President Woodrow Wilson prepared to occupy the port, and while awaiting Congressional approval, put a plan in motion to stop arms shipments from a German ship to the alternate side of the Mexican Revolution not supported by the United States. commander demanded release, an apology, and a 21 gun salute. It had been a response to the Tampico Affair where nine American sailors were arrested for crossing into off-limits areas of Veracruz. How Did Mexico Respond? Relations with Mexico had been strained since Apwhen the United States attacked Veracruz and occupied it for seven months. Please call the President's attention to the fact that the ruthless employment of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England in a few months to make peace." Signed, ZIMMERMANN. You will inform the President of the above most secretly as soon as the outbreak of war with the United States of America is certain and add the suggestion that he should, on his own initiative, invite Japan to immediate adherence and at the same time mediate between Japan and ourselves. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal or alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. "We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. He would eventually accept its veracity, send it to the ambassador, who forwarded it to President Woodrow Wilson. Secretary of the Embassy in Britain, Edward Bell, who initially thought it was a forgery. The telegram was intercepted by British intelligence and sent to the U.S. The telegram, decoded below, would postulate that if resumption of submarine activities against the Allied Power, including original members Britain, France, and Russia prompted the United States to enter World War I, that Germany would ally with Mexico, and offer back parts of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona to that nation, if victorious, and provide payments for services rendered. What was the Zimmermann Telegram? It was a coded telegram sent Janufrom the German Foreign office of Arthur Zimmermann to the German ambassador to Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt, that prompted the United States action. The Zimmermann Telegram is given to the United States by Britain on February 24, showing the offer by Germany to give Mexico back the southwest United States if they would declare war on the United States. Materials created by the National Archives and Records Administration are in the public domain.1917 - Detail FebruThe United States government cuts diplomatic ties with Germany. "The Zimmerman Telegram." Social Education 45, 4 (April 1981): 266 This text was adapted from the article "The Zimmerman Telegram" by Mary Alexander and Marilyn Childress.Ĭitation: Alexander, Mary and Marilyn Childress. The Zimmermann Telegram had such an impact on American opinion that, according to David Kahn, author of The Codebreakers, "No other single cryptanalysis has had such enormous consequences." It is his opinion that "never before or since has so much turned upon the solution of a secret message. On April 6, 1917, the United States Congress formally declared war on Germany and its allies.
The American press published news of the telegram on March 1. Government in an effort to capitalize on growing anti-German sentiment in the United States. Several weeks later, on February 24, the British presented the Zimmermann telegram to the U.S. In response to the breaking of the Sussex pledge, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Germany. In frustration over the effective British naval blockade, Germany broke its pledge to limit submarine warfare on February 1, 1917. In 1916 Woodrow Wilson was reelected President for a second term, largely because of the slogan "He kept us out of war."Įvents in early 1917 would change that hope. While armies moved across the face of Europe, the United States remained neutral. In this Decoding a Messageexercise, students decode a fictitious message using a simple substitution code.īetween 1914 and the spring of 1917, the European nations engaged in a conflict that became known as World War I.
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