The intended recipient of the Zimmermann Telegram was Mexico. The secret message was issued by Germany’s Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann in January 1917 and instructed the German ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt, to approach the government of President Venustiano Carranza.
Germany proposed an alliance if the United States entered the First World War against Germany. In return for Mexican military cooperation, Germany promised financial support and held out the possibility of Mexico recovering Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, territories lost to the United States in the nineteenth century. The proposal was partly intended to keep American forces occupied close to home.
The telegram was intercepted and decoded by Britain’s Room 40 intelligence unit. Its publication in the United States intensified anti-German feeling, although it was not the only reason for America’s entry into the war. Zimmermann later confirmed that the message was genuine. Mexico investigated the proposal but rejected it, judging that war with the much stronger United States was impractical and that German promises of support could not be relied upon.