International response[edit]
Because the U.S. lacked both a credible navy and army at the time, the doctrine was largely disregarded internationally.[4] The doctrine, however, met with tacit British approval, and the British Royal Navy mostly enforced it tactically, as part of the wider Pax Britannica, which enforced the neutrality of the seas. This was in line with the developing British policy of laissez-faire free trade against mercantilism. Fast-growing British industry was ever seeking outlets for its manufactured goods, and were the newly independent Latin American states to become Spanish colonies once more, British access to these markets would be cut off by Spanish mercantilist policy.[10]