In 1917, all the belligerents in the First World War were reaching the limits of their resources, certainly in finances, but also in manpower. It looked as though the Central Powers weren’t doing too badly, as revolutions in Russia pushed that nation out of the ranks of the Allied powers. Those allies clearly needed help from outside, and the obvious place, if any, had to be the United States.

Ironically, it would be the leading Central power Germany itself that, by relaunching unrestricted submarine warfare and above all, by sending a telegram to Mexico proposing joint action against the US, ensured that this ultimately fatal intervention would take place.

A fine further proof of the universality of human imbecility. And its associated capacity for shooting itself in the foot.

Illustration: Arthur Zimmermann, German Foreign Secretary, whose telegram suggesting concerted action by Mexico against the United States more or less ensured US intervention in World War I – against Germany. Public domain

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.