Manifest Destiny stretched the doctrine beyond Monroe

James K. Polk treated noninterference with American expansion as part of the doctrine even though Monroe's original passages did not clearly say so. During the American Civil War, Spain returned to the Dominican Republic and Napoleon III intervened in Mexico while Washington was preoccupied. These episodes demonstrated that an expansive interpretation did not supply the military capacity needed to enforce it. The gap between Polk's Manifest Destiny language and wartime events makes the doctrine's dependence on available power especially clear.