1904 The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine Theodore Roosevelt | n his annual message to Congress of December 6, 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt declared what became known as the Roosevelt Corollary. The pres- ident recognized the legal right of one state to use force against another to col- lect debts, a right that had just been sanctioned in February by the Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration in a case involving Venezuela (see Document No, 32). But Roosevelt feared the use of debt collection as a pretext for the ex- pansion of Europe's presence in Latin America, and the possible creation of Eu- ropean protectorates in the New World. At the moment of Roosevelt's address, Germany—now considered the principal military threat to U.S. power—seemed poised to intervene against the Dominican Republic. Roasevelt’s solution was to Source: U.S. Department of State. Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, with the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress, 6 December 1904, pp. xli-xlii. Washington, D.C: GPO, 1905.