World War I came to involve many nations and peoples lying outside the main European theater. The Armenians of present-day Turkey, for example, suffered a genocidal massacre and forced deportation under their Ottoman overseers. Russians in distant Siberia suffered the effects of World War I and, more particularly, the Russian Civil War, which emerged amid the global conflict. Mexico, although remaining outside the main conflict, was nevertheless drawn into border skirmishes with the United States in connection with elements of its own Mexican Revolution, then raging. Meanwhile, German diplomats sought to recruit the Mexican government for the Central Powers through the infamous document known as the Zimmerman telegram. That communication, included here, in addition to proposing that Mexico take over parts of the southwestern United States once belonging to Mexico, suggested that Mexico broker a deal between Germany and Japan to bring over the latter to the Central Powers’ side. In the end, however, Mexico chose not to take on the United States militarily, despite Germany’s promised backing. Such were the strange configurations of the many and dangerous “sideshows” that unfolded in the context of World War I.

World War I came to involve many nations and peoples lying outside the main European theater. The Armenians of present-day Turkey, for example, suffered a genocidal massacre and forced deportation under their Ottoman overseers. Russians in distant Siberia suffered the effects of World War I and, more particularly, the Russian Civil War, which emerged amid the global conflict. Mexico, although remaining outside the main conflict, was nevertheless drawn into border skirmishes with the United States in connection with elements of its own Mexican Revolution, then raging. Meanwhile, German diplomats sought to recruit the Mexican government for the Central Powers through the infamous document known as the Zimmerman telegram. That communication, included here, in addition to proposing that Mexico take over parts of the southwestern United States once belonging to Mexico, suggested that Mexico broker a deal between Germany and Japan to bring over the latter to the Central Powers’ side. In the end, however, Mexico chose not to take on the United States militarily, despite Germany’s promised backing. Such were the strange configurations of the many and dangerous “sideshows” that unfolded in the context of World War I.