The Zimmermann Telegram and the Mexican Political Situation (1917)

Abstract

The Zimmermann Telegram and the Mexican Political Situation (1917) The German Empire wanted to avoid the USA entering the World War I against Germany. In the form of a diplomatic proposal the Foreign Minister of Germany Arthur Zimmermann tried to persuade Mexico to join an alliance with Germany. In his telegram (January 16, 1917) to Heinrich von Eckardt (German ambassador in Mexico) he promised that Germany would help Mexico to reconquer Texas, New Mexico and Arizona occupied by the USA in the USA–Mexican War 1846–1848. Zimmermann wrote that Germany would wage an unrestricted submarine war. But Mexico did not want and could not wage war against the USA. (An alliance with Germany would have meant war with the USA.) Mexico was preoccupied with its own internal affairs. Between 1910 and 1917 there was a revolution and civil war in Mexico. The victorious Carranza government did not enter into an alliance with Germany and declared neutrality in the World War I.