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142-608: See also The Zimmermann telegram (or Zimmermann note or Zimmermann cable ) was a secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office on January 17, 1917, that proposed a military contract between the German Empire and Mexico if the United States entered World War I against Germany. With Germany's aid, Mexico would recover Texas , Arizona , and New Mexico . The telegram

284-764: A British Expeditionary Force of 100,000 men would be landed in France; in addition, the Royal Navy would be responsible for the North Sea , the Channel and protecting Northern France, with the French navy concentrated in the Mediterranean . Britain was committed to support France in a war against Germany but this was not widely understood outside government or the upper ranks of the military. As late as 1 August,

426-750: A German government was reestablished in the western zones, the Federal Republic of Germany, which in its first years had very limited powers. In October 1949, the German Democratic Republic was founded in what had been the Soviet zone. Whereas Georg Dertinger had already been appointed the first minister of foreign affairs of East Germany in 1949, due to the Allied occupation statute the Auswärtiges Amt of West Germany

568-584: A candidate needed at least 15,000 marks/annum to join. This requirement explains why so many German diplomats married richer women because without the wealth of their wives they would never had been able to join the Auswärtiges Amt . The income requirement to enter the AA was only dropped in 1918. Aristocrats were very much overrepresented in the Auswärtiges Amt . During the Imperial period, 69% of

710-492: A clear majority of the Liberal government and its supporters wanted to stay out of the war. While Liberal leaders H. H. Asquith and Edward Grey considered Britain legally and morally committed to support France regardless, waiting until Germany triggered the 1839 Treaty provided the best chance of preserving Liberal party unity. The German high command was aware entering Belgium would lead to British intervention but decided

852-404: A climate of snobbish anti-Semitism , where Jews were considered to be too pushy, vulgar and lacking in social graces to be diplomats. There were also meritocratic elements within the AA. Besides for the income requirement, to enter the AA during the Imperial period, only candidates with the best grades at university and who knew two foreign languages were considered, and to join one had to pass what

994-584: A copy of the message. Sir Thomas Hohler , the British ambassador in Mexico, later claimed to have been "Mr. H" or at least to have been involved with the interception in his autobiography. The coded text could then be shown to the Americans without embarrassment. Moreover, the retransmission was encoded with the older code 13040 and so by mid-February, the British had the complete text and the ability to release

1136-771: A crucial role in the preparation of German reunification . In 2000 the Foreign Office returned to Berlin where it took up quarters in the former Reichsbank building , which from 1959 to 1990 had served as the seat of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and was enlarged by a newly built annex. The former ministry in Bonn was retained as a secondary seat. The Foreign Office has always stressed its continuity and traditions going back to 1870. A report entitled The Ministry and

1278-517: A dilemma. Evidence the United States had been provided confidentially by the British informed Wilson that the message was genuine, but he could not make the evidence public without compromising the British codebreaking operation. This problem was, however, resolved when any doubts as to the authenticity of the telegram were removed by Zimmermann himself. At a press conference on March 3, 1917, he told an American journalist, "I cannot deny it. It

1420-503: A disproportionate number coming from the aristocracy. The overrepresentation of aristocrats together with its overwhelming upper-class character gave the Auswärtiges Amt an elitist cachet, and made the Auswärtiges Amt into one of the most prestigious institutions in Germany. Because of its upper-class composition, the diplomats could afford extremely expensive clothes, and the men of Auswärtiges Amt were generally considered to

1562-600: A further copy in Mexico City, and Balfour could obscure the real source with the half-truth that it had been "bought in Mexico". Page then reported the story to Wilson on February 24, 1917, including details to be verified from telegraph-company files in the United States. Wilson felt "much indignation" toward the Germans and wanted to publish the Zimmermann Telegraph immediately after he had received it from

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1704-521: A military commission to assess the feasibility of the Mexican takeover of their former territories contemplated by Germany. The generals concluded that such a war was unwinnable for the following reasons: The Carranza government was recognized de jure by the United States on August 31, 1917, as a direct consequence of the Zimmermann telegram to ensure Mexican neutrality during World War I . After

1846-668: A reconciliation with the French Third Republic , which earned him—together with Aristide Briand —the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize . In an important sign of changed emphasis within the Auswärtiges Amt , in July 1930 Carl von Schubert  [ de ] , the State Secretary (the number #2 man in the Auswärtiges Amt ) and Stresemann's right-hand man was fired and replaced with the "crudely nationalist" Prince Bernhard Wilhelm von Bülow  [ de ] (who

1988-548: A route into the crumbling Ottoman Empire, where Germany also had significant interests. Combined with the increase in Russian military strength, both Austria and Germany felt threatened by Serbian expansion; when Austria invaded Serbia on 28 July 1914, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Sazonov viewed it as an Austro-German conspiracy to end Russian influence in the Balkans. In addition to its own territory, Russia viewed itself as

2130-526: Is not to be confused with his uncle, Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow ). The replacement of Schubert with Bülow marked the ascendency of the more nationalistic fraction within the Auswärtiges Amt who favored a more confrontational foreign policy with regards to France. In May 1932 Baron Konstantin von Neurath was appointed foreign minister in the "Cabinet of the President's Friends" headed by Franz von Papen . Neurath continued on as Foreign Minister under

2272-435: Is our intention to endeavour to keep the United States neutral. If this attempt is not successful, we propose an alliance on the following basis with Mexico: That we shall make war together and together make peace; we shall give general financial support, and it is understood that Mexico is to reconquer her lost territory of New Mexico, Texas and Arizona. The details are left to you for settlement. You are instructed to inform

2414-571: Is true." Then, on March 29, 1917, Zimmermann gave a speech in the Reichstag in which he admitted that the telegram was genuine. Zimmermann hoped that Americans would understand that the idea was that Germany would not fund Mexico's war with the United States unless the Americans joined World War I. Nevertheless, in his speech Zimmermann questioned how the Washington government obtained the telegram. According to Reuters news service, Zimmermann told

2556-620: The Staatssekretär (a top-level civil servant , second only to their respective minister) in the Foreign Office of the German Empire on January 17, 1917. The message was sent to the German ambassador to Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt . Zimmermann sent the telegram in anticipation of the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany on February 1, which the German government presumed would almost certainly lead to war with

2698-707: The Auswärtiges Amt had belonged to the NSDAP, but justified their employment as: "I could not build up a Foreign Office without relying upon such skilled men". Upon Willy Brandt 's taking office as Foreign Minister in the Grand coalition under Kurt Georg Kiesinger starting in 1966, the office was usually connected with the position of the Vice-Chancellor . From 1974 until 1992—with a short pause in 1982— Hans-Dietrich Genscher served as Foreign Minister and continued to champion Brandt's Ostpolitik while also playing

2840-867: The Admiralty that did the same for the Royal Navy . Theatre commanders like Douglas Haig on the Western Front or Edmund Allenby in Palestine then reported to the CIGS. After the Indian Army, the largest individual units were the Australian Corps and Canadian Corps in France, which by 1918 were commanded by their own generals, John Monash and Arthur Currie . Contingents from South Africa, New Zealand and Newfoundland served in theatres including France, Gallipoli , German East Africa and

2982-686: The Balkan League to prevent further Austrian expansion. Austria viewed Serbia with hostility partly due to its links with Russia, whose claim to be the protector of South Slavs extended to those within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, such as the Czechs and Slovaks . Serbia also potentially gave Russia the ability to achieve their long-held objective of capturing Constantinople and the Dardanelles . Austria-Hungary supported

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3124-663: The British Empire , many of whom made significant contributions to the Allied war effort, both in the provision of troops and civilian labourers. It was split into Crown Colonies administered by the Colonial Office in London, such as Nigeria , and the self-governing Dominions of Canada , Newfoundland , New Zealand , Australia and South Africa . These controlled their own domestic policies and military expenditure but not foreign policy. In terms of population,

3266-991: The British Indian Army served in different theatres of the war, primarily France and the Middle East . From 1914 to 1916, overall Imperial diplomatic, political and military strategy was controlled by the British War Cabinet in London; in 1917 it was superseded by the Imperial War Cabinet , which included representatives from the Dominions. Under the War Cabinet were the Chief of the Imperial General Staff or CIGS , responsible for all Imperial ground forces, and

3408-840: The Central Powers of Germany , Austria-Hungary , the Ottoman Empire , and Bulgaria in World War I (1914–1918). By the end of the first decade of the 20th century, the major European powers were divided between the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance . The Triple Entente was made up of the United Kingdom, France, and Russia. The Triple Alliance was originally composed of Germany, Austria–Hungary, and Italy, but Italy remained neutral in 1914. As

3550-683: The League of the Three Emperors , then with Germany in the 1887–1890 Reinsurance Treaty ; both collapsed due to the competing interests of Austria and Russia in the Balkans . While France took advantage of this to agree the 1894 Franco-Russian Alliance , Britain viewed Russia with deep suspicion; in 1800, over 3,000 kilometres separated the Russian Empire and British India, by 1902, it was 30 km in some areas. This threatened to bring

3692-739: The Mariana , Caroline , and Marshall Islands , while in 1917, a Japanese naval squadron was sent to support the Allies in the Mediterranean Sea . Japan's primary interest was in China and in January 1915, the Chinese government was presented with a secret ultimatum of Twenty-One Demands , demanding extensive economic and political concessions. While these were eventually modified, the result

3834-611: The Paris Peace Conference recognized the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States as "the Principal Allied and Associated Powers". When the war began in 1914, the Central Powers were opposed by the Triple Entente , formed in 1907 when the agreement between the United Kingdom and Russia complemented existing agreements between the three powers. Fighting commenced when Austria invaded Serbia on 28 July 1914, purportedly in response to

3976-620: The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918. Romania was forced to do the same in the May 1918 Treaty of Bucharest but on 10 November, it repudiated the Treaty and once more declared war on the Central Powers. These changes meant the Allies who negotiated the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 included the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan and the United States; Part One of the Treaty agreed to

4118-635: The Wannsee Conference in January 1942, the Auswärtiges Amt was represented by Martin Luther , who agreed that the Auswärtiges Amt would do everything within its power to persuade the governments of neutral and allied states to hand over their Jewish populations to be exterminated. Later on in 1942, Ambassador Otto Abetz arranged for the deportation of 25,000 French Jews to the death camps in Poland while Ambassador Hanns Ludin arranged for

4260-679: The Yser Front throughout the war. This allowed Belgium to be treated as an Ally, in contrast to Luxembourg which retained control over domestic affairs but was occupied by the German military . In the East, between 7 and 9 August the Russians entered German East Prussia on 7 August, Austrian Eastern Galicia . Japan joined the Entente by declaring war on Germany on 23 August, then Austria on 25 August. On 2 September, Japanese forces surrounded

4402-583: The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand , heir to Emperor Franz Joseph I ; this brought Serbia's ally Montenegro into the war on 8 August and it attacked the Austrian naval base at Cattaro , modern Kotor. At the same time, German troops carried out the Schlieffen Plan , entering neutral Belgium and Luxembourg ; over 95% of Belgium was occupied but the Belgian Army held their lines on

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4544-608: The military invasion of Veracruz in 1914, Mexico did not participate in any military excursion with the United States in World War I. That ensured that Mexican neutrality was the best outcome that the United States could hope for even if it allowed German companies to keep their operations in Mexico open. The decryption was possible after the failure of the Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition to Afghanistan , when Wilhelm Wassmuss abandoned his codebook, which

4686-422: The 1914 Ypiranga incident . German Naval Intelligence officer Franz von Rintelen had attempted to incite a war between Mexico and the United States in 1915, giving Victoriano Huerta $ 12 million for that purpose. The German saboteur Lothar Witzke , who was based in Mexico City, claimed to be responsible for the March 1917 munitions explosion at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in the San Francisco Bay Area, and

4828-404: The 1950s, most Germans did not go to university). The requirement that one had to have a university degree to enter the Auswärtiges Amt effectively guaranteed upper-class dominance of the Auswärtiges Amt . All of the senior diplomats in the 1930s were veterans of the struggle to win Germany "world power status" in the first years of the 20th century. Hitler's goal of making Germany into

4970-401: The 19th century, Britain sought to maintain the European balance of power without formal alliances, a policy known as splendid isolation . This left it dangerously exposed as Europe divided into opposing power blocs and the 1895–1905 Conservative government negotiated first the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance , then the 1904 Entente Cordiale with France. The first tangible result of this shift

5112-419: The 548 men who served in the Auswärtiges Amt were noblemen , and every single ambassador during the German Reich was an aristocrat . The most important department by far was the Political Department which between 1871 and 1918 was 61% aristocratic; middle-class men tended to serve in the less important Legal, Trade and Colonial Departments. In the 19th century, it was believed that only aristocrats had

5254-473: The Allies later recovered, and allowed the British to decrypt the Zimmermann telegram. Zimmermann's office sent the telegram to the German embassy in the United States for retransmission to Von Eckardt in Mexico. It has traditionally been understood that the telegram was sent over three routes. It went by radio, and passed via telegraph cable inside messages sent by diplomats of two neutral countries (the United States and Sweden). Direct telegraph transmission of

5396-424: The American Embassy in Britain. Bell was at first incredulous and thought that it was a forgery. Once Bell was convinced the message was genuine, he became enraged. On February 20, Hall informally sent a copy to US Ambassador Walter Hines Page . On February 23, Page met with British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour and was given the codetext, the message in German, and the English translation. The British had obtained

5538-416: The American President Theodore Roosevelt a series of letters telling him that Germany and the United States must join forces to stop the "yellow peril", especially Japan from conquering the world. It took the diplomats a long time to tell Wilhelm that Roosevelt was a Japanophile who was not impressed with Wilhelm's call for an alliance based on anti-Asian racism. A nation with whom the Auswärtiges Amt

5680-484: The American subsidiary of the German entity. The Swedish diplomatic message holding the Zimmerman telegram went from Stockholm to Buenos Aires over British submarine telegraph cables, and then moved from Buenos Aires to Mexico over the cable network of a United States company. After the Germans' telegraph cables had been cut, the German Foreign Office appealed to the United States for use of their diplomatic telegraphic messages for peace messages. President Wilson agreed in

5822-412: The Americans agreed to back the official cover story. The German Foreign Office refused to consider that their codes could have been broken but sent Von Eckardt on a witch hunt for a traitor in the embassy in Mexico. Von Eckardt indignantly rejected those accusations, and the Foreign Office eventually declared the embassy exonerated. On February 19, Hall showed the telegram to Edward Bell, the secretary of

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5964-426: The Americans the message was not a forgery. For the first story, the British obtained the coded text of the telegram from the Mexican commercial telegraph office. The British knew that since the German embassy in Washington would relay the message by commercial telegraph, the Mexican telegraph office would have the coded text. "Mr. H", a British agent in Mexico, bribed an employee of the commercial telegraph company for

6106-409: The Armenian genocide were "ignored" by the leadership of Auswärtiges Amt , who valued good relations with the Ottoman empire more than they did the lives of the Armenians. In 1919, the Foreign Office was reorganised as the Auswärtiges Amt and a modern structure was established. It was now under the authority of a foreign minister , though still called Amt for traditional reasons. In 1922,

6248-432: The British and French on the Western Front and strangle Britain with unrestricted submarine warfare before American forces could be trained and shipped to Europe in sufficient numbers to aid the Allies. The Germans were encouraged by their successes on the Eastern Front to believe that they could divert large numbers of troops to the Western Front in support of their goals. Mexican President Venustiano Carranza assigned

6390-427: The British army and Royal Navy were committed to support France in the event of war with Germany but even in the British government, very few were aware of the extent of these commitments. In response to Germany's declaration of war on Russia, France issued a general mobilisation in expectation of war on 2 August and on 3 August, Germany also declared war on France. Germany's ultimatum to Belgium brought Britain into

6532-426: The British had the ability to prove the authenticity of the message to the American government. As a cover story, the British could publicly claim that their agents had stolen the telegram's decoded text in Mexico. Privately, the British needed to give the Americans the 13040 code so that the American government could verify the authenticity of the message independently with their own commercial telegraphic records, but

6674-442: The British, but he delayed until March 1, 1917. Many Americans then held anti-Mexican as well as anti-German views. Mexicans had a considerable amount of anti-American sentiment in return, some of which was caused by the American occupation of Veracruz . General John J. Pershing had long been chasing the revolutionary Pancho Villa for raiding into American territory and carried out several cross-border expeditions. News of

6816-523: The East. The growth of the Russian railway network and increase in speed of mobilisation made rapid victory over France even more important; to accommodate the additional 170,000 troops approved by the 1913 Army Bill, the 'incursion' now became a full-scale invasion. The Germans accepted the risk of British intervention; in common with most of Europe, they expected it to be a short war while their London Ambassador claimed civil war in Ireland would prevent Britain from assisting its Entente partners. On 3 August,

6958-556: The Entente in return for German territories in the Pacific, greatly annoying the Australian government which also wanted them. On 7 August 1914, Britain officially asked for assistance in destroying German naval units in China and Japan formally declared war on Germany on 23 August 1914, followed by Austria-Hungary on 25 August 1914. On 2 September 1914, Japanese forces surrounded the German Treaty Port of Qingdao , then known as Tsingtao, which surrendered on 7 November. The Imperial Japanese Navy simultaneously occupied German colonies in

7100-399: The Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau was assassinated by members of the Organisation Consul , which reviled him both as a Jew and a supposed contributor to "creeping communism" for having negotiated the Treaty of Rapallo with Soviet Russia . The most notable head of the Foreign Office during the Weimar Republic was Gustav Stresemann , foreign minister from 1923 to 1929, who strived for

7242-415: The Foreign Office was led by a Foreign Secretary, and since 1919, it has been led by the Foreign Minister of Germany. The Auswärtiges Amt was established in 1870 to form the foreign policy of the North German Confederation , and from 1871 of the German Empire . The Foreign Office was originally led by a state secretary (therefore not called a ministry), while the Chancellor , who usually also held

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7384-399: The French and German militaries accepted Germany would almost certainly violate Belgian neutrality in the event of war, the extent of that was unclear. The original Schlieffen Plan only required a limited incursion into the Belgian Ardennes , rather than a full-scale invasion; in September 1911, the Belgian Foreign Minister told a British Embassy official they would not call for assistance if

7526-424: The French lost nearly 300,000 dead on the Western Front, more than Britain suffered in the whole of WWII and the gaps were partly filled by colonial troops, over 500,000 of whom served on the Western Front over the period 1914–1918. Colonial troops also fought at Gallipoli , occupied Togo and Kamerun in West Africa and had a minor role in the Middle East, where France was the traditional protector of Christians in

7668-404: The German Treaty Port of Tsingtao (now Qingdao) in China and occupied German colonies in the Pacific, including the Mariana , Caroline , and Marshall Islands . Despite its membership of the Triple Alliance , Italy remained neutral until 23 May 1915 when it joined the Entente, declaring war on Austria but not Germany. On 17 January 1916, Montenegro capitulated and left the Entente; this

7810-551: The German civil service in the Nazi period. Those diplomats involved in the attempts to overthrow Hitler such as Count Ulrich von Hassell , Adam von Trott zu Solz , Count Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg , Richard Kuenzer, Hans Bernd von Haeften , and Edmund Brücklmeir comprised a small minority of the Auswärtiges Amt . The German historian Hans-Adolf Jacobsen  [ de ] wrote that for those diplomats who chose to become involved in Widerstand , given that they were steeped in Prussian traditions where loyalty to

7952-452: The Germans limited themselves to that. While neither Britain or France could allow Germany to occupy Belgium unopposed, a Belgian refusal to ask for help would complicate matters for the British Liberal government , which contained a significant isolationist element. However, the key German objective was to avoid war on two fronts; France had to be defeated before Russia could fully mobilise and give time for German forces to be transferred to

8094-423: The Holocaust. It was an open secret." In October 1941, when Franz Rademacher visited Belgrade to meet officials of the Government of National Salvation of General Milan Nedić of Serbia, he submitted an expense claim for his trip to his superiors at the Auswärtiges Amt after his return to Berlin; on his expenses claim, Rademacher described the purpose of his trip to Belgrade as the "liquidation of Jews". At

8236-453: The Holy See 1943–1945) and Baron Gustav Adolf Steengracht von Moyland (State Secretary 1943–1945). The overlap in goals between the professional diplomats and the Nazis were well illustrated by the memo on what should be the foreign policy of the Hitler government written by Bülow in March 1933 calling for Germany to recover the borders of 1914 and all of the lost colonies, annexation of Austria, and German domination of Eastern Europe. During

8378-419: The Italian Army , died on 1 July 1914, taking many of the prospects for Italian support with him. The Italian Prime Minister Antonio Salandra argued that as the Alliance was defensive in nature, Austria's aggression against Serbia and Italy's exclusion from the decision-making process meant it was not obliged to join them. His caution was understandable because France and Britain either supplied or controlled

8520-422: The Middle East. Australian troops separately occupied German New Guinea , with the South Africans doing the same in German South West Africa ; this resulted in the Maritz rebellion by former Boers, which was quickly suppressed. After the war, New Guinea and South-West Africa became Protectorates , held until 1975 and 1990 respectively. Between 1873 and 1887, Russia was allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary in

8662-418: The Nazi regime. Officially, the men of the Auswärtiges Amt were supposed to be non-political, but in practice the diplomats formed a "quite exclusive group" with extremely conservative views and values. For these men, unconditional loyalty to the state was the highest possible value, and though the majority of the diplomats were not ideological National Socialists, they served the Nazi regime loyally until

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8804-430: The Neurath years (1932–1938), there were very few "outsiders" allowed into the Auswärtiges Amt . Aside from Ribbentrop, who served as variously as Commissioner of Disarmament (1934–35), Extraordinary Ambassador-at-Large (1935–36), and Ambassador to Great Britain (1936–1938), the most notable of the "outsiders" were Franz von Papen (Ambassador to Austria 1934–1938 and to Turkey 1939–1944), Hans Luther (Ambassador to

8946-423: The Ottoman Empire, the centrepiece being the planned Berlin–Baghdad railway , with Serbia the only section not controlled by a pro-German state. The exact role played by Serbian officials in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is still debated but despite complying with most of their demands, Austria-Hungary invaded on 28 July 1914. While Serbia successfully repulsed the Austro-Hungarian army in 1914, it

9088-437: The Ottoman provinces of Syria , Palestine and Lebanon . Prior to the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan was a semi-feudal, largely agrarian state with few natural resources and limited technology. By 1914, it had transformed itself into a modern industrial state, with a powerful military; by defeating China in the First Sino-Japanese War during 1894–1895, it established itself as the primary power in East Asia and colonised

9230-439: The Past written by historians and released by the German government in October 2010 shows that wartime-era diplomats played an important role in assisting the Nazis in carrying out the Holocaust, and disproved the claim often made after 1945 that German diplomats were "sand in the machine" who acted to moderate the actions of the Nazi regime. In a 2010 interview, the German historian Eckart Conze , who had been in charge of

9372-426: The President of Mexico of the above in the greatest confidence as soon as it is certain that there will be an outbreak of war with the United States, and suggest that the President of Mexico shall on his own initiative communicate with Japan suggesting the latter's adherence at once to this plan, and at the same time offer to mediate between Germany and Japan. Please call to the attention of the President of Mexico that

9514-461: The Reichstag, "the instructions...came into its hands in a way which was not unobjectionable." On April 6, 1917, Congress voted to declare war on Germany . Wilson had asked Congress for "a war to end all wars " that would "make the world safe for democracy". Wilson considered another military invasion of Veracruz and Tampico in 1917–1918, to pacify the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and Tampico oil fields and to ensure their continued production during

9656-434: The Treaty of Versailles and make the German Reich into a world power. The majority of the diplomats were able to sign their names on to such a program." In March 1933, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Prittwitz und Gaffron , the Ambassador to the United States, resigned on the grounds that he could not in good conscience serve the Nazi government; he was the only member of the entire Auswärtiges Amt who resigned in protest at

9798-400: The Triple Entente with France, which at this stage was largely informal. In 1908, Austria annexed the former Ottoman province of Bosnia and Herzegovina ; Russia responded by creating the Balkan League in order to prevent further Austrian expansion. In the 1912–1913 First Balkan War , Serbia , Bulgaria and Greece captured most of the remaining Ottoman possessions in Europe; disputes over

9940-407: The United States 1933–1937), Colonel Hermann Kriebel (Consul in Shanghai 1934–1939), and General Wilhelm Faupel (Ambassador to Spain 1936–37). Most diplomats were not believers in National Socialism, but during Nazi rule, many diplomats such as Neurath himself joined the NSDAP and/or the SS as an opportunistic way of improving their career prospects; such self-interested careerism was rampant amongst

10082-1341: The United States. The telegram instructed Von Eckardt that if the United States appeared certain to enter the war, he was to approach the Mexican government with a proposal for military alliance with funding from Germany. The decoded telegram was as follows: Original (German): Wir beabsichtigen am 1. Februar uneingeschränkten Ubootkrieg zu beginnen. Es wird Versucht werden, Amerika trotzdem neutral zu halten. Für den Fall, daß dies nicht gelingen sollte, schlagen wir Mexico mit folgender Grundlage Bündnis vor; Gemeinsame Kriegführung, gemeinsamer Friedensschluß. Reichliche finzanzielle Unterstützung und Einverständnis unsererseits, daß Mexiko in Texas, Neu Mexiko, Arizona früher verlorenes Gebiet zurückerobert. Regelung im einzelnen Euer Hochwohlgeboren überlassen. Euer pp. wollen Vorstehendes Präsidenten streng geheim eröffnen, sobald Kriegsausbruch mit Vereinigten Staaten feststeht und Anregung hinzufügen, Japan von sich aus zu fortigem Beitritt einzuladen und gleichzeitig zwischen uns und Japan zu vermitteln. Bitte Präsidenten darauf hinweisen, daß rücksichtslose Anwendung unserer U-boote jetzt Aussicht bietet, England in wenigen Monaten zum Frieden zu zwingen. Empfang bestätigen. Zimmerman. Translated: On February 1 we intend to begin submarine warfare without restriction. In spite of this it

10224-672: The Ypiranga incident and against the advice of the British government. War was prevented thanks to the Niagara Falls peace conference organized by the ABC nations , but the occupation was a decisive factor in Mexican neutrality in World War I . Mexico refused to participate in the embargo against Germany and granted full guarantees to the German companies for keeping their operations open, specifically in Mexico City. The Zimmermann telegram

10366-544: The Zimmermann telegram which had not been declassified held by The National Archives at Kew (formerly the PRO ). Federal Foreign Office The term Auswärtiges Amt was the name of the Foreign Office established in 1870 by the North German Confederation , which then became the German Empire 's Foreign Office in 1871. It is still the name of the German foreign ministry today. From 1871 to 1919,

10508-696: The actual results of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles would be powerful factors in the rise of Benito Mussolini . In 1817, the Principality of Serbia became an autonomous province within the Ottoman Empire ; with Russian support, it gained full independence after the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War . Many Serbs viewed Russia as protector of the South Slavs in general but also specifically against Bulgaria, where Russian objectives increasingly collided with Bulgarian nationalism . When Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, Russia responded by creating

10650-581: The ambassador in Washington, D.C., stated to American journalists that reports of a systematic campaign of extermination against the Armenian minority in the Ottoman empire were all "pure inventions", that these reports were all the work of British propaganda and no such campaign of extermination was taking place. Wangenheim's successor as ambassador to the Sublime Porte, Count Paul Wolff Metternich ,

10792-573: The belief both that such co-operation would sustain continued good relations with Germany and that more efficient German–American diplomacy could assist Wilson's goal of a negotiated end to the war. The Germans handed in messages to the American embassy in Berlin, which were relayed to the embassy in Denmark and then to the United States by American telegraph operators. The Germans assumed that this route

10934-420: The best dressed officials in the entire German government, contributing to the Auswärtiges Amt ' s glamorous, stylist image. There were no female diplomats, and besides for the women employed as secretaries, clerks and cleaners, the Auswärtiges Amt had no female employees. That the men of the Auswärtiges Amt formed an elitist group can be seen that every single diplomat had a university degree (before

11076-571: The civil war, but this time, Mexican President Venustiano Carranza , recently installed, threatened to destroy the oil fields if the US Marines landed there. The Japanese government, another nation mentioned in the Zimmerman telegram, was already involved in World War I , on the side of the Allies against Germany. The government later released a statement that Japan was not interested in changing sides or attacking America. In October 2005, it

11218-637: The committee to investigate the war-time actions of the Auswärtiges Amt , stated that the Auswärtiges Amt was a "criminal organization" that was as every bit involved in the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" as the SS were. In another interview, Conze stated: "This document makes it clear that all officials in the Foreign Ministry—including low-level office clerks—knew about the mass persecution of Jews and were actively involved in

11360-664: The countries that fought for the Allies were also part of the Entente powers such as American Philippines , Belgian Congo , British India , French Algeria , and Japanese Korea . The United States joined near the end of the war in 1917 (the same year in which Russia withdrew from the conflict) as an "associated power" rather than an official ally. Other "associated members" included Serbia , Belgium , Montenegro , Asir , Nejd and Hasa , Portugal , Romania , Hejaz , Panama , Cuba , Greece , China , Siam , Brazil , Armenia , Luxembourg , Guatemala , Nicaragua , Costa Rica , Haiti , Liberia , and Honduras . The treaties signed at

11502-536: The defender of its fellow Slavs and on 30 July, mobilized in support of Serbia. In response, Germany declared war on Russia on 1 August, followed by Austria-Hungary on 6th; after Ottoman warships bombarded Odesa in late October, the Entente declared war on the Ottoman Empire in November 1914. French defeat in the 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War led to the loss of the two provinces of Alsace-Lorraine and

11644-479: The deportation of 50,000 Slovak Jews to the death camps. In the spring of 1944, Ambassador Edmund Veesenmayer played a key role in having 400,000 Hungarian Jews deported to Auschwitz . In 2003, the French historian Lucas Delattre published a biography of Fritz Kolbe , a mid-ranking diplomat who become a spy for the American Office of Strategic Services because he believed his country deserved to lose

11786-477: The disclosure would expose the German codes broken in Room 40 and British eavesdropping on United States diplomatic traffic. Hall waited three weeks during which de Grey and cryptographer William Montgomery completed the decryption. On February 1, Germany announced resumption of "unrestricted" submarine warfare, an act that led the United States to break off diplomatic relations with Germany on February 3. Hall passed

11928-579: The division of these resulted in the Second Balkan War , in which Bulgaria was comprehensively defeated by its former allies. Russia's industrial base and railway network had significantly improved since 1905, although from a relatively low base; in 1913, Tsar Nicholas approved an increase in the Russian Army of over 500,000 men. Although there was no formal alliance between Russia and Serbia, their close bilateral links provided Russia with

12070-423: The earliest occasions on which a piece of signals intelligence influenced world events. The decryption was possible after the failure of the Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition to Afghanistan , when Wilhelm Wassmuss abandoned his codebook, which the Allies later recovered, and allowed the British to decrypt the Zimmermann telegram. The message came in the form of a coded telegram dispatched by Arthur Zimmermann ,

12212-501: The employment of ruthless submarine warfare now promises to compel England to make peace in a few month [ sic ]. – Zimmerman. (The signature dropped the second n of the name Zimmermann for telegraphic purposes.) Germany had long sought to incite a war between Mexico and the United States, which would have tied down American forces and slowed the export of American arms to the Allies . The Germans had aided in arming Mexico, as shown by

12354-518: The entire population. In 1830, the southern provinces of the Netherlands broke away to form the Kingdom of Belgium and their independence was confirmed by the 1839 Treaty of London . Article VII of the Treaty required Belgium to remain perpetually neutral and committed Austria, France, Germany and Russia to guarantee that against aggression by any other state, including the signatories. While

12496-591: The establishment of the League of Nations on 25 January 1919. This came into being on 16 January 1920 with Britain, France, Italy and Japan as permanent members of the Executive Council; the US Senate voted against ratification of the treaty on 19 March, thus preventing the United States from joining the League. For similar statistics of the Central Powers, see Central_Powers#Statistics . For much of

12638-639: The establishment of the Third Republic . The suppression of the Paris Commune by the new regime caused deep political divisions and led to a series of bitter political struggles, such as the Dreyfus affair . As a result, aggressive nationalism or Revanchism was one of the few areas to unite the French. The loss of Alsace-Lorraine deprived France of its natural defence line on the Rhine , while it

12780-559: The exception, not the rule. In addition to the ministry's headquarters in Berlin, Germany has established embassies and consulates around the world. Allies of World War I Associated allies and co-belligerents: The Allies , the Entente or the Triple Entente was an international military coalition of countries led by France , the United Kingdom , Russia , the United States , Italy , and Japan against

12922-557: The execution of German foreign policy. As a whole, the Wilhelmstrasse was never entirely in charge of foreign policy in the German Empire , but was instead just one out of several agencies, albeit a very important one that made and executed foreign policy. In the years 1904–1907, the Reich attempted to form an alliance with the United States on the basis of the supposedly shared fear of the " Yellow Peril " with Wilhelm writing to

13064-594: The expansion of its railway network, particularly in border areas with Germany and Austria-Hungary. However, Russian defeat in the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War damaged its credibility, while Britain's isolation during the Second Boer War meant both countries sought additional allies. This resulted in the 1904 Entente Cordiale with Britain; like the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention , for domestic British consumption it focused on settling colonial disputes but led to informal co-operation in other areas. By 1914, both

13206-466: The governments of General Kurt von Schleicher and Adolf Hitler . During the Nazi period, Neurath found himself exposed to increasing competition from Nazi politicians like Alfred Rosenberg and Joachim von Ribbentrop . In February 1938, Hitler fired Neurath and replaced him with Ribbentrop. In 1933, the vast majority of the diplomats serving in the Auswärtiges Amt came from upper-class families with

13348-430: The highly-provocative war proposal to Mexico, the telegram also mentioned "ruthless employment of our submarines". Public opinion demanded action. Wilson had refused to assign US Navy crews and guns to the merchant ships, but once the Zimmermann note was public, Wilson called for arming the merchant ships although antiwar members of the US Senate blocked his proposal. The Wilson administration nevertheless remained with

13490-631: The idea of an independent Albania , since this would prevent Serbian access to the Austrian-controlled Adriatic Sea . The success of the Albanian revolt in 1912 threatened Serbian ambitions for the incorporation of " Old Serbia " into its domain and exposed the weakness of the Ottoman Empire. This led to the outbreak of the First Balkan War , with Serbia , Montenegro , Bulgaria and Greece capturing most of

13632-566: The import of most of Italy's raw materials, including 90% of its coal. Salandra described the process of choosing a side as 'sacred egoism,' but as the war was expected to end before mid-1915 at the latest, making this decision became increasingly urgent. In line with Italy's obligations under the Triple Alliance, the bulk of the army was concentrated on Italy's border with France; in October, Pollio's replacement, General Luigi Cadorna ,

13774-675: The largest component (after Britain herself) was the British Raj or British India, which included modern India , Pakistan , Myanmar and Bangladesh . Unlike other colonies which came under the Colonial Office , it was governed directly by the India Office or by princes loyal to the British; it also controlled British interests in the Persian Gulf , such as the Trucial States and Oman . Over one million soldiers of

13916-635: The middle of the war. As the Ottoman empire today would be considered a third world country with almost no modern industry, the Ottoman government was entirely dependent upon weapons from Germany to fight World War I, giving the Reich a powerful form of leverage to apply against the Ottomans on behalf of the Armenians if only the political will in Berlin had been present. In a 2015 speech, the German president Joachim Gauck apologized for his country's inaction, stating that those diplomats who protested against

14058-490: The office of Prussian Minister of Foreign Affairs, remained in charge of foreign affairs. In the first years of the German nation-state under Otto von Bismarck , the Foreign Office on Wilhelmstrasse No. 76 next to the Reich Chancellery had two departments: one for political affairs and the other for economic, legal and consular matters. After Bismarck's dismissal in 1890, another department for colonial policy

14200-493: The order and relaxed the wireless rules to allow coded messages to be sent. Thus the Germans were able to persuade US Ambassador James W. Gerard to accept Zimmermann's note in coded form, and it was transmitted on January 16, 1917. All traffic passing through British hands came to British intelligence , particularly to the codebreakers and analysts in Room 40 at the Admiralty . In Room 40, Nigel de Grey had partially decoded

14342-418: The proper social standing and graces to correctly represent the Reich abroad as ambassadors, which explains why no commoner was ever appointed ambassador during the Imperial era. Additionally, during the entire duration of the "old" Auswärtiges Amt from 1871 to 1945, Catholics were underrepresented in the Auswärtiges Amt , comprising between 15 and 20% of the AA's personnel. The Auswärtiges Amt

14484-533: The reassurance needed to take on Russia in the 1905 Russo-Japanese War ; victory established Japan in the Chinese province of Manchuria . With Japan as an ally in the Far East, John Fisher , First Sea Lord from 1904 to 1910, was able to refocus British naval resources in the North Sea to counter the threat from the Imperial German Navy . The Alliance was renewed in 1911; in 1914, Japan joined

14626-501: The remaining Ottoman possessions in Europe. Disputes over the division of these resulted in the Second Balkan War , in which Bulgaria was comprehensively defeated by its former allies. As a result of the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest , Serbia increased its territory by 100% and its population by 64%. However, it now faced a hostile Austria-Hungary, a resentful Bulgaria and resistance in its conquered territories . Germany too had ambitions in

14768-458: The risk was acceptable; they expected a short war while their ambassador in London claimed troubles in Ireland would prevent Britain from assisting France. On 3 August, Germany demanded unimpeded progress through any part of Belgium and when this was refused, invaded early on the morning of 4 August. This changed the situation; the invasion of Belgium consolidated political and public support for

14910-487: The state was the highest virtue, it required "extraordinary strength of character" for them to go against everything that they had been taught to believe in. After Germany's defeat in May 1945, the country was occupied and the German state was abolished by the Allies. The country was administered as four zones controlled respectively by the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union. In August 1949,

15052-565: The telegram by the next day. By 1917, the diplomatic code 13040 had been in use for many years. Since there had been ample time for Room 40 to reconstruct the code cryptanalytically, it was readable to a fair degree. Room 40 had obtained German cryptographic documents, including the diplomatic code 3512 (captured during the Mesopotamian campaign ), which was a later updated code that was similar to but not really related to code 13040, and naval code SKM (Signalbuch der Kaiserlichen Marine), ⁠which

15194-419: The telegram further inflamed tensions between the United States and Mexico. However, many Americans, particularly those with German or Irish ancestry, wished to avoid the conflict in Europe. Since the public had been told falsely that the telegram had been stolen in a decoded form in Mexico, the message was at first widely believed to be an elaborate forgery created by British intelligence. That belief, which

15336-484: The telegram to the British Foreign Office on February 5 but still warned against releasing it. Meanwhile, the British discussed possible cover stories to explain to the Americans how they obtained the coded text of the telegram and to explain how they obtained the cleartext of the telegram without letting anyone know that the codes had been broken. Furthermore, the British needed to find a way to convince

15478-682: The telegram was impossible because the British had cut the German international cables at the outbreak of war. However, Germany could communicate wirelessly through the Telefunken plant, operating under Atlantic Communication Company in West Sayville, New York , where the telegram was relayed to the Mexican Consulate. Ironically, the station was under the control of the US Navy , which operated it for Atlantic Communication Company,

15620-408: The telegram without revealing the extent to which the latest German codes had been broken. (At worst, the Germans might have realized that the 13040 code had been compromised, but that was a risk worth taking against the possibility of United States entry into the war.) Finally, since copies of the 13040 code text would also have been deposited in the records of the American commercial telegraph company,

15762-646: The then-unified Korea and Formosa, now modern Taiwan . Concerned by Russian expansion in Korea and Manchuria , Britain and Japan signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance on 30 January 1902, agreeing if either were attacked by a third party, the other would remain neutral and if attacked by two or more opponents, the other would come to its aid. This meant Japan could rely on British support in a war with Russia, if either France or Germany, which also had interests in China, decided to join them. This gave Japan

15904-413: The truth back to Berlin. Right from the start, the Auswärtiges Amt was very socially exclusive. To join, one needed a university degree, preferably in jurisprudence and needed to prove that one had a considerable private income. In 1880, a candidate had to prove that he had a private income of at least 6,000 marks /annum in order to join; by 1900, the requirement was 10,000 marks/annum and by 1912,

16046-621: The two into direct conflict, as did the long-held Russian objective of gaining control of the Bosporus Straits and with it access to the British-dominated Mediterranean Sea . Defeat in the 1905 Russo-Japanese War and Britain's isolation during the 1899–1902 Second Boer War led both parties to seek allies. The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 settled disputes in Asia and allowed the establishment of

16188-438: The very end. The dominance of the traditional "insiders" at the Auswärtiges Amt can be seen that every State Secretary during the Nazi era was a professional diplomat. The State Secretaries of Nazi Germany were Prince Bernhard von Bülow (State Secretary 1930–36), Count Hans Georg von Mackensen (State Secretary 1936–1938 and ambassador to Italy 1938–1942), Baron Ernst von Weizsäcker (State Secretary 1938–1943 and ambassador to

16330-556: The war by presenting what appeared to be a simple moral and strategic choice. The Belgians asked for assistance under the 1839 Treaty and in response, Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914. Although Germany's violation of Belgium neutrality was not the only cause of British entry into the war, it was used extensively in government propaganda at home and abroad to make the case for British intervention. This confusion arguably persists today. The declaration of war automatically involved all dominions and colonies and protectorates of

16472-432: The war on 4 August, although France did not declare war on Austria-Hungary until 12 August. As with Britain, France's colonies also became part of the war; pre-1914, French soldiers and politicians advocated using French African recruits to help compensate for France's demographic weakness. But it eventually proved useless, the soldiers from Metropolitan France still undertook all the tasks. From August to December 1914,

16614-508: The war on the account of the genocide it was waging against the Jews. Delattre stated that Kolbe really was a case of a diplomat being "sand in the machine" as Kolbe provided intelligence to help his country lose the war, but added sarcastically that if every German civil servant really were "sand in the machine" as almost all of them claimed to be after 1945 that Hitler would never had managed to get anything done. Diplomats like Kolbe were very much

16756-576: The war progressed, each coalition added new members. Japan joined the Entente in 1914 and, despite proclaiming its neutrality at the beginning of the war, Italy also joined the Entente in 1915. The term "Allies" became more widely used than "Entente" , although the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and Italy were also referred to as the Quadruple Entente and, together with Japan, as the Quintuple Entente . The colonies administered by

16898-489: The words: "This is the one handed to Dr Page and exposed by the President." Since many of the secret documents in this incident had been destroyed, it had previously been assumed that the original typed "decrypt" was gone forever. However, after the discovery of this document, the GCHQ official historian said: "I believe that this is indeed the same document that Balfour handed to Page." As of 2006, there were six "closed" files on

17040-410: The world's dominant power. The Auswärtiges Amt was split into three factions competing against one another, namely one faction of men loyal to Bismarck, another faction loyal to Friedrich von Holstein , and yet another faction led by Prince Philipp von Eulenburg and Prince Bernhard von Bülow , who would later become chancellor. This constant plotting and scheming between these factions weakened

17182-601: The world's greatest power was thus a foreign policy goal that the diplomats embraced quite headily. The German historian Eckart Conze stated about the overlap in viewpoints between the diplomats and the Nazis: "...the top diplomats in the Weimar Republic were opposed to a liberal political order and parliamentarianism. And then the Nazis built political and ideological bridges for them. They announced their intention to reverse

17324-582: Was British support for France against Germany in the 1905 Moroccan Crisis . The 1905–1915 Liberal government continued this re-alignment with the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention . Like the Anglo-Japanese and Entente agreements, it focused on settling colonial disputes but by doing so paved the way for wider co-operation and allowed Britain to refocus resources in response to German naval expansion . Since control of Belgium allowed an opponent to threaten invasion or blockade British trade, preventing it

17466-577: Was a long-standing British strategic interest. Under Article VII of the 1839 Treaty of London , Britain guaranteed Belgian neutrality against aggression by any other state, by force if required. Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg later dismissed this as a 'scrap of paper,' but British law officers routinely confirmed it as a binding legal obligation and its importance was well understood by Germany. The 1911 Agadir Crisis led to secret discussions between France and Britain in case of war with Germany. These agreed that within two weeks of its outbreak,

17608-563: Was a surge of anti-Japanese nationalism in China and an economic boycott of Japanese goods. In addition, the other Allies now saw Japan as a threat, rather than a partner, lead to tensions first with Russia, then the US after it entered the war in April 1917. Despite protests from the other Allies, after the war Japan refused to return Qingdao and the province of Shandong to China. The 1882 Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy

17750-544: Was appalled by the Armenian genocide, and, unlike Wangenheim, Metternich was prepared to speak out against the genocide. In August 1916, the triumvirate known as the Three Pashas , which ruled the Ottoman empire, informed the German government that if Count Metternich was not recalled, he would be declared persona non grata . Metternich was promptly recalled from Constantinople rather risk a public relations disaster which potentially could damage German-Ottoman relations in

17892-644: Was established, spun off as the separate Reichskolonialamt in 1907. Bismarck in order to maintain his control of the Auswärtiges Amt appointed his son Herbert von Bismarck as State Secretary. That Bismarck appointed his son as State Secretary reflected his determination to be his own foreign minister, and his need for an utterly loyal man to run the Auswärtiges Amt when he was not around. Bismarck would not accept opinions contrary to his own, and only those diplomats who were devoted to him rose to high rank. Bismarck greatly valued accurate information, and as such diplomats tended to report what they believed to be

18034-462: Was exhausted by the two Balkan Wars and unable to replace its losses of men and equipment. In 1915, Bulgaria joined the Central Powers and by the end of the year, a combined Bulgar-Austrian-German army occupied most of Serbia. Between 1914 and 1918, Serbia suffered the greatest proportional losses of any combatant, with over 25% of all those mobilised becoming casualties; including civilians and deaths from disease, over 1.2 million died, nearly 30% of

18176-519: Was intercepted by British intelligence . Revelation of the contents enraged Americans, especially after German State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Arthur Zimmermann publicly admitted on March 3, 1917, that the telegram was genuine. It helped to generate support for the American declaration of war on Germany in April 1917. The decryption has been described as the most significant intelligence triumph for Britain during World War I and it marked one of

18318-451: Was largely a Protestant institution with Protestant candidates favored over Catholic candidates when it came to recruitment. Even more underrepresented were the Jews. During the Imperial period from 1871 to 1918, the Auswärtiges Amt had only three Jewish members, plus four Jews who had converted to Lutheranism in order to improve their career prospects. If Jews were not formally excluded, Jewish candidates were rarely accepted because of

18460-658: Was much concerned during the Imperial period was the Ottoman empire , especially during the Armenian genocide . In 1915, the German ambassador to the Sublime Porte , Baron Hans von Wangenheim told the American ambassador to the Sublime Porte, Henry Morgenthau Sr. : "I do not blame the Turks for what they are doing to the Armenians... They are entirely justified". On September 28, 1915 Count Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff ,

18602-462: Was not reestablished until 15 March 1951. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer took office as the first Foreign Minister in Bonn until he was succeeded by Heinrich von Brentano in 1955. By and large, the men who had served in the new Auswärtiges Amt were the same men who had served in the old Auswärtiges Amt . In a Bundestag debate on 23 October 1952, Adenauer admitted that 66% of the diplomats of

18744-622: Was not restricted to pacifist and pro-German lobbies, was promoted by German and Mexican diplomats alongside some antiwar American newspapers, especially those of the Hearst press empire. On February 1, 1917, Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare against all ships in the Atlantic bearing the American flag, both passenger and merchant ships. Two ships were sunk in February, and most American shipping companies held their ships in port. Besides

18886-464: Was offset when Germany declared war on Portugal in March 1916, while Romania commenced hostilities against Austria on 27 August. On 6 April 1917, the United States entered the war as a co-belligerent, along with the associated allies of Liberia , Siam and Greece . After the 1917 October Revolution , Russia left the Entente and agreed to a separate peace with the Central Powers with the signing of

19028-483: Was ordered to begin moving these troops to the North-Eastern one with Austria. Under the April 1915 Treaty of London , Italy agreed to join the Entente in return for Italian-populated territories of Austria-Hungary and other concessions; in return, it declared war on Austria-Hungary in May 1915 as required, although not on Germany until 1916. Italian resentment at the difference between the promises of 1915 and

19170-425: Was part of an effort carried out by the Germans to postpone the transportation of supplies and other war materials from the United States to the Allies, which were at war against Germany. The main purpose of the telegram was to make the Mexican government declare war on the United States in hopes of tying down American forces and slowing the export of American arms. The German High Command believed that it could defeat

19312-471: Was possibly responsible for the July 1916 Black Tom explosion in New Jersey. The failure of United States troops to capture Pancho Villa in 1916 and the movement of President Carranza in favor of Germany emboldened the Germans to send the Zimmermann note. The German provocations were partially successful. President Woodrow Wilson ordered the military invasion of Veracruz in 1914 in the context of

19454-537: Was renewed at regular intervals, but was compromised by conflicting objectives between Italy and Austria in the Adriatic and Aegean seas. Italian nationalists referred to Austrian-held Istria (including Trieste and Fiume ) and Trento as 'the lost territories' , making the Alliance so controversial that the terms were kept secret until it expired in 1915. Alberto Pollio , the pro-Austrian Chief of Staff of

19596-470: Was reported that an original typescript of the decoded Zimmermann telegram had recently been discovered by an unnamed historian who was researching and preparing a history of the United Kingdom's Government Communications Headquarters . The document is believed to be the actual telegram shown to the American ambassador in London in 1917. Marked in Admiral Hall's handwriting at the top of the document are

19738-435: Was secure and so used it extensively. However, that put German diplomats in a precarious situation since they relied on the United States to transmit Zimmermann's note to its final destination, but the message's unencrypted contents would be deeply alarming to the Americans. The United States had placed conditions on German usage, most notably that all messages had to be in cleartext (uncoded). However, Wilson had later reversed

19880-432: Was useless for decoding the Zimmermann telegram but valuable to decode naval traffic, which had been retrieved from the wrecked cruiser SMS Magdeburg by the Russians, who passed it to the British. Disclosure of the telegram would sway American public opinion against Germany if the British could convince the Americans that the text was genuine, but the Room 40 chief William Reginald Hall was reluctant to let it out because

20022-493: Was weaker demographically than Germany, whose 1911 population was 64.9 million to 39.6 in France, which had the lowest birthrate in Europe. This meant that despite their very different political systems, when Germany allowed the Reinsurance Treaty to lapse, France seized the opportunity to agree the 1894 Franco-Russian Alliance . It also replaced Germany as the primary source of financing for Russian industry and

20164-408: Was widely considered to be one of the toughest diplomatic entrance exams in the world. The reign of Emperor Wilhelm II was from 1888 to 1918. In the years preceding World War I , the Auswärtiges Amt was responsible for the country's foreign policy under Emperor Wilhelm II , and played a key role in the Reich' s pursuit of Weltpolitik (World Politics), under which Germany sought to become

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