Monroe (1823).

Three years after the implementation of the Doctrines of Big Stick, this speech does not preach any more neutrality inherent in the doctrines of Monroe, but affirms that the United States will not suffer that one opposes directly their interests.

It thus makes it possible to justify American inclinations of expansion towards the Filipino , Panama and Cuba, and to confirm the place of the Latin America in the sphere of influence étatsunienne. This corollary caused the indignation of the European leaders, in particular of the emperor Guillaume II of Germany.

Extract of the speech

“The chronic injustice or the impotence which results from a general relaxation of the rules of the civilized company can require, in the final analysis, in America or elsewhere, the intervention of a civilized nation and, in the Western hemisphere, the accession of the United States to the doctrines of Monroe can force the United States, even unwillingly, in obvious cases of injustice and impotence, to exert an international power of police force” (Message with the Congrès of December 6th, 1904).

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Roosevelt corollary

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Extract of the speech

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