Falklands, debt blockades, Hawaii, and Maximilian exposed selectivity

Argentina received no American help when Britain asserted the Falkland Islands or when French and British fleets blockaded it over unpaid debts. A blockade to collect debts did not fit the same category as recolonization, and the United States lacked the capacity to intervene regardless. President John Tyler nevertheless invoked the doctrine in support of Hawaiian annexation, while Washington also abstained when Spain occupied Peru's Chincha Islands. After the Civil War, American officials used it against French-backed Emperor Maximilian in Mexico, one of the first cases explicitly calling it a doctrine. The ambiguous language let Washington distinguish between intervention it opposed, tolerated, or undertook for its own strategic aims.