Von vielen Ländern, Deutsche.

== Von vielen landern, Deutsche. ==
=== Second Mexican Empire (1864-1923) ===
Heavily influenced by his wife Empress Eugenie, who was in contact with monarchist Mexican exiles, Napoleon III became intent on reviving the Mexican monarchy. Prior to 1861 any interference in the affairs of Mexico by European powers would have been viewed in the U.S as a challenge to the Monroe Doctrine. In 1861 however, the U.S. was embroiled in its own conflict, the American Civil War, which made the U.S. government powerless to intervene. When on July, 1861 Mexican President Benito Juarez declared a two year moratorium on Mexican debt to France among other nations, Napoleon finally had a pretext. Encouraged by Empress Eugenie, who saw herself as the champion of the Catholic Church in Mexico, Napoleon III took advantage of the situation.
Napoleon III saw the opportunity to make France the great modernizing influence in the Western Hemisphere, as well as enabling the country to capture the South American markets. To give him further encouragement, there was his half brother, the duc de Morny, who was the largest holder of Mexican bonds.
French troops landed in December, 1861, and began military operations on April, 1862. They were eventually joined by Mexican conservatives generals that had never been entirely defeated in War of Reform. After Charles de Lorencez small expeditionary force was repulsed at the Battle of Puebla, reinforcements were sent and placed under the command of Élie Forey. The capital was taken by June, 1863 and the French now sought to establish a friendly Mexican government. Forey appointed a committee of thirty five Mexicans, the Junta Superior who then elected three Mexican citizens to serve as the government’s executive: Juan Nepucemo Almonte, José Mariano Salas, and Pelagio Antonio de Labastida. In turn this triumvirate then selected two hundred fifteen Mexican citizens to form together with the Junta Superior, an Assembly of Notables.
The Assembly met on July, 1863 and resolved to invite Ferdinand Maximilian to be Emperor of Mexico. The executive triumvirate was formally changed into the Regency of the Mexican Empire. An official delegation left Mexico and arrived in Europe on October. Maximilian formally accepted the crown on April 10, 1864, and set sail for Mexico.
The first years of rule of Emperor Maximilian were blemished by constant conflict. On his arrival in 1864 with his wife, Empress Carlota of Mexico, daughter of King Leopold I of the Belgians, he found himself in the middle of a political struggle between the Conservatives who backed him and the opposing Liberals, headed by Benito Juárez. The two factions had set up parallel governments: the Conservatives in Mexico City controlling central Mexico and the Liberals in Veracruz. The Conservatives received funding from Europe, especially from Isabella II of Spain and Napoleon III of France; the Liberals found backing from United States Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, after the U.S. had finished its own Civil War in 1865.
The United States government viewed Emperor Maximilian as a French puppet, and did not regard his reign as the will of most Mexicans or see him as the legitimate leader of Mexico. They demanded the withdrawal of French forces, but France denied this request. In 1864, the empire and the liberal factions formally began hostilities in the Mexican Civil War of 1864.
 Maximilian ended up having to align more with the conservatives to keep power, as he was far too conservative for the liberals. He regarded Mexico as his destiny and made many contributions to areas under his control. Before the war formally began, Maximilian adopted the grandsons of the first Mexican emperor, Agustín de Iturbide: Agustín de Iturbide y Green and Salvador de Iturbide y Marzán.
==== Mexican civil war (1864-1866) ====
On 28 and 31 March 1864, men from the French man-of-war Cordelière tried to take Mazatlán, but were initially repelled by Mexicans commanded by Colonel Gaspar Sánchez Ochoa.
The French under Bazaine occupied Guadalajara on 6 January 1864, and troops under Douay occupied Zacatecas on 6 February. Further decisive French victories continued with the fall of Acapulco on 3 June, occupation of Durango on 3 July, and the defeat of republicans in the states of Sinaloa and Jalisco in November.
Maximilian formally accepted the crown on 10 April, signing the Treaty of Miramar, and landed at Veracruz on 28 May (or possibly 29 May) 1864 in the SMS Novara. He was enthroned as Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, with his wife Charlotte of Belgium, known by the Spanish form of her name, Carlota. In reality, Maximilian was a puppet monarch of the Second French Empire.
Maximilian expressed progressive European political ideas, favouring the establishment of a limited monarchy sharing powers with a democratically elected congress. He inspired passage of laws to abolish child labour, limit working hours, and abolish a system of land tenancy that virtually amounted to serfdom among the Indians. This was too liberal to please Mexico's conservatives, and the nation's liberals refused to accept a monarch, leaving Maximilian with few enthusiastic allies within Mexico. Maximilian would end up having to align with the Conservatives to preserve his rule.
On Sunday, 13 November 1864, three French men-of-war (Victoire, D'Assas and Diamante) shelled Mazatlán 13 times, and Imperial Mexican forces under Manuel Lozada entered and captured the city.
The French continued with victories in 1865, with Bazaine capturing Oaxaca on 9 February (defeating the city's defenders under General Porfirio Díaz). The French fleet landed soldiers who captured Guaymas on 29 March.
But on 11 April, republicans defeated Imperial forces at Tacámbaro in Michoacán. In April and May the republicans had many forces in the states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua. Most towns along the Rio Grande were also occupied by republicans.
The decree known as the "Black Decree" was issued by Maximilian on 3 October, which threatened any Mexican captured in the war with immediate execution. Several high-ranking republican officials were executed under this order on 21 October.
As early as 1859, U.S. and Mexican efforts to ratify the McLane-Ocampo Treaty had failed in the bitterly divided U.S. Senate, where tensions were high between the North and the South over other issues. Such a treaty would have allowed U.S. construction in Mexico and protection from European forces in exchange for a payment of $4 million to the heavily indebted government of Benito Juárez. On 3 December 1860, President James Buchanan had delivered a speech stating his displeasure at being unable to secure Mexico from European interference:
United States policy did not change during the French occupation as it had to use its resources for the American Civil War, which lasted 1861 to 1865. President Abraham Lincoln expressed his sympathy to Latin American republics against any European attempt to establish a monarchy. Shortly after the establishment of the Imperial government in April 1864, United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, while maintaining U.S. neutrality, expressed U.S. discomfort at the imposition of a monarchy in Mexico: "Nor can the United States deny that their own safety and destiny to which they aspire are intimately dependent on the continuance of free republican institutions throughout America."[18]
On 4 April 1864, Congress passed a joint resolution:
Near the end of the American Civil War, representatives at the 1865 Hampton Roads Conference briefly discussed a proposal for a North-South reconciliation by a joint action against the French in Mexico. In 1865, through the selling of Mexican bonds by Mexican agents in the United States, the Juarez Administration raised between $16-million and $18-million dollars for the purchase of American war material. Between 1865 and 1868, General Herman Sturm acted as an agent to deliver guns and ammunition to the Mexican Republic led by Juarez. In 1866 General Philip Sheridan was in charge of transferring additional supplies and weapons to the Liberal army, including some 30,000 rifles directly from the Baton Rouge Arsenal in Louisiana.
By 1867, Seward shifted American policy from thinly veiled sympathy to the republican government of Juárez to open threat of war to induce a French withdrawal. France refused to withdraw. Seward had invoked the Monroe Doctrine and later stated in 1868, "The Monroe Doctrine, which eight years ago was merely a theory, is now an irreversible fact."
In 1866, choosing Franco-Mexican relations over the United States's anti-imperial ambitions, Napoleon III announced the refusal to withdraw French forces. The Republicans lost in a series of crippling defeats taking heavy losses of the end of American military support to the Republican troops, with Monarchists holding Chihuahua on 25 March, also holding Guadalajara on 8 July, and further holding Matamoros, Tampico and Acapulco in July, all under heavy Republican attacks. Napoleon III urged Maximilian to stay inside Mexico City and not leave under any circumstances for fear of his capture. The French launched an attack on Republican forces near Monterrey on 26 July, Saltillo on 5 August, and within the whole state of Sonora in September. Maximilian's French cabinet members held early peace talks with Republican forces on 18 September, but an agreement couldn't be reached. 
The imperial troops defeated Republicans in the Battle of Miahuatlán in Oaxaca in October, occupying the whole of Oaxaca in November, as well as parts of Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí and Guanajuato. The combined Austro-Belgian Volunteer Corps was formally organized into an actual branch of the army at the end of 1866. Approximately 1,000 of these Austrian and Belgian volunteers chose to enlist in Maximilian's Imperial Army's Austro-Belgian Corps while the remaining 3,428 declined to continue fighting and embarked back home for Europe. The separate Belgian Legion was formally dissolved in December 1866 and the 754 men became integrated into the Austro-Belgian Corps .
On 13 November, Maximilian I and the French agreed to terms for the withdrawal of the Republican forces from Mazatlán. At noon, the Republicans finally surrendered, after the situation was deemed hopeless, and lacking any possible remaining US support.
==== Post Civil War & The Second Mexican Empire (1866-1914) ====
On 14 November, seeing that his reign was secured, Maximilian and the French agreed to terms for the withdrawal of the latter forces from Mexico. Maximilian's Imperial Army started it's enlistment program and expansion. At 2:30 that afternoon, the French armies boarded three men-of-war, Rhin, Marie and Talisman and departed for home.
While negotiating for an amnesty for Liberal partisans, Maximilian finally met Benito Juarez for the first time. Both men liked each other on a personal level, and shared many political philosophies. Juarez had led the liberal state from Veracruz, and many conservatives argued for his execution. Maximilian decided otherwise.
Maximilian and Juarez drafted together a new Mexican constitution, mirroring that of Great Britain. This new constitution allowed the military to retain political power at the expense of the church. The liberals were contented with the decline in church authority; the conservatives, the military not among them, were infuriated. Irritating the situation further was Maximilian's appointing Juarez to the position of Prime Minister in 1863, which he would retain until 1889.
Maximilian's new government instituted liberal reforms such as cancelling all debts over 10 pesos, restricting working hours, and outlawing child labour and corporal punishment. To the dismay of Conservatives, Maximilian instituted land reforms, re-instituted communal property, extended the right to vote beyond the land owning classes and granted religious freedom within Mexico.
These reforms were unpopular among the conservative nobles to the point of inciting revolt. An assassination attempt against Maximilian was foiled on May 11th, 1867. Conservatives attempted to storm and seize the Imperial palace on May 22nd, only to be defeated by Maximilian's königliche Wache. All the participants of the attempted storming were executed en masse on June 1st.
Shortly thereafter Spain and France signed treaties with Mexico in which Maximilian agreed to repay Mexico's substantive debts. However, the war had effectively ruined Mexico's economy. Maximilian began allowing Europeans to settle in Mexico. This, alongside new liberal reforms, created a strong tax base with which to begin repaying Mexico's debt.
With Mexico's economy slowly recovering, Maximilian became a champion of projects to build telegraph lines and railroads within Mexico. He also proposed the construction of a more modern navy.
Maximilian established close ties with Pedro II of Brazil. During the looming potential conflict between Brazil and Britain, Maximilian sided with Pedro. When Pedro severed relations between Brazil and Britain in 1865 Maximilian did also. The British thus became concerned that the debts owed to them by Mexico might not be repaid.
In 1866 the British apologized to Pedro II and restored diplomatic contact. With this the contact between Mexico and Britain was also re-established. Maximilian made good on his word and began repaying foreign debts. Maximilian and Pedro remained close, and ushered in a time of prosperity for both their nations.
Throughout the 1860's and 1870's, Mexico's relations to the two German nations of Europe, Germany and Austria-Hungary, grew more and more fond, mostly due to Maximilian's brother, Franz Joseph I, being the Austro-Hungarian emperor. 
In 1879, Maximilian entered Mexico into the Großdeutsches Defensive Alliance, which was a defensive alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Mexico, as a way to "defend Germans around the world from other major powers", and was created by treaty on October 7th, 1879 as part of Bismarck's system of alliances to prevent or limit war. The three powers promised each other support in case of attack by any nation that threatened the German people. Also, Mexico promised benevolent neutrality to the other two powers if Germany or Austria-Hungary was attacked by a European power (generally taken to be France, even more so after the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894). Germany's Otto von Bismarck saw the alliance as a way to prevent the isolation of the German Empire, which had just been founded a few years before, and to preserve peace, as Russia would not wage war against both the German and Austro-Hungarian empires together.
The late 1870's also saw Mexican relations with the US begin to heal, with Maximilian I visiting president Rutherford B. Hayes on November 2nd, 1878, the first visit of a Mexican ruler to a US president since Maximilian's reign began. Hayes finally announced America's recognition of Maximilian's Mexican Empire, the last major power to do so.
In 1888, when republicans threatened to overthrow the Brazilian monarchy, Maximilian sent aid to the monarchists. This helped the monarchy remain an institution in Brazil.
==== Death Of The First Emperor ====
In early 1889, Maximilian contracted influenza and had a sudden and rapid decline of health; this concluded with Maximilian collapsing at a cabinet meeting on the afternoon of March 12th, which his brother Franz Joseph I was also attending, regarding future Mexican-Austrian relations. Thereafter Maximilian was rushed to his sleeping quarters, where his family was urged to his side. He then died the next morning, with his family, including his brother (who was meant to go back to Austria that day, but delayed his return a week to mourn with his family), by his side. His 20 year old son Ferdinand Maximilian II Hapsburg Von Mexico, assumed the throne.
==== Maximilian II's Reign (1889-1921) ====
Maximilian II was crowned Emperor Of Mexico (Emperador de México) on April 1st, 1889, and inherited a country that was well on it's way to being an international power. He continued his father's more liberal leaning policies to help the poor in his country, as well as met with the new German Emperor Wilhelm II, who his father had been meaning to meet in order to continue German-Mexican relations, but never got a chance to. In this meeting the Großdeutsches Defensive Alliance was renewed, now renamed to the Quadruple Alliance, but with Maximilian II agreeing with newest member Italy's stance of "for defensive purposes exclusively". 
On June 1st, 1892, Maximilian II furthered his father's views of reform, and rewrote the Mexican constitution to be much more Democratic, reducing the military's power in politics, and further reducing the church's role, with a parliament soon established in Mexico City, with three main parties; the Republican Party (anti-monarchy), the Liberal Progress Party (mixed views on Maximilian II's monarchy) and the Monarchist Party (pro-monarchy). Smaller parties that consisted of various degrees of Socialists and Communists did exist, and there was one medium size "Nationalist Party" that had a decent following, but these were still all smaller parties with few seats. In it's first elections, the Liberal Progress party won the majority. 
Although he created a parliament, Maximilian II still ultimately had the final say on all laws, and any proposals passed through parliament had to be signed directly by him to be passed into law, otherwise being denied any credibility. 
Not everything was great for Maximilian II though, especially behind the scenes as the 20th century approached, as some in Mexico saw his reign as an oppressive and archaic monarchist system, despite a cabinet and newly founded parliament existing. Some of these people started preparing for a forceful revolution as the new century rolled in, with Maximilian's popularity declining. 
==== Civil Unrest And The Second Mexican Civil War (1905 to 1913) ====
As the 20th century began a number of Mexicans began to organize in opposition to Maximilian II's policies that had welcomed foreign capital and capitalists, suppressed nascent labor unions and consistently moved against any peasants with leftist views, even as agriculture flourished and food was plentiful. In 1905 the group of Mexican intellectuals and agitators who had discredited the old Mexican Liberal Progress Party and created the new Mexican Liberal Progress Party (officially just the Partido Liberal de México) drew up a radical program of reform, specifically addressing what they considered to be the worst aspects of the Von Hapsburg regime. Most prominent in the PLM were Ricardo Flores Magón and his two brothers, Enrique and Jesús. They, along with Luis Cabrera Lobato and Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama, were connected to the anti-Maximilian II publication El Hijo del Ahuizote. Political cartoons by José Guadalupe Posada lampooned politicians and cultural elites with mordant humor, portraying them as skeletons. The Liberal Party of Mexico founded the anti-Maximilian II anarchist newspaper Regeneración, which appeared in both Spanish and English. In exile in the United States, Práxedis Guerrero began publishing an anti-Maximilian II newspaper, Alba Roja (Red Dawn), in San Francisco. Although leftist groups were small in numbers, they became highly influential through their publications, which helped articulate opposition to the Von Hapsburg regime. Francisco Bulnes described these men as the "true authors" of the Mexican Revolution for agitating the masses. As the 1910 election approached, Francisco I. Madero, an idealistic political novice and member of one of Mexico's richest families, funded the newspaper Anti-Regla, in opposition to the continuous rule of Maximilian II.
Organized labor conducted strikes for better wages and just treatment, despite Maximilian II recently increasing wages and improving working conditions. Demands for better labor conditions were central to the Liberal Party program, drawn up in 1905. Mexican copper miners in the northern state of Sonora took action in the 1906 Cananea strike. Among other grievances, they were paid less than U.S. nationals working in the mines. In the state of Veracruz, textile workers rioted in January 1907 at the huge Río Blanco factory, the world's largest, protesting against unfair labor practices. They were paid in credit that could be used only at the company store, binding them to the company.
These strikes were ruthlessly suppressed, with factory owners receiving support from government forces. In the Cananea strike, mine owner William Cornell Greene received support from Maximilian's rurales in Sonora as well as Arizona Rangers called in from across the U.S. border. In the state of Veracruz, the Mexican army gunned down Rio Blanco textile workers and put the bodies on train cars that transported them to Veracruz, "where the bodies were dumped in the harbor as food for sharks". Maximilian verbally condemned the massacre, but feared his own military and didn't take any further actions against them. Military suppression of strikes was not unique to Mexico, with parallel occurrences both in the United States and Western Europe.
Since the press wasn't suppressed in Mexico under Maximilian II, more and more was published that was critical of the Von Hapsburg regime. Newspapers hastily reported on the Rio Blanco textile strike, the Cananea strike and harsh labor practices on plantations in Oaxaca and Yucatán. Leftist Mexican opponents of the Von Hapsburg regime, such as Ricardo Flores Magón and Práxedis Guerrero, after blatantly threatening the monarch's life in one of their newspaper articles, were made fugitives in Mexico, so went into exile in the relative safety of the United States, but cooperation between the U.S. government and Maximilian's agents resulted in the arrest of some.
On 5 October 1910, Madero issued a "letter from jail," known as the Plan de San Luis Potosí, with its main slogan Sufragio Efectivo, No Regla ("free suffrage and no reign"). It declared the Maximilian II's rule illegal and called for revolt against him, starting on 20 November 1910. Madero's political plan did not outline major socioeconomic revolution, but offered the hope of change for many disadvantaged Mexicans.
Madero's plan was aimed at fomenting a popular uprising against Maximilian, but he also understood that the support of the United States and U.S. financiers would be of crucial importance in undermining the regime. The rich and powerful Madero family drew on its resources to make regime change possible, with Madero's brother Gustavo A. Madero hiring, in October 1910, the firm of Washington lawyer Sherburne Hopkins, the "world's best rigger of Latin-American revolutions", to encourage support in the U.S. A strategy to discredit Maximilian II with U.S. business and the U.S. government achieved some success, with Standard Oil representatives engaging in talks with Gustavo Madero. More importantly, the U.S. government "bent neutrality laws for the revolutionaries."
In late 1910 revolutionary movements broke out in response to Madero's Plan de San Luis Potosí. His vague promises of land reform attracted many peasants throughout the country. Spontaneous rebellions arose in which ordinary farm laborers, miners and other working-class Mexicans, along with much of the country's population of indigenous natives, fought Maximilian's forces, with some success. Madero attracted the forces of rebel leaders such as Pascual Orozco, Pancho Villa, Ricardo Flores Magón, Emiliano Zapata and Venustiano Carranza. A young and able revolutionary, Orozco--along with Gov. Abraham González--formed a powerful military union in the north and, although they were not especially committed to Madero, took Mexicali and Chihuahua City. These victories encouraged alliances with other revolutionary leaders, including Villa. Against Madero's wishes, Orozco and Villa fought for and won Ciudad Juárez, bordering El Paso, Texas, on the south side of the Rio Grande. Madero's call to action had some unanticipated results, such as the Magonista rebellion of 1911 in Baja California.
Maximilian II's Imperial Army, with nearly 100,000 men, started mobilizing and assigning divisions, and responded rapidly to the uprisings in the north, and, although at first suffering several defeats, they managed, with the help of Mexico's elite military forces of the second generation hereditary Austro-Belgian Corps (Now, as the second generation, numbering some 5000 men), and a few volunteer forces from Germany and Austria-Hungary, to begin pushing back Madero's forces in late 1911. The cities the rebels had taken, along with Madero's allies and men were one by one recaptured (and Madero's allies generally exiled or executed) over the course of nearly two years of heavy fighting. On September 2nd, 1913, Madero was captured in Ciudad Juárez, trying to flee to El Paso in the United States, and was sent back to Mexico City and executed in front of Emperor Maximilian II personally by firing squad on the 13th. The Second Mexican Civil War was finally over. Maximilian II's slowly improving relations with the United States were completely tarnished by their support of the revolutionaries.
==== The Great War (1914-1918) ====
World War I (often abbreviated as WWI or WW1), also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the resulting 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.
On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb Yugoslav nationalist, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, leading to the July Crisis. In response, on 23 July, Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia. Serbia's reply failed to satisfy the Austrians, and the two moved to a war footing.
A network of interlocking alliances enlarged the crisis from a bilateral issue in the Balkans to one involving most of Europe. By July 1914, the great powers of Europe were divided into two coalitions: the Triple Entente—consisting of France, Russia, and Britain—and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy (the Triple Alliance was only defensive in nature, allowing Italy to stay out of the war until April 1915, when it joined the Allied Powers after its relations with Austria-Hungary deteriorated, as well as allowing Mexico to remain neutral throughout the Great War, as it was rebuilding from it's civil war). Russia felt it necessary to back Serbia and, after Austria-Hungary shelled the Serbian capital of Belgrade on the 28 July, approved partial mobilisation. Full Russian mobilisation was announced on the evening of 30 July; on the 31st, Austria-Hungary and Germany did the same, while Germany demanded Russia demobilise within twelve hours. When Russia failed to comply, Germany declared war on Russia on 1 August in support of Austria-Hungary, with Austria-Hungary following suit on 6 August; France ordered full mobilisation in support of Russia on 2 August. Germany, along with Austria-Hungary, issued Mexico a call to arms on 12 August but Maximilian II declined to join them on the basis of him not seeing their war as completely defensive, and also rebuilding his nation from civil war; Mexico was then promptly expelled from the Central Powers.
German strategy for a war on two fronts against France and Russia was to rapidly concentrate the bulk of its army in the West to defeat France within six weeks, then shift forces to the East before Russia could fully mobilise; this was later known as the Schlieffen Plan. On 2 August, Germany demanded free passage through Belgium, an essential element in achieving a quick victory over France. When this was refused, German forces invaded Belgium on 3 August and declared war on France the same day; the Belgian government invoked the 1839 Treaty of London and in compliance with its obligations under this, Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August. On 12 August, Britain and France also declared war on Austria-Hungary; on the 23 August, Japan sided with Britain, seizing German possessions in China and the Pacific. In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, and the Sinai Peninsula. The war was fought in and drew upon each power's colonial empire as well, spreading the conflict to Africa and across the globe. The Entente and its allies would eventually become known as the Allied Powers, while the grouping of Austria-Hungary, Germany and their allies would become known as the Central Powers.
The German advance into France was halted at the Battle of the Marne and by the end of 1914, the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, marked by a long series of trench lines that changed little until 1917 (the Eastern Front, by contrast, was marked by much greater exchanges of territory). In 1915, Italy joined the Allied Powers and opened a front in the Alps. Bulgaria joined the Central Powers in 1915 and Greece joined the Allies in 1917, expanding the war in the Balkans. 
The Zimmermann Telegram (or Zimmermann Note or Zimmerman Cable) was a secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office in January 1917 that again proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico, but this time with much more depth and clarity then the 1914 call to arms. If the United States entered World War I against Germany, Mexico would declare war in order to recover Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, which Mexico would be allowed to reacquire after nearly 70 years, if successful. The telegram was intercepted and decoded by British intelligence. 
It reads as follows: "We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The settlement in detail is left to you. You will inform the Emperor of the above most secretly as soon as the outbreak of war with the United States of America is certain, and add the suggestion that he should, on his own initiative, invite Japan to immediate adherence and at the same time mediate between Japan and ourselves. Please call the Emperor's attention to the fact that the ruthless employment of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England in a few months to make peace. 
Signed, ZIMMERMANN".
Maximilian II wasn't phased after hearing of Germany's offer, but he nonetheless adamantly denied any knowledge of it's existence to the United States.
Revelation of the contents enraged Americans, especially after German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann publicly admitted on March 3 that the telegram was genuine, helping to generate support for the United States declaration of war on Germany in April. The decryption was described as the most significant intelligence triumph for Britain during World War I, and one of the earliest occasions on which a piece of signal intelligence influenced world events
The United States had initially remained neutral, though even while neutral it became an important supplier of war materiel to the Allies. Eventually, after the sinking of American merchant ships by German submarines, the declaration by Germany that its navy would resume unrestricted attacks on neutral shipping, and the revelation that Germany was trying to incite Mexico to declare war on the United States, not just the Entente, the U.S. declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917. Trained American forces would not begin arriving at the front in large numbers until mid-1918, but ultimately the American Expeditionary Force would reach some two million troops.
==== Charles I's exile (1921-1922) ====
Maximilian II's nephew, Charles I, the last emperor of Austria-Hungary, grandson of Maximilian's brother Franz Joseph, fled to Mexico and was promptly proclaimed Prince of Mexico by Maximilian II.
After a second failed attempt at restoration in Hungary, Charles and his pregnant wife Zita were arrested and quarantined at Tihany Abbey. On 1 November 1921 they were taken to the Hungarian Danube harbour city of Baja, were forced to board the British monitor HMS Glowworm, and there removed to the Black Sea where they were transferred to the light cruiser HMS Cardiff. They would then journey across the entirety of the Atlantic Ocean, to Mexico, where Maximilian II had accepted them to be exiled to. After docking in Veracruz on November 6th, and then being picked up by a royal convoy, they were transported via horse and buggy from Veracruz to the Royal Palace in Mexico City. They arrived at their final exile, the Mexican capital of Mexico City on the evening of the 7th of November 1921. Determined to prevent a third restoration attempt, the Council of Allied Powers had agreed on Mexico City because it was isolated on the other side of the world and was already ruled by a Hapsburg.
Charles and his family did not leave Mexico City, with Charles choosing to settle him and his family in with his Uncle at the Royal Palace. On 9 March 1922 he was crowned Prince of Mexico by his uncle Maximilian II, and by extension was made the de-facto heir to the title, given his uncle's lack of heirs.
==== The Last Powerful Emperor Of Mexico Dies (1923) ====
In the summer and fall months of 1922, Maximilian II's health began to slowly decline. Well he was still in relatively good health Maximilian II enjoyed spending his last year with his family, including his grandchildren. By January 1923 it was apparent Maximilian II was not long for the world, as he slowly became more bedridden. Throughout February updates on Maximilian II's health were only given to his family and closest friends. On March 11th, 1923, Maximilian II's death was officially announced, and the title of Emperor naturally instantly transferred to Charles I Von Hapsburg, although he was not crowned yet. Charles I was formally crowned Emperor Of Mexico on March 15th, 1923.
=== The Third Mexican Republic ===
With the death of Maximilian II the idea of Autocratic Monarchism in Mexico died to, as most of Mexican's citizens saw this as an opportunity for change and were on the verge of another rebellion for true Democracy. Charles I saw this, and assured the people of Mexico a new constitution was coming. Using his experiences and lessons learned from his mistakes in Austria-Hungary regarding attempting Trialism, Charles began work on a new Mexican constitution that was fair for all of his subjects. 
After reviewing a draft for a constitution made by parliament in 1917 with his advisory council, Charles made the last changes ever made to the Mexican constitution and approved it on June 1st, 1923 (Generally regarded as the Constitution of 1923). For the majority of the constitution he used the drafted constitution that parliament had attempted to pass in 1917, basically mimicking Britain's system, and making parliament have full control over the nation's functioning, with him being mostly just a figurehead. 
Charles I's approved constitution ended nearly 60 years of direct Hapsburg rule in Mexico.
==== The Great Depression (1929-1941) ====
For it's first few years the republic did incredibly well, prospering beyond Charles's greatest hopes; but that all changed in 1929.