|
  |
 |
 As Spain's New World colonies declared their independence, the new republics of Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, and others sought and received diplomatic recognition from the United States. Great Britain wanted its share of trade with Latin America and thus made common cause with the U.S. to exclude the so-called Holy Alliance: Prussia, Russia, and Austria. Practically speaking, the U.S. military was not strong enough to keep them out, but not wanting to appear to merely follow British policy, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams urged President James Monroe to issue what became known as the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine declared that Europe (including Great Britain) should not become entangled in Latin American affairs and that the United States was prepared to go to war to protect the Western Hemisphere from incursion by European powers. It was the first, but not the last, assertion by the U.S. that it would supervise not merely its own foreign policy but also hemispheric relations. Freed from worries about Europe and competition in North America, the U.S. adopted the notion of "Manifest Destiny," which called for the nation to stretch to the Pacific Ocean. Mexico, which had become independent of Spain in 1821, lost its province of Texas to an independence movement in 1836. As part of its expansion efforts, the U.S. annexed Texas in 1845. In the war with Mexico that resulted, the U.S. was victorious and was awarded New Mexico, Arizona, and California by the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, negotiated by Virginian Nicholas Trist. 
Next: Civil War Diplomacy, 1861–65 |
