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Edited at https://subtitletools.com Way back in

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Way back in

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1823, President Monroe [President Monroe drops seeds and 'henceforth' flowers bloom]

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laid down some henceforths.

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You know, love those henceforths.

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In a speech to Congress, Monroe said [Monroe gives speech to Congress]

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that henceforth, the U.S.

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would not interfere with European

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colonies and affairs.

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But at the same time, he insisted that European

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powers stay out of the Americas.

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Specifically, he said,

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the American continents are [Monroe drops seed on stage]

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henceforth not to be considered

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as subjects for future colonization

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by European powers.

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It's kinda like when a kid draws a line [Sisters arguing about boundaries in a shared bedroom]

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across the floor of a shared bedroom and tells

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her sister, "you stay on your side,

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and I'll stay on mine. Oh, and

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don't touch my stuff or I'll read your diary [Sister holds a diary and threatens to read]

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to mom." Or, uh, sorta like

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that, but not—because here we're talking about national

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boundaries, global power, and international

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political alliances. Though, uh, we're not

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saying that they didn't keep diaries. Anyway, [Monroe writes in his diary]

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this declaration by Monroe

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ended up being called the Monroe Doctrine [Monroe announces The Monroe Doctrine]

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and it influenced U.S. foreign policy for years

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to come. By the 1890s,

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the global situation had changed.

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New forces in Central America

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and South America were coming into play,

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which would lead Teddy Roosevelt to give the Monroe

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Doctrine an extreme makeover. [Roosevelt gives The Monroe Doctrine a makeover]

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Imagine Teddy Roosevelt stepping into

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the White House and being like,

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"Uh, no. I want it bigger,

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badder, and more imperialist.

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Also, more stuffed bears [Roosevelt holds a stuffed bear]

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for no reason." Yeah, that was Teddy.

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A key event was the Venezuelan

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Crisis of 1902.

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Not to be confused with Venezuela's

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other crises. Basically,

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Venezuela had an eensy-weensy little

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civil war, and some folks [Venezuela civil war scene]

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from Europe lost money, property,

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and investments they'd had in Venezuela.

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So, Germany, Britain, and Italy

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told the new president of Venezuela that he owed

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them a ton of money for the damages [Germany, Britain, and Italy presents bill to Castro]

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their citizens had suffered.

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President Castro said, "Oh yeah?

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Who's gonna make us pay?" To which

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the Germans responded by sending a

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fleet of ships to blockade Venezuela, [German fleet of ships enters scene]

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and Castro was probably like,

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"It was a rhetorical question! Gosh,

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guys." This meant that a bunch of

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boats cut off the entire country from [Boats cut off trade route]

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overseas trade. Well, Castro wasn't

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too worried at first, because he assumed the Monroe

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Doctrine would send the U.S. of A. to his

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rescue. But America shuffled

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its collective feet for a while first,

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since European powers weren't exactly trying [Wilhelm II plants flag]

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to seize territory or re-establish

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colonies or any of the stuff the Monroe

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Doctrine specifically warned against.

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But eventually Teddy Roosevelt took the reins

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and sent a very big navy down to Venezuela. [Roosevelt sends a navy to Venezuela]

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Then the Germans suddenly

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decided they had better things to do. [German ships flee]

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Well, Venezuela still ended up

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paying fines, though, which made Teddy [Venezuela pays fines]

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concerned that Europeans would see their meddling as

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profitable and do it again.

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So he decided the U.S. should take a stand in

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similar situations. Yeah,

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"taking a stand" translates to "using

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the military" in Teddy-speak.

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Well in his heart he was still a Rough Rider,

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you know, this more aggressive foreign

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policy was called the Roosevelt Corollary, [Roosevelt holds the Roosevelt corollary document]

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and it made the Monroe Doctrine look like

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child's play. Seems like Teddy was [Child makes a hat out of The Monroe Doctrine]

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the grizzly and Monroe was actually

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the, uh, teddy bear. Still,

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who would want to snuggle with a bear named Monroe? [Kid screams and runs away from Monroe teddy bear]

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Heh. It just isn't

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the same.

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