WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -A German U-boat torpedoed the British-owned steamship Lusitania, killing 1, 195 people including 128 Americans, on May 7, 1915. The disaster set off a chain of events that led to the U.S. entering World War I.

Detailed explanation-2: -On May 7, 1915, the German submarine (U-boat) U-20 torpedoed and sank the Lusitania, a swift-moving British cruise liner traveling from New York to Liverpool, England. Of the 1, 959 men, women, and children on board, 1, 195 perished, including 123 Americans.

Detailed explanation-3: -In May 1916, the German government issued a pledge to the United States that the Imperial navy would not attack passenger ships and would further allow the crew of merchant ships which carried war material to exit their vessels before they would be sunk.

Detailed explanation-4: -In 1917, Germany became convinced that it could defeat the Allied Forces by instituting unrestricted submarine warfare before the United States could enter the war. The Sussex pledge was, therefore, rescinded in January 1917, which started the decisive stage of the so-called First Battle of the Atlantic.

Detailed explanation-5: -The Sussex Pledge was a statement by the Germans that they would not sink passenger ships without warning during World War I. The significance was that the Germans were limiting their use of submarine warfare during World War I, which kept the United States a neutral country.