The end of the Napoleonic Wars freed European governments to consider projects beyond Europe just as Spanish colonies were securing independence. Britain had already encouraged much of that independence because newly opened states offered trade and influence, while the United States emerged from the War of 1812 without the naval strength to control events. American ambitions exceeded the country's ability to enforce its warning. Its history therefore has to be read through the gap between what successive versions claimed and which country had the power to make those claims effective.
Chapter · 8:41-14:40
Why peace in Europe produced the Monroe Doctrine
The doctrine arose from the post-Napoleonic settlement, Latin American independence, and American anxiety that European powers might restore colonial rule.