Editing Drago Doctrine

[[File:Luis María Drago.jpg|thumb|180px|[[Luis María Drago]]]]
The '''Drago Doctrine''' was announced in 1902 by Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs [[Luis María Drago]] in a diplomatic note to the [[United States]]. This doctrine stated that simply failing to repay national debt was not a valid reason for foreign intervention, especially by a power outside of the Western Hemisphere. The doctrine was a response to the [[Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903|European powers' blockade of Venezuela]], which occurred after the country defaulted on its debt. Washington accepted and used the Drago doctrine. In order to prevent further interventions, the United States took control of the customs of several Latin American countries to ensure debt payments were made to Europe.

Drago was responding to a tension between the [[Monroe Doctrine]] keeping Europe out and the European demand for repayments of debts. It assumed the principle of sovereign equality that the United States had long supported. It explicitly stated that no foreign power, including the United States, could use force against a nation in the Western Hemisphere to collect government debts.<ref name="beneath">{{cite book|last1=Schoultz|first1=Lars|title=Beneath the United States: a history of U.S. policy toward Latin America|date=1998|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, MA: Harvard University|isbn=0-674-92276-X|pages=[https://archive.org/details/beneathunitedsta00scho/page/179 179–180]|edition=[Fourth printing].|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/beneathunitedsta00scho/page/179}}</ref>

In 1904, the [[Roosevelt Corollary]] was issued by the United States in response to the Drago Doctrine and asserted the right of the United States to intervene in Latin America in the interests of American business and Latin American independence from European powers.

A modified version, known as the '''Porter Convention''' after [[Horace Porter]], was adopted at [[The Hague]] in 1907 and added that arbitration and litigation should always be used first.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/65/ca/Calvo-Ca.html |title=Columbia Encyclopedia article on the Calvo Doctrine |publisher=bartleby.com |accessdate=9 April 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050308123006/http://www.bartleby.com/65/ca/Calvo-Ca.html |archivedate=8 March 2005 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bartleby.com/65/dr/Drago-Lu.html |title=Columbia Encyclopedia article on Luis María Drago |publisher=bartleby.com |accessdate=9 April 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011085420/http://www1.bartleby.com/65/dr/Drago-Lu.html |archivedate=11 October 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/D/Drago-L1u.asp |title=Encyclopedia.com article on Luis María Drago |publisher=Encyclopedia.com |accessdate=9 April 2011}}</ref>

==History==
It grew from the ideas expressed by [[Carlos Calvo (historian)|Carlos Calvo]] in ''Derecho internacional teórico y práctico de Europa y América'', commonly known as the [[Calvo Doctrine]]. The Calvo Doctrine proposed to prohibit diplomatic intervention before local resources were exhausted. 

The Drago Doctrine itself was a response to the actions of Britain, Germany, and Italy, which, in 1902, had [[Venezuela Crisis of 1902–03|blockaded Venezuela]] in response to Venezuelan government's refusal to pay its massive foreign debt that had been acquired under previous administrations before President [[Cipriano Castro]] took power. Secretary of State [[John Milton Hay|John Hay]] was taken aback by the reference to the [[Monroe Doctrine]] and delayed six weeks before responding by quoting [[Theodore Roosevelt]]'s 1901 annual message to Congress: "We do not guarantee any state against punishment if it misconducts itself."<ref name="beneath" />

Roosevelt himself, although he would lavish praise on Drago's doctrine in later years, had earlier written in his capacity as Vice President to the German diplomat [[Hermann Speck von Sternburg]] that "if any South American State misbehaves towards any European country, let the European country spank it."<ref name="beneath" />

The Drago Doctrine was used by [[Venezuela]] as a rationale for its vote in support of Argentina at the [[Organization of American States]] meeting on the [[Argentine debt restructuring|Argentine debt crisis]] that involved [[NML Capital]].

==See also==

* [[Calvo Doctrine|Calvo doctrine]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
==Further reading==
* Drago, Luis M., and H. Edward Nettles. "The Drago Doctrine in international law and politics." '' Hispanic American Historical Review'' 8.2 (1928): 204-223. [https://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-pdf/8/2/204/760165/0080204.pdf online]

* Hershey, Amos S. "The Calvo and Drago Doctrines." ''American Journal of International Law'' 1.1 (1907): 26-45. [https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2959&context=facpub online]
* Scarfi, Juan Pablo. "In the name of the Americas: the Pan-American Redefinition of the Monroe Doctrine and the emerging language of American International Law in the Western Hemisphere, 1898-1933." ''Diplomatic History'' 40.2 (2016): 189-218. [https://academic.oup.com/dh/article-abstract/40/2/189/2366160 online]
* Woolsey, T. S. (1921). "[[doi:10.2307/2188290|Drago and the Drago Doctrine]]". ''American Journal of International Law''. '''15''' (4): 558–559

[[Category:Foreign policy doctrines]]
[[Category:1902 in American law]]
[[Category:1902 in international relations]]
[[Category:Politics of Venezuela]]
[[Category:1902 in Venezuela]]
[[Category:1902 in South America]]
[[Category:Government debt]]
[[Category:Monroe Doctrine]]