A difficulty between Germany and Venezuela arose in 1902 owing to the ill-treatment suffered by German merchants in Venezuela in the course of the civil war in that country from 1898 to 1900.

The merchants complained that loans had been exacted from them by President Castro and his Government, and that munitions of war and cattle had been taken for the use of the army and left unpaid for.  The amount of the claim was 1,700,000 Bolivars (francs), a sum that included the damage suffered by the merchants’ creditors in Germany.  Similar complaints were made by English and Italian merchants.  After several efforts on the part of Germany to obtain redress had failed, negotiations were broken off, the diplomatic representative of Germany was recalled, and finally the combined fleets of England, Germany, and Italy established a blockade of the Venezuelan coast.  The difficulty was eventually referred to the Hague Court of Arbitration, which allowed the claims and directed payment of them on the security of the revenues of the customs ports of La Guayra and Puerto Cabella.

For a time the action of the Powers caused discussion of the Monroe doctrine on both sides of the Atlantic.  On this side it was pointed out that American susceptibilities had been respected by the conduct of the Powers in not landing troops, while on the other side there were not wanting voices to exclaim that the naval demonstration went too near being a breach of the hallowed creed—­“hands off” the Western Hemisphere.  The Monroe doctrine, it may be recalled, was contained in a message of President James Monroe, issued on February 2, 1823.  It was drawn up by John Quincey Adams, and declared that the United States “regarded not only every effort of the Holy Alliance to extend its system to the Western Hemisphere as dangerous to the peace and freedom of the United States, but also every interference with the object of subverting any independent American Government in the light of unfriendliness towards America”; and it went on to declare that “the Continents of America should no more be regarded as fields for European colonization.”

The day, of course, may come when the American claim to the control, if not physical possession, of half the earth will be questioned by the Powers of Europe; but at present, as far as Germany is concerned, and notwithstanding the absurd idea that Germany plans the seizure one day of Brazil, the doctrine is of merely academic interest.  For a few days four years later it became the subject of lively discussion in Germany and America owing to the first American Roosevelt professor, Professor Burgess, referring to it in his inaugural lecture before the Emperor and Empress as an “antiquated theory.”  As soon, however, as it became apparent that Professor Burgess was giving utterance to a purely personal opinion, and was not in any sense the bearer of a message on the subject from the President, the discussion dropped.