Sinking Of The Lusitania Essay

The Open Sea In eighteen minutes nearly 1,200 people lost their lives due to U-20 boat captain, Walther Schwieger. A new form of war technology allowed for this to happen without a single hand of human on human contact. Throughout Erik Larson’s Dead Wake, you will be completely captivated by the way he manages to turn a historical event into a storyline that will have you instantly hooked. Larson manages to switch from New York, Washington, Berlin, London, and the vast seas throughout the chapters.

In the novel, Dead Wake by Erik Larson, the author depicts a true tale of the sinking of the Lusitania. After setting sail from New York on May 1st, 1915, the Lusitania came into contact with a German U-boat, known as the U-20, who eventually sank the ship and killed thousands six days later on May 7th, 1915. However, as simple as the case may seem, Larson believes that the Lusitania’s destruction was very preventable, but those in control of the ship’s aid seemed to benefit greatly from its obliteration. This benefit, gained by Room 40, the British Royal Navy’s secret intelligence administration, was the hope that American’s on the Lusitania would die in the sinking, and therefore draw America into the war, aiding Britain. Throughout the very

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of The Lusitania, is a narrative non-fiction thriller written by Eric Larson, describing the final, and disastrous voyage of the British ocean liner, the Lusitania. Similarly to the Titanic, the Lusitania was thought to be unsinkable, and those who voyaged within it had extreme confidence in the ship that eventually contributed to its downfall. The sheer size of the ship, and its speed and capability to exterminate smaller vessels at ease immediately dispelled any thought of it being a target of war. The story takes place in the early 1900 's, when the war between Britain and Germany during World War 1 had just begun. There was an agreement that non-military ships could not be targeted by either side.

Dead Wake:: The Last Crossing Of The Lusitania. The real question is. Did it have to be the last crossing? Erik Larson claims that the Lusitania’s downfall was due to a series of events, or a “chance confluence of forces.” I believe this to be true.

Americans initially favored neutrality, but events like the sinking of the Lusitania and the Zimmermann telegram provoked the U.S. to join the war in support of the Allies (Shi and Tindall 754-757). Less obvious factors, such as nationalism, imperialism, and business opportunity, also contributed to the war. The war ended in 1918 after immense bloodshed, but President Wilson failed to get the Treaty of Versailles ratified by the Senate (Shi and Tindall 773). As a result of the war, Europe was significantly weakened, harsh punishments were imposed on Germany that later led to WWII, and America emerged with a strong economy as a dominant world power (Shi and Tindall

The Imperial German Government’s purpose was to put aside all restraints of law or of humanity and use it’s submarines to sink every vessel. “The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind,” Woodrow Wilson mentioned in his speech. This speech was monumental because it convinced American citizens entry into the war was necessary, brought America into a devastating war, probed America was a power of the world, brought women into workplaces, and it pushed for women’s suffrage. Not every

In both cases of disasters evaluated here, PTSD was reported by numerous agencies to have been prevalent in massive numbers and impairing the lives and functionality of people who were directly involved and even those who were indirectly involved. The Lusitania disaster was especially disturbing which was intensified by the haunting images of mass graves that scattered newspapers for weeks and months following the disaster. These images served as a means for the people who had suffered direct trauma from the disaster to be forced to relive the events further leading to their suffering and ultimately enhancing their symptoms of PTSD. Nicoletta F. Gullace of the Journal of Social Histories (2005) reveals “By all measures the sinking of the Lusitania

Unrestricted submarine warfare outraged many Americans because its application was an attack upon innocent civilian. Unrestricted submarine warfare also breaks an international law which states that the civilians of two warring countries are not targets. Germany not only harmed civilians, but it also broke international law. Through the sinking of the Lusitania, the public’s view of Germany’s unrestricted warfare policy intensified, and more people began to favor American involvement in the war. The sinking of the Lusitania became one of the most important events of the Great War because its reaction is, “the first step towards American involvement in the war.”

As World War II raged on in Europe, President Roosevelt did what he could to keep his country from getting involved. However, the longer the war went on, the further down the slippery slope of war the U.S. sank, until the tipping point of Pearl Harbor was reached. On December 11, 1914, when the skies of the

During World War I, the Germans use a fighting tactic called Unrestricted Submarine Warfare. German U-Boats, or submarines, were told to sink any ship that posed a threat, passenger or cargo, it did not matter. In a newspaper article it shows that the Lusitania was a passenger boat going from the coast of New York to Ireland that was sunk by a German submarine (“Lusitania”). The fact that Germany sunk a passenger ship without reason infuriated the Americans. As the political cartoon by Matthew Bollinger shows, President Woodrow Wilson is holding a piece of paper that says that American lives were lost on the sinking of this ship (Bollinger).

The naval race between Great Britain and Germany from 1898 to 1914 caused great friction among the two nations and was one of the causes for World War I. In 1898 Germany slowly began to create a naval fleet that was able to challenge the British Naval Fleet in the North Sea and the English Channel (“Anglo-German

Dead Wake archives the sinking of the RMS Lusitania of the Cunard line. Our story begins with the great liner docked at Pier 54 in Manhattan in late April of 1915. The liner, Lucy, as her nickname was, needed to be laden with 5,690 tons of coal, enough to propel her across the Atlantic at 24 knots. She was built like a battleship, with her coal bunkers along the hull on the outer edge, this would prove devastating. Captain William Thomas Turner would oversee all this.

As Germany returns, in 1917, to the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, it came back to renew its suspension in response from force of the United States and other neutral countries. Unrestricted submarine warfare was first initiated in World War I on February 4th, 1915. Germany declared the area around the British Isles a war zone, in which all merchant ships, would be attacked by the German navy. On April 22nd, 1915, the German Embassy published a warning in newspapers to tell passengers that travel on Allied ships are “at their own risk.” One ship, called The Lusitania, was the first to submerge and depart, killing nearly 1300 passengers.

On April 2, 1917, the 28th president of the United States of America, Woodrow Wilson, delivered a speech before the Congress in order to declare war against Germany. This period of history represents the first worldwide conflict and opposes the Allied forces of the United States, Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and Japan against the Central Powers of Germany, Bulgaria, the Austrian-Hungarian empire, and the Ottoman empire. Woodrow Wilson involved the United States, which was originally neutral at the beginning of World War I when the Germans attacked and sank the Lusitania, a ship transporting ammunition to the allies but also American citizens. More importantly, in his speech, Woodrow Wilson explicitly states his opinion and purpose that ' 'the world must be made safe for democracy ' ' (Voices of Freedom 107) and that the immediate contribution of his nation to World War I would bring "peace and justice" (Voices of Freedom 105) to the world, as well as the end of the threatening expansion of

Coleman Hardee February 16, 2018 US History Research Paper 1st Period The Titanic The RMS Titanic was a luxury steamship sailing from Southampton to France and Ireland then on to New York. The ship could occupy 2,435 passengers and about 900 crew members, which is a total of 3,300 people on board.