It was the cruise liner sunk hr German u boats during ww 1 that ostensibly caused the us wo enter the war. The real reasons are a bit more complicated and repeated to geopolitics, the lustania was carrying arms as well as cruise goers and the us was already planning to enter the war before the sinking. But much like the Maine it served as a useful catalyst to galvanize a public that would have been resistant to war otherwise.
Passenger liner, not cruise liner; there's a difference, but that's a quibble for the purposes of the discussion. Anonymous 8:48 got the essentials correct as regards the significance of Lusitania's torpedoing--one could probably throw in the Zimmermann Telegram, and other ham-handed intelligence operations carried out by the Kaiser's spies, into the mix as well.
Which is worse: the ignorance of history, or proclaiming it to the entire world?
ReplyDeleteYou know the really scary thing is that these ones are the ones who have found out it was a real event.
ReplyDeleteThat means there are plenty WHO STILL DO NOT KNOW.
Not only was the Titanic real, both it and the Lusitania were built by the While Star Lines. Any good geek who has watched Babylon-5 should know this.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know, "what's the Lusitania?"
It was the cruise liner sunk hr German u boats during ww 1 that ostensibly caused the us wo enter the war. The real reasons are a bit more complicated and repeated to geopolitics, the lustania was carrying arms as well as cruise goers and the us was already planning to enter the war before the sinking. But much like the Maine it served as a useful catalyst to galvanize a public that would have been resistant to war otherwise.
DeletePassenger liner, not cruise liner; there's a difference, but that's a quibble for the purposes of the discussion. Anonymous 8:48 got the essentials correct as regards the significance of Lusitania's torpedoing--one could probably throw in the Zimmermann Telegram, and other ham-handed intelligence operations carried out by the Kaiser's spies, into the mix as well.
ReplyDeleteMike James