Author
Arthur Zimmermann was born in Marggrabowa, East Prussia in 1864. He was the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the German Empire. He is most known for the Zimmermann Telegram, but he is also known for his involvement in an Irish rebellion and also the Russian Revolution. He sent troops to Ireland to help them rebel against Great Britain for their independence. He also helped the communists get rid of the tsar in Russia. When Zimmermann’s message to Mexico was intercepted, he tried to blame the United States for it. He said that President Woodrow Wilson had broken diplomatic relations with Germany “with extraordinary roughness.”
The Message The telegram was a message from the German Empire to Mexico for the Mexicans to wage war with the United States. The Mexican Government was given the instruction to attack the United States as soon as the U.S. declared war on Germany. The Mexican Government was promised to regain all the land that they had lost to the U.S. dating back to 1836. Also in the telegram it had plans for “the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare. Finally the telegram stated that the Mexican president to make an alliance between the German and Japanese Empires.
The Immaculate Interception …show more content…
The telegram was sent to the U.S.
Embassy in Berlin, Germany. Then it was sent to Copenhagen, Denmark by diplomatic cable. It was then sent to London, England for further transmission over the transatlantic cable to Washington D.C. It had to be sent so many places because Germany and England had cut their cables with each other. After the British intelligence had found and decoded the telegram, they put it in the U.S. media and handed it over to the U.S. government. They gave it to the media so the American people would know about it and want to start war with the German Empire and also so the U.S. government could not hide the telegram from the
people.
The After Effects The U.S. public already had an anti-Mexican and anti-German mentality. On January 31st instead of February 1st , Germany resumed their unrestricted submarine warfare. Their German U-boats sunk many ships including many passenger ships. This killed many civilians, as well as American passengers on some ships from Britain. The most famous sinking is the Lusitania, that killed 128 U.S. citizens. This made the American people hate the Germans even more. This would lead the U.S. to declare war on Germany and enter the First World War.