The Sinking Of The Lusitania

3 Pages 643 Words

“The war to end all wars” was what some people called it. Others called it “The Great War.” Look at it anyway you wish, but World War I was not only destructive, but it just might have set humanity back in time. To say that there was a right and a wrong in the war is impossible. Both sides were wrong with things, but in the end, Germany suffered more, by being forced to pay billions of dollars in War Debts, and let the French control a rich mine for well over 15 years.
Before that, Germany was a country that was just running over the Allied Powers with hardly any sort of problems. But soon, Germany’s reign on top of World War I was coming to a close. The Germans had a naval blockade of any ships that had passed through around the United Kingdom. Despite the blockade, many ships decided to ignore the warnings that Germany sent out to the Allied countries. One of these ships was the Lusitania.
The Lusitania was a ship that embarked on a voyage to England, with passengers from all around, including many Americans. A bulletin was passed around to every person who boarded the ship, which stated that a war was going on between Germany and England. It also stated that Germany had placed a naval blockade surrounding the waters of England, and that any ship in that zone was at risk of being fired at by German troops. Sure enough, as the Lusitania entered that zone on May 7, 1915, a German submarine fired a missile underwater, hitting the Lusitania and in turn, killed more than 1,100 passengers and crew, 124 of them Americans.
After the sinking of the ship, outrage ensued, and The United States was brought into the war. In a letter sent to the Germans from President Wilson and Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, the United States showed how they grew tired of German submarine attacks. In an excerpt from the letter, Bryan said this: “The sinking of the British passenger steamer Falaba by a German submarine on March 28, throu...