On December 2, 1823 President James Monroe made his seventh annual address to the Congress of the United States. The two key features that Monroe addressed were noncolonization and nonintervention. Basically meaning that United States was the only country that could influence political matters in Central and South America and wanted European nations to not get involved with such affairs. Monroe also stated that the United States did not want newly free nations to become European colonies again. These ideas were not supported by the congressional legislation at first; therefore it remained solely a declaration of policy and would eventually become known as the Monroe Doctrine.

One reason for the development of the Monroe Doctrine was because the United States feared the possibility of colonial expansion in the Americas due to the recent break up of some Spanish American republics. George Canning, the British foreign minister, wanted...