+403 It's kinda sad the the boat Lusitania, which the German torpedoed and eventually caused World War I, is not as famous as the Titanic, amirite?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Actually it only caused the United States to join WWI. The assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand triggered the tensions within Europe to "explode" which eventually resulted in WWI.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Don't forget all the alliances going on: Austria-Hungary and Germany, France and Russia, and Britain and France. When the Archduke was assasinated, Russia supported Serbia, thus getting France involved, which then got Britain involved. I wrote a really great essay on it and I always wanted to find somewhere to use all that stuff :D

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Oops.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

umamaniqua proved thier own point in a different way than most. The titanic was ultimately useless. The Lusitania, to the best of my memory, was a British military and/or medical supply ship that had American passengers. It was unexpectedly attacked by a German U-Boat. If I'm wrong and/or missing details, please correct me.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

No, I believe that's the gist of it.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I think it might have had injured soldiers, too? I'm not sure.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Anybody else think ENDER'S GAME? Maybe I'm just too much of a sci-fi nerd.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Yeah I thought about that before I learned about WWI in school.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The Lusitania was the reason why the United States joined World War I, because out of 1000+ passengers, 128 American passengers died on that ship. Before that, it was a conflict between Europe.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Anyone with an 8th graders knowledge of history knows about Lucy's Tania....

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Militarism, Allies, Imperialism and Nationalism all caused World war one. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand was the inciting incident, the sinking of the cruise liner gave the americans caucis ballie.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The Titanic was ironic because of the whole "God Himself Couldn't Sink this Ship" thing. Irony > War

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Interestingly enough, it is now believed that the Lusitania was carrying military arms to be used by the British, so the Americans cannot really use this as a justification (I'm sure glad they did join in though!) In regards to it not being as popular as the Titanic, I think that is probably to do with it not being branded "The Unsinkable".

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The Zimmerman Note was also a huge reason for the US to join WWI

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The sinking of the Lusitania is not the reason the US joined the war, we joined 2 years after that happened. I believe the Zimmerman Note is what pushed over the edge and into the war. And lastly, the titanic is so famous because it was the biggest ship ever at that time and most of those deaths could have been avoided

by Anonymous 13 years ago