In the telegram, Zimmermann proposed a military alliance between Germany, Mexico, and Japan—should the United States enter the war. While Goemans says he never found any indication in official notes and papers from the time that the U. Three years earlier, long-smoldering rivalries in Europe over territory and borders had come to a head with the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife by a Serbian nationalist on June 28, The assassination, while ultimately a scapegoat, became the catalyst for the start of World War I, exactly one month later.
Germany formally surrendered on November 11, In those 19 months of U. To Goemans, World War I illustrates a modern insight into the nature of war—that it basically takes two sides to fight. It raises the question of why all players decide to fight.
Why does killing hundreds of millions of people make an agreement possible where there was no agreement possible before? Nevertheless, throughout February and March , German submarines targeted and sank several U.
On February 26, Wilson asked Congress for the authority to arm U. While the measure would probably have passed in a vote, several anti-war Senators led a successful filibuster that consumed the remainder of the congressional session. As a result of this setback, President Wilson decided to arm U.
In return for this assistance, Germany asked for Mexican support in the war. Initially, the British had not shared the news of the Zimmermann Telegram with U. The British finally forwarded the intercepted telegram to President Wilson on February The U. Despite the shocking news of the Zimmermann Telegram, Wilson still hesitated asking for a declaration of war. He waited until March 20 before convening a Cabinet meeting to broach the matter—almost a month after he had first seen the telegram.
However, by , the continued submarine attacks on U. In a span of four years, over twenty-one countries declare war and involvement in World War I. Known as the Great War, the conflict becomes the most destructive and widespread the world had ever seen. Read more about it! The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.
The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection. Search this Guide Search. This guide provides access to material related to "WWI Declarations" in the Chronicling America digital collection of historic newspapers. About Chronicling America Chronicling America is a searchable digital collection of historic newspaper pages from sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
Included in the website is the Directory of US Newspapers in American Libraries , a searchable index to newspapers published in the United States since , which helps researchers identify what titles exist for a specific place and time, and how to access them.
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