The correct answer is D. The position of the United States toward Latin America in the 1800s can be characterized as defensive.
This defensive position belonged to the Monroe Doctrine, elaborated by John Quincy Adams and attributed to President James Monroe in 1823, which established that any intervention by Europeans in America would be seen as an act of aggression that would require the intervention of the United States of America.
It was a decisive moment in the foreign policy of the United States. The doctrine was conceived by its authors as a proclamation by the United States of its opposition to colonialism, and its protection to Latin American countries.