MONROE, JAMES. - American politician, b. in Westmoreland County (Virginia) on 28 Apr. 1758, d. in New York on 4 July 1831. He fought in the War of Independence, was a member of the Virginia legislature, then of the Congress of the new Confederation, and was sent to France as minister plenipotentiary from 1794 to 1796.
Having returned to France in 1803, he concluded with Napoleon the purchase of Louisiana on behalf of his government. In 1811 he was appointed Secretary of State, until, in 1816, he was elected president of the Confederation and re-elected in 1820. During the eight years of his administration he acquired the Floridas from Spain; he peacefully resolved with the Missouri compromise the first conflict over the question of slavery; he proclaimed, in a message to Congress of 2 Dec. 1823, the famous "doctrine" known by his name, with which he set the guidelines of United States foreign policy. In opposition to European imperialism (the continental powers seemed to want to reconquer Latin America) he intended to defend American democracy from what were regarded as dangerous contacts with European absolutism; this doctrine aimed to prevent new attempts at European colonization in the Americas and any interference by the states of Europe, while at the same time reaffirming the renunciation by the United States of intervention in European questions. Reaffirmed in the message of 1824, it served to discourage new European colonial adventures beyond the Atlantic and constituted the premise of United States expansionism.
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Gabriele Musatti