The Zimmermann Telegram
In January 1917, British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Minister to Mexico, von Eckhardt, offering United States territory to Mexico in return for joining the German cause. This message helped draw the United States into the war and thus changed the course of history.
Related Primary Sources
Links go to DocsTeach, the online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives.
Teaching Activities
The Zimmermann Telegram on DocsTeach asks students to analyze the telegram to determine if the United States should have entered World War I based on the telegram's information and implications.
The World War I page on DocsTeach includes other primary sources and document-based teaching activities related to WWI.
In this Decoding a Message exercise, students decode a fictitious message using a simple substitution code.
Materials created by the National Archives and Records Administration are in the public domain.