What are the Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary?

Both of these doctrines are about the idea that the United States should be the most important power in the Western Hemisphere.  They were issued decades apart, with the second (the Roosevelt Corollary) claiming more power for the US than the first did.

The Monroe Doctrine was announced in 1823.  This doctrine was inspired largely by the fact that so many Latin American countries were becoming independent at that time.  The doctrine stated that the United States would not tolerate any outside powers coming in and interfering with the newly independent countries.  In other words, no European countries should try to recolonize the newly freed countries or otherwise try to take control of them.

The Roosevelt Corollary was set out in 1904.  It asserted that the US had the right to intervene in the affairs of Latin American countries if those countries were acting in ways that made it likely that European countries would intervene.  For example, if a country in Latin America was defaulting on its debts, the US could go in and take over the country and force it to pay its debts to prevent European countries from coming to try to collect the debts by force.

This second doctrine was more expansive because it claimed that the US had the right to intervene preemptively in the affairs of its Latin neighbors.

What were the provisions of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine?

The main point of the Roosevelt Corollary was to declare that the United States had the right and even the duty to intervene in the affairs of other countries in the Americas. 

The Roosevelt Corollary stated that the United States would be a good friend to any country that kept its affairs in order.  It promised that these countries would have good relations with the US.  However, it also essentially threatened any countries that did not keep their affairs in order.  It said that the US would intervene in the affairs of any country that did not manage its affairs well.

What is the Roosevelt Corollary and its application in Theodore Roosevelt's "Big Stick" diplomacy?

The Roosevelt Corollary refers to a foreign policy stance taken by Theodore Roosevelt that was an offshoot of the earlier Monroe Doctrine. During his State of the Union Address in 1904, Roosevelt said that the U.S. would not allow European nations to enforce their will in Latin American countries but they would help European nations seek reparations for things like foreign debt and damage. This was also known as a “Good Neighbor Policy”

This corollary related to Big Stick diplomacy in a few different ways. Big Stick diplomacy worked under the assumption that you back up all diplomatic negotiations with the reality of military force. Roosevelt assured Europe that legitimate claims would be seen to, but he also threatened that any incursion into Latin America would not be tolerated. When Germany, Italy and Britain blockaded Venezuela in 1902, Roosevelt did just this. He promised the U.S. would use its navy to intervene and stabilize the Caribbean region economically, but not until the Europeans left.

Can you explain the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine?

The Monroe Doctrine said that European countries should essentially stay out of the affairs of countries in the Americas.  The US did not want European countries coming and trying to recolonize any of the free nations of the Americas.  The Roosevelt Corollary, issued almost 100 years later, expanded upon this in a way that gave the US more power to intervene in the affairs of countries in the Americas.

The Roosevelt Corollary said that the US had the right to intervene whenever an American country became so badly managed that the Europeans were likely to want to intervene.  In other words, if an American country was about to default on its debts (for example) the US could come in and take over the running of that country so that no European country came in and did so.  This gave the US the power to intervene in the affairs of other American countries more or less whenever it saw fit.