John Quincy Adams helped give Monroe's position its deliberately broad phrasing. Conservative statesmen such as Metternich treated the declaration as encouragement for revolution. France was still recovering from the Napoleonic Wars and dealing with domestic political problems, while the German and Italian states faced approaching unification conflicts. Austria, Russia, and Prussia formed the Holy Alliance against liberal movements, but their navies were limited or geographically constrained. Spain and Portugal lacked the strength to reconquer their former colonies alone. Any serious transatlantic intervention therefore depended on British naval assistance that continental reactionaries could not command.
Chapter · 31:02-36:12
John Quincy Adams, the Holy Alliance, and European reaction
European outrage sounded dramatic, but the monarchies most offended lacked the maritime means to reverse Latin American independence without British help.