![]() ![]() First there was little chance that Mexico could win a war with the U.S. The commission recommended to refuse it, based on several reasons. ![]() Signed, ZIMMERMANN MEXICO REFUSES THE PROPOSALĪ military commission was created by Mexican president Venustiano Carranza to study the German proposal. ![]() 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. 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 of 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. Therefore, the Germans went for the third option and on January 19, 1917, the German ambassador to Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt, received the coded telegram from Zimmermann. The second option offered the most secure method, but it was also the slowest. The Mexican ambassador in Berlin was not trusted by Germany, so this option was considered too insecure. The third option was to send the proposal in a coded telegram using the best cryptographic techniques available. and then deliver it to the German embassy, to be forwarded on to the Mexicans. The second, send the message via the Deutschland submarine that would land somewhere in the U.S. The first was to communicate the proposal to the Mexican ambassador in Berlin. (California was not included, maybe because the Germans thought it would be an irresistible offer for the Japanese, in case they also wanted to declare war on the U.S.)īut how could the Germans convey this offer to the Mexicans? Three options were considered. After several unsuccessful attempts to spark a conflict, the Germans decided to offer Venustiano Carranza, the new Mexican president, the recovery of the lost territories of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona in case of a German victory. This is the story of the encrypted telegram that changed the last century.Īrea Mexico ceded to the United States in 1848, by via Wikimedia CommonsGermany was actively seeking to promote a war between Mexico and the U.S., in the hope to create a military distraction and avoid the entry of the U.S. public opinion and was one of the main reasons for the entry of the U.S. But as the war unfolded in Europe, an intercepted telegram sent by the German Foreign Secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, to the Mexican government inflamed the U.S. In fact, Woodrow Wilson was reelected President largely because “He kept us out of war”. World War I began in 1914 as a fight among several European nations, while the United States pursued a policy of non-intervention. ![]()
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