From Isolation to Leadership, Revised: A Review of American Foreign Policy — John Shaqi
From Isolation to Leadership, Revised: A Review of American Foreign PolicyLatané, John Holladay
History
From Isolation to Leadership, Revised: A Review of American Foreign Policy
Latané, John Holladay
United States -- Foreign relations
While England has from time to time objected to some of the corollaries
deduced from the Monroe Doctrine, she has on the whole been not
unfavorably disposed toward the essential features of that policy. The
reason for this is that the Monroe Doctrine has been an open-door
policy, and has thus been in general accord with the British policy of
free trade. The United States has not used the Monroe Doctrine for the
establishment of exclusive trade relations with our southern neighbors.
In fact, we have largely neglected the South American countries as a
field for the development of American commerce. The failure to
cultivate this field has not been due wholly to neglect, however, but
to the fact that we have had employment for all our capital at home and
consequently have not been in a position to aid in the industrial
development of the Latin-American states, and to the further fact that
our exports have been so largely the same and hence the trade of both
North and South America has been mainly with Europe. There has,
therefore, been little rivalry between the United States and the powers
of Europe in the field of South American commerce. Our interest has
been political rather than commercial. We have prevented the
establishment of spheres of influence and preserved the open door.
This situation has been in full accord with British policy. Had Great
Britain adopted a high tariff policy and been compelled to demand
commercial concessions from Latin America by force, the Monroe Doctrine
would long since have gone by the board and been forgotten. Americans
should not forget the fact, moreover, that at any time during the past
twenty years Great Britain could have settled all her outstanding
difficulties with Germany by agreeing to sacrifice the Monroe Doctrine
and give her rival a free hand in South America. In the face of such a
combination our navy would have been of little avail.
IV
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION WITHOUT THE SANCTION OF FORCE
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