The Adams Doctrine and an 'Empire of States'

Abstract

Explores the role of John Quincy Adams in crafting the Monroe Doctrine, and insists on the enduring importance of three contexts which shaped the Doctrine in Adams's thinking: the desire to secure the North American continent for U.S. expansion; an eagerness to remain within European commercial and legal orders; and a scepticism about the republican future of the emerging nations of Spanish America. The article insists that this final point has been greatly misunderstood in previous commentary on the Doctrine emphasising its supposed blueprint for hemispheric republicanism.