Before the Panama canal had been built, there was no fast way from one side of the Americas to the other side by water, the two options were either to go north and go around the top of North America, or to go south and go around the bottom of South America. Going either of those routes would take much longer than somehow going straight through the Americas to get to wherever you may be going. Previous to the construction of the Panama Canal, no one had ever thought of making a water passage through Central America. But eventually, during Theodore Roosevelt's period of Presidency, he proposed to the ambassador of Panama, the idea of the Panama Canal, and he eventually gained permission for the United states to build the Panama canal through Panama due to the signing of the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty.
This political cartoon represents all of the influence Theodore Roosevelt had on the construction of the Panama Canal and how hard he worked to get it done.
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