16 januari 1917: Zimmermann-telegram onderschept

On 16th January 1917 British agents intercepted a coded telegram that, when deciphered by cryptographers based in the naval codebreaking bureau's Room 40 in Whitehall, proved to be a communication from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Ambassador to Mexico, von Eckhardt.



The content of this communication instructed von Eckhardt, should a state of war come to exist between Imperial Germany and the United States, to offer United States territory (Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona) to Mexico in return for joining with the German cause. These American States had actually been "lost" to Mexico in earlier conflicts with the United States.



In an effort to protect their intelligence from detection and to capitalize on growing anti-German sentiment in the United States, the British waited until February 24th to present the telegram to Woodrow Wilson.

http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/zimmermann_telegram.html