James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States of America, is mainly known for the speech he made before Congress on 18th December, 1823, at a time when Washington had recently recognised the independence of the former Spanish colonies in the American sub-continent. This speech, outlining the contours of the doctrine that bears his name, fixed one of the fundamental basics of United States’ diplomacy. Monroe stipulated that the European states should abstain from intervening in the American continent, and that any such intervention would be considered as a threat to the security of the United States. In return, Washington would intervene neither in European colonies nor in conflicts between European states. This doctrine, temporarily suspended during the two World Wars, served the development of North American influence in Latin America and justified numerous US interventions in the sub-continent’s countries. The Monroe doctrine has often been criticised as being a manifestation of American imperialism, authorising Washington to consider Latin America as its ‘backyard’.