#TBT: President Franklin Roosevelt Ends Latin American Invasions

 

     On December 26th, 1934, the Montevideo Convention went into effect. Negotiated by Dr. Sophonisba Breckinridge on the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (the former was the first woman to represent the United States at an international conference), this conference established the latter's "Good Neighbor Policy," which renounced American interventionism in Latin America.

     The convention also codified contemporary notion of sovereignty under international law and reflected the Stimson Doctrine, a policy of refusing to recognize states created as a result of aggression. As a result, the United States withdrew troops from Panama and Haiti, and trade between the United States and Latin America tripled over the course of a decade.