The document discusses several key events in 1917 that contributed to the breakdown of the stalemate in World War I, including the Russian Revolution, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that removed Russia from the war, and the United States entering the war in April 1917 after the Germans resumed unrestricted submarine warfare. It also describes the Zimmerman Telegram, in which Germany proposed a military alliance with Mexico if the US entered the war.

1. Reflection
 Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man has a
right to kill me because he lives on the other side of
the water, and because his ruler has quarrel with mine,
although I have none with him?
~Blaise Pascal

2. Critical Year of 1917

3. Expansion of the war
 Campaigns inconclusive, hard and costly
 Morale down
 Food was hard to come by

4. Break of the stalemate
 (1) Collapse of Russia
 Some soldiers in Russian army had no weapons
 Picked off of ground after death
 No food
 People revolted against the tsar and a provisional government
was put in place
 Because of turmoil it was easier for Germans to defend
and step up pressure on Russians
 Bolsheviks seized power, determined to end participation of
Russia in the war

5. Treaty of Brest-Litvosk
 March 3,1918
 Agreed to give up Poland, Finland and the Baltic states
and a large part of Ukraine to Germany
 Germany was able to shift its forces to the Western
front and Germans now outnumbered the allies

6. Break of the Stalemate
 (2) Entrance of the U.S.
 Mixed feelings
 Irish-American’s hated the British
 German-American’s sided with the Germans
 Germans did not want the U.S. in the war
 Determined to break the British strength of the sea
 Germany would sink on sight any merchant ships heading to
Britain or western European ports
 U.S. broke off relations with Germany

7. Zimmerman Telegram
 A note sent from the German foreign minister Arthur
Zimmerman to Mexico
 If Mexico allied with Germany, they would be given
New Mexico, Texas and Arizona
 Mexico was also to speak to Japan regarding the idea

8. Zimmerman Telegram
Most Secret
For Your Excellency's personal information and to be handed on to the Imperial
Minister in Mexico
We intend to begin unrestricted submarine warfare on the first of February. We
shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States neutral. In the event of
this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal of an 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 detail is left to you.
You will inform the President [of Mexico] of the above most secretly as soon as the
outbreak of war with the United States 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 President's attention to the fact that the unrestricted employment
of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England to make
peace within a few months. Acknowledge receipt.
Zimmerman

9. Zimmerman Telegram
 Germans also sunk many of the American ships
 April 2,1917 President Wilson asked for a declaration of
war
 American entry into the war raised Allied morale
 Selective service draft

10. Turning the Tide
 French offensive stalled
 Mutinies and desertions
 Flanders
 British offensive, but Germans pushed them back
further from where started
 Southern Front
 Italians lost morale and started to desert

11. End of Fighting
 Spring of 1918 allied troops under French General
Ferdinand Foch
 The Germans mounted their offensive
 wanted to split the Allies and drive the British to the sea
 came to within 37 miles of Paris before being stopped by the Allies
 they were low on reserves and morale
 the Allies had high morale and high reserves
because of the US entering the war
 the Allied forces pushed the Germans back and slowly one by
one the resistance of the Central Powers fell
 November 11 at 11am the Germans signed the Armistice
 The Germans had lost the war while its troops still held territory
from France to the Crimean Peninsula

12. Decoding a Message
 In substitution codes, the letters of the plaintext (message to be put
into secret form) are replaced by other letters, numbers, or symbols. In
this code system, each letter of the alphabet and each of the numbers
from 1 to 9 appears in the matrix of the grid. Each letter in the grid is
replaced by two letters in the coded message. The first letter in the
message is from the vertical axis of the grid, and the second letter is
from its horizontal axis. For example, if "DG" were the first two letters
to decipher in a cryptogram, you would find the letter "D" on the
vertical axis and the letter "G" on the horizontal axis. Trace them across
the grid to their intersection at the letter "A" in the plaintext.
 To decode the fictitious message in the cryptogram, begin by grouping
each set of two letters starting with the first two letters (FG) and
continuing through the message. The code letters are arbitrarily
arranged in groups of five letters. Some letter pairs will carry over from
one line to the next. As you locate each letter in the grid, you should
write that letter above the pair of code letters to which it corresponds.
There are no punctuation marks in the telegram, so your teacher may
need to help you in clarifying the message.

13. Cryptogram
FGAFA AAVXA DGAVX VADAD DVDDD VGA
VXVDX DVDDF AFDXG XGDDG AVFDV X
VAAFX GDADX VDDXD AVXXV
AAAVD AVXDA VVGDD XAVDG DXGXV XVDVF VVAFD XAVAF
VXDXV DFDAF XAVVV FAVAF VVVVV ADGXV AXAFD GGXFX AFAVV
ADGDF VFAXV DVXXF DAVXG DVAAF XGDAD XVDVF AVAFV FDGAV
AFVXV DAXAF DGXDA FAFVA AADGV VVVXV VDDFV VGDVD AVVXD
FVDVX DADXA F
AAAFA VDFVV VXVDA VFGFG XFDGV VGDDA DFFXV
XVDDF FDDX