Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

In the beginning of the 1900’s, many Latin American countries had established large amounts of debt to European countries. Countries like Germany, Italy, and Great Britain began to identify ways for their loans to be repaid. In 1902, these countries teamed up and sent gunboats into Venezuela. These gunboats blocked ports that Venezuela used to trade with the rest of the world. These European countries were sending a message to other Latin American countries. Venezuela had defaulted on its debts to foreign bondholders and they didn’t want the other Latin American countries to do the same.
When the news of these block-aids reached American, many Americans began to worry. America had begun to develop some dominance in the Western Hemisphere. The actions of those European countries could undermine that dominance.
President Theodore Roosevelt’s Annual message to Congress on December 6, 1904 changed how the United States would now react in world affairs. Roosevelt ad...