With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere…. ”  

-President James Monroe     Address to Congress December 2,1823  

The Monroe Doctrine consists of four main points:

1. The United States would remain neutral in European affairs and not get involved in European conflicts.
2. The United States would not interfere with current European colonies in the Western Hemisphere.
3. No European nation would be allowed to establish a new colony in the Western Hemisphere.
4. If a European nation would try to interfere with a nation in the Western Hemisphere, the United States would view that as a hostile act and respond accordingly.

 The Monroe Doctrine proclaimed that the Americas should be free from future European colonization and free from European interference in sovereign countries’ affairs. It further stated the United States’ intention was to stay neutral in European wars and in wars between European powers and their colonies but to consider any new colonies or interference with independent countries in the Americas as hostile acts toward the United States. Basically, Monroe was telling Europe, “You keep your nose out of our business, and we’ll keep our nose outta yours.” 

source: http://www.history.com/topics/monroe-doctrine

The Impact of the Monroe Doctrine:

• The impact of the Monroe Doctrine was mixed
• That Doctrine was successful in that it kept France, Spain and other powers out of the region, but Britain would long remain the dominant trade power in Latin American
• The Doctrine was a failure from the view point of the Latin American nations who did not like the “Big Brother” behavior and Imperialist attitude of the United States.
• It was not until the late 1800s that the United States had the military power to enforce the Monroe Doctrine

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In other words you could say that the Monroe Doctrine its like gangs and their territories. You have two different gangs, one of them stays on one side of the city and the other gang stays on the other side so they don’t have confrontations that can lead to a war, that’s how the Monroe Doctrine worked.  The problem for Latin America is they were like the younger kids who get caught up in gangs and get divided between the loyalty of one gang or the other- USA is the “Atlantic West Side Gang” and Europe is the “Atlantic East Side Gang”.  The younger weaker “Latin America South Side Boys” lose their freedom and independence to the older “homeboys” of North America and Western Europe.