Sinking of the Lusitania and Why America Entered WWI

LESSON PLANS FOR THIS EPISODE
www.history4humans.com/produc...
This History For Humans episode teaches the sinking of the Lusitania, German submarine warfare, and what caused America to enter the Great War. It tells the dramatic story of Lusitania itself and the last tour it took before being shot down by German U-boats and why that moved America and Wilson into war. This story-lecture also unpacks the start and causes of World War I (the 'Main' causes) in Europe, America's neutrality, and the events that led America, under President Wilson to declare war including the Zimmerman Note, Sussex Pledge, and unrestricted submarine warfare.
Like all History For Humans lesson it includes interactive notesheets, a quick quiz, and an extension lesson that has students complete a reading on America's entrance into WWI and introduces propaganda and how it was used during the war. Students then create an original propaganda poster on the Lusitania to build support for the war effort! Exciting, engaging, and relevant!
I hope you enjoy it,
dan

[@jabrowski_]

This is great bro liked and subbed

[@jabrowski_]

So intense

[@mtheory3]

How in the world does this channel only have 2K subscribers?!

[@historyforhumans905]

I appreciate that. I sometimes wonder the same thing. But hope more will find me at some point. :)

[@Kwolfx]

Just a few comments. 1. Because the price of coal had gone way up after the start of the war, Cunard had one of the Lusitania's boiler rooms shut down in order to save on cost of running the ship. This meant she could no longer reach her top speed of 25 knots and could barely make 21 knots. 2. Four out of thirty-five infants who were aboard the Lusitania did survive because they were in one of the six lifeboats that was successfully launched. Only thirty-five out of one hundred and twenty-nine children survived. 3. There was a great deal of confusion on the deck of the Lusitania. Captain Turner didn't want to launch lifeboats until the Lusitania came to a halt; which only happened when the Lusitania hit the bottom of the Irish Sea. His reason was quite valid. Launching a lifeboat while a ship still has forward momentum and sinking by the bow could get that lifeboat pulled back into the spinning blades of the ship's screws. Also, several lifeboats that did try to launch were pulled underneath other lifeboats above them and the boats and their passengers were crushed. Unfortunately, the Lusitania wouldn't answer the helm. Captain Turner had no control and the ship just kept moving forward. Passengers got in the lifeboats only to be told to get out of them. Many passengers were told that Lusitania wouldn't sink. One woman passenger even yelled up to Captain Turner asking him how he knew that the Lusitania wouldn't sink to which he replied, "Because I have spoken to the engine room!." This was a lie, he had no communication with the engine room. However, there were a number of crew members who did act heroically. Several survivors mentioned the behavior and actions of the Lusitania's stewardesses in particular. Captain Turner didn't leave the sinking ship until he was swept off of the bridge or wire rigging just above the bridge. 4. There was an attempt to lay much of the blame for the sinking on Captain Turner. Winston Churchill in particular wanted Turner's scalp. He didn't want the Admiralty to take the blame for it's mistakes. It's warnings to Captain Turner were vague and failed to mention the ships sunk by the U-20 prior to it's attack on the Lusitania. Plus, the lack of an escort. There had been an attempt to escort the Lusitania on an earlier voyage but the destroyers sent to escort her couldn't find her. The Lusitania didn't have the Royal Navy codes and the Royal Navy destroyers didn't have the merchant ship codes so neither party could communicate with the other without risking a German U-boat listening in. The Royal Navy decided to drop the matter and made no attempt to escort the Lusitania again. 5. Lord Mersey; who had been the judge in the inquiry of the Titanic's sinking, was judge in the official inquiry of the Lusitania's sinking. Even though he received pressure to blame Captain Turner; there is a surviving letter he received from the Admiralty which blamed Turner, he decided that Turner had done the best he could with the knowledge that he had and laid the blame for the sinking entirely on the German U-boat. It was the smart political move to make.

[@historyforhumans905]

That is all excellent stuff. Wish I consulted you before writing the script!

[@user-ty6cu2jo1p]

Can you do a video on facts about building facts about the Lusitania?

[@keithmpuro]

Liked the episode. Schwieger was the U boat captain though. Turner was the Lusitania cap.

[@historyforhumans905]

Thanks Keith. For both points. I wish I could change that now!

[@amerigo88]

"Bowler" Bill Turner was Captain of the Lusitania and Walther Schwieger (German pronunciation is shwee-ger) was Captain of the U-20. See pages 530 - 531 of the book Castles of Steel by Robert K. Massie. Schwieger later sank the British liner Hesperian off Ireland, four months later. (Page 544)

[@annlang9632]

Another great episode of history!!! Kudos

[@historyforhumans905]

Thanks, Ann! Glad you are enjoying them!

[@randomuser9883]

Lusitania was actually a ocean liner not a cruise liner. Ocean liners were used to transport people from a to b like modern passenger aircraft

[@historyforhumans905]

I took some liberty calling it a cruise liner maybe. But it was more than just transporting people- it was the equivalent of a luxury cruise.

[@randomuser9883]

@@historyforhumans905 yeah. That is true they were designed to be luxurious and comfortable to distract you from the fact you were out at sea as some people didn’t like the idea of being out at sea

[@tomemeornottomeme1864]

@@historyforhumans905 Ocean liners were basically just transatlantic buses, regardless of how luxurious they could be. Ocean liners get people from point A to point B quickly and safely. Cruise ships are meant entirely for leisure, and dedicated cruise ships didn't *really* exist yet, or at the very least the Lusitania wasn't one, especially not during the war. Since there was still a relatively large market for people needing to travel across the Atlantic, and since the Lusitania, despite being built as an auxiliary cruiser so that she could serve in the event of war, was deemed unfit for serving as a warship, Cunard still had her sailing the transatlantic route back and forth as an ocean liner. While, yes, passengers sailed in quite a great deal of comfort and luxury, especially in First Class, the voyage was strictly for transportation and not leisure. 'Cruise liner' is sort of a fake term that people use mistakenly, but technically refers to cruise ships; I don't really know how to explain it any other way. It's dumb semantics.

[@richardm.667]

They shouldn't have been smuggling weapons! PERIOD!!!

[@historyforhumans905]

I hear that. But Id also say- firing on civilians was the worse crime. I think you'd agree.

[@ErnaldtheSaxon]

Balfour Declaration, (November 2, 1917), statement of British support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” It was made in a letter from Arthur James Balfour, the British foreign secretary, to Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild (of Tring), a leader of the Anglo-Jewish community. The British government hoped that the declaration would rally Jewish opinion, especially in the United States, to the side of the Allied powers against the Central Powers during World War I (1914-18). In 1918 the population of the US was 103,000,000 of which 3.2% were Jewish.

[@historyforhumans905]

Thats interesting- I thought of this connection or came across this. Thanks!

[@Yassified3425]

I mean if America didn't join WW1 it would still have had the same outcome. Because the first American troops arrived on the front lines only a few month before Germany surrendered.

[@historyforhumans905]

Thats in large part why they surrendered. The prospect of endless, fresh, American troops. Russia had just existed- they were pushing towards Paris.

[@Yassified3425]

@@historyforhumans905 But if we look at the "Big push" battle where French, British, Belgian and some Americans pushed the German army back into Germany it is after this battle that the Kaiser was informed that Germany should surrender.

[@historyforhumans905]

@@Yassified3425 Certainly. But it still was with the help of the US and though they didn't fight for long they played an instrumental role in the Allied victory.

[@etienneht1]

PP

[@Bolt8864]

it was not a cruise liner

[@historyforhumans905]

Yes, it was. It was commissioned with the help of the British Admiralty, but it was definitely a cruise liner. That being said, it had a secret cargo compartment that the admiralty used during the war at times to transport armaments- like when it was shot down. This is covered in the video.

[@Bolt8864]

@@historyforhumans905 I apologise I’ll admit that when you said cruise liner instead of ocean liner I got pissed and wrote the comment and clicked off

[@terrydowning5055]

Very good sad you do not have more people watching Maybe because you are t0 factural

[@historyforhumans905]

Hopefully more will find more. Thanks for the support, Terry.