Monroe Doctrine

Political cartoon with the caption 'His Foresight. Europe: You're not the only rooster in South America! Uncle Sam: I was aware of that when I cooped you up!' The cartoon depicts Uncle Sam as a large rooster, while other roosters walk free respresenting South American countries, with European nations are represented by birds in a coop marked 'Monroe doctrine.' The Monroe Doctrine was a United States policy, which said that further efforts by European countries to colonize land or interfere with states in the Americas would be viewed by the United States of America as acts of aggression requiring US intervention The Monroe Doctrine asserted that the Western Hemisphere was not to be further colonized by European countries, and that the United States would not interfere with existing European colonies nor in the internal concerns of European countries. The Doctrine was issued at the time when many Latin American countries were on the verge of becoming independent from Spain, and the United States, reflecting concerns echoed by Great Britain, hoped to avoid having any European power take Spain's colonies. USA, 10 September 1901 (Photo by Fotosearch/Getty Images).