John Quincy Adams, the 4th president of the United States of America, famously said Independence Day 1821 that “American goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy“.
The target of this words were against those in the US that favored armed intervention in support for “independence movements” in many South American countries.
This old colonial tradition from the British Empire about bringing “civilization“to those needing British superiority, Christendom and good manners etc. while really occupying countries, and draining it’s wealth.
British colonialist being carried by natives.
Today this also continues in the form of the IMF, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, both institutions is of the United Nations. I recommend reading “Confessions of an economic Hitman” by John Perkins. ( Amazon.com link ) and follow-ups like “The Secret History of the American Empire”
Here he admits after decades as a worker for the IMF found out that the real goal of the IMF were not to “help developing countries to build their economy“. The loans with interest rate instead cripples them with unpayable debt. Then to pay debt natural resources etc. are sold to cover some debt, and it’s the same old exploitation, just with new words and more refined techniques.
John Pilger noted in a documentary that during the 1985 “Live Aid” concert where a lot of famous bands played for free in a public campaign to provide aid to hunger victims in Africa at the time – then Africa payed more to the West just in one day, then this highly publicized event managed to collect entirely.
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During The Independence Day speech Adams advocated moral support instead of military intervention. His speech that the US “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy lest she involve herself beyond power of extrication, in all wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force.” The United States, Adams warned, might “become the dictatress of the world [but] she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.”
Furthermore he authored what came to be known as the Monroe Doctrine, which was introduced on December 2, 1823. It said that further efforts by European countries to colonize land or interfere with states in the Americas, would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring US intervention.
By this the British Empire didn’t take any of the former Spanish colonies.
In Europe the other hand this was seen just as much as the USA declaring ownership over the whole of the Americas as her own colony. And historically this haven’t been far from the truth, too many examples can be mentioned to cover in just one blog-post. So the Speech of Adams turned out just not to be forgotten, but the truths in it reversed.
Satire of Uncle Sam placing legs astride the Americas, in a very similar way as in caricatures of Cecil Rhodes, the ultimate British colonialist, that named a country after himself and.
The Clash of Civilizations 