Roosevelt wanted to build the Panama Canal, and when the Colombian government refused to give him a 100 year lease on Panama for 10 million dollars he resorted to underhanded dealings. He sent money to Panamanian mercenaries to fund a revolt against Colombia.

Colombia was a poor country torn by political factions, civil war, and occasional independence uprisings in Panama. Roosevelt and Hay, though, considered the Colombian refusal to be evidence of...

Dee-lighted president Roosevelt has illustrated his message to congress / 1 print. | Newspaper clipping of cartoon showing a cartoonist looking on as Theodore Roosevelt draws a picture of Uncle Sam digging the Panama canal.

This image depicts Theodore Roosevelt digging in what will become the Panama Canal. The dirt he is removing is being “dumped” on the city of Bogota, Columbia, as a reference to the way in which the Roosevelt administration acquired the rights to build the canal. Source: The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library:

Dee-lighted president Roosevelt has illustrated his message to congress / 1 print. | Newspaper clipping of cartoon showing a cartoonist looking on as Theodore Roosevelt draws a picture of Uncle Sam digging the Panama canal.

Feb 22, 2016 · Teddy Roosevelt Digs the Panama Canal. The issue that this political cartoon is about is the digging of the Panama Canal. The cartoonist’s message is that Teddy Roosevelt, larger than life, is doing the digging of the canal by himself.

1 print. | Newspaper clipping of cartoon showing a cartoonist looking on as Theodore Roosevelt draws a picture of Uncle Sam digging the Panama canal.

Uncle Sam stands behind the North and South American continents, holding a "Panama Revolution" swor... Speed the spade! Uncle Sam hands President Roosevelt a shovel as he starts to dig the Panama Canal himself.

Cartoon, 1903, by W.A. Rogers from the New York 'Herald,' showing President Theodore Roosevelt rudely presenting Colombia with the fait accompli of his Panama Canal Zone treaty with the new republic of Panama.

Feb 22, 2016 · The issue that this political cartoon is about is the Panama Canal. The cartoonist’s message is that Teddy Roosevelt was going to get the canal built by force, if necessary. In the political cartoon, he is shown exiting a ship on the shore of Panama by walking down a gangplank that says; ‘The Roosevelt Doctrine.’