<P> The Zimmermann Telegram was a 1917 diplomatic proposal from the German Empire for Mexico to join an alliance with Germany in the event of the United States entering World War I against Germany . The proposal was intercepted and decoded by British intelligence . Revelation of the contents outraged the American public and swayed public opinion . President Woodrow Wilson moved to arm American merchant ships in order to defend themselves against German submarines, which had started to attack them . The news helped generate support for the United States declaration of war on Germany in April of that year . </P> <P> The message came as a coded telegram dispatched by the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, Arthur Zimmermann, on January 16, 1917 . The message was sent to the German ambassador of Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt . Zimmermann sent the telegram in anticipation of the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany on 1 February, an act which Germany presumed would lead to war . The telegram instructed Ambassador Eckardt that if the U.S. appeared certain to enter the war, he was to approach the Mexican Government with a proposal for military alliance, with funding from Germany . As part of the alliance, Germany would assist Mexico in reconquering Texas and the Southwest . Eckardt was instructed to urge Mexico to help broker an alliance between Germany and Japan . Mexico, in the middle of the Mexican Revolution, far weaker militarily, economically and politically than the U.S., ignored the proposal; after the U.S. entered the war, it officially rejected it . </P> <P> After World War I, in which Brazil was an ally of the United States, Great Britain, and France, the country realized it needed a more capable army but didn't have the technology to create it . In 1919, the French Military Mission was established by the French Commission in Brazil . Their main goal was to contain the inner rebellions in Brazil . They tried to assist the army by bringing them up to the European military standard but constant civil missions did not prepare them for World War II . </P> <P> Brazil's President, Getúlio Vargas, wanted to industrialize Brazil, allowing it to be more competitive with other countries . He reached out to Germany, Italy, France, and the United States to act as trade allies . Many Italian and German people immigrated to Brazil many years before World War II began thus creating a Nazi influence . The immigrants held high positions in government and the armed forces . It was recently found that 9,000 war criminals escaped to South America, including Croats, Ukrainians, Russians and other western Europeans who aided the Nazi war machine . Most, perhaps as many as 5,000, went to Argentina; between 1,500 and 2,000 are thought to have made it to Brazil; around 500 to 1,000 to Chile; and the rest to Paraguay and Uruguay . It was not a secret that Vargas had an admiration for Hitler's Nazi Germany and its Führer . He even let German Luftwaffe build secret air forces around Brazil . This alliance with Germany became Brazil's second best trade alliance behind the United States . </P>

Which of these groups dominated independence movements in latin america