Secretary of State Richard Olney argued during the British Guiana-Venezuela controversy that the United States was practically sovereign in the hemisphere on questions where it chose to intervene. The dispute ultimately went to arbitration, but the claim was a major expansion of authority derived from Monroe's address. An uncodified policy had become a claimed source of power over relations among other states. The peaceful settlement did not erase how far Olney had extended the original warning.
Notable Point · 1:07:49-1:13:19
Olney claimed a right to mediate hemispheric disputes
The 1895 Olney interpretation turned the doctrine from a warning against recolonization into a claim that the United States could mediate an Anglo-Venezuelan boundary dispute.