User:Raul654/Z
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The Zimmermann Telegram (or Zimmermann Note) was a 1917 diplomatic proposal from the German Empire to Mexico. Named for German foreign minister Arthur Zimmerman, the telegram proposed that in the event that the United States become involved in the ongoing First World War, Mexico should ally with Germany in fighting against the United States. Furthermore, it proposed that Japan should be invited to join the anti-American alliance, and that at its successful conclusion Mexico could recover territory it had ceded to the United States after the Mexican-American War.
The telegram was sent to Washington DC to German Ambassador to the United States Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, with instructions to forward it to the German Ambassador to Mexico Heinrich von Eckardt. En route to Washington, it was intercepted by British intelligence and decrypted by cryptanalysts of Room 40, who had broken Germany's highest level diplomatic code. In order to make the telegram public without compromising their Intelligence efforts, the British broke into the Western Union telegraph office in Mexico City and stole the note, where it had been retransmitted using an older code. They turned the note over to the United States, and it was made public on March 1, 1917.
Though some people initially thought it was a British-made forgery, two days after its publication Arthur Zimmerman confirmed the telegram's authenticity. The American public, already angered over the German resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, was infuriated. One month after its publication, the United States declared war on Germany. The huge influx of American men, materiel, and money broke the back of the German war effort and led to their defeat the following year.[1]