Click2Disasters - The Lusitania - Chapter 2

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>THE <i>LUSITANIA</i></p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 2 - A WORLD AT WAR</b></font></p><br> </div>  </font> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">When the <i>Lusitania</i> sailed in the spring of 1915, Europe had been at war for more than 8 months. What was the precipitating cause of that Great War? A domino effect, set in motion on June 28, 1914 when <a href="http://www.worldwar1.com/photos/gprin.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Gavrilo Princip</b></a>, a Serb, <a href="http://www.worldwar1.com/tlsara2.htm" target="_blank"><b>assassinated</b></a> Archduke <a href="http://www.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/bio/f/FRANZFRD.GIF" target="_blank"><b>Ferdinand</b></a>, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. </p> <p>Riding in his <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues00/aug00/images/car_jpg.html" target="_blank"><b>car</b></a> during a state visit to <a href="http://users.tibus.com/the-great-war/statesba.htm" target="_blank"><b>Bosnia</b></a>, Ferdinand and his wife <a href="http://www.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/bio/s/SOPHIE-C.GIF" target="_blank"><b>Sophie</b></a> were in Sarajevo to <a href="http://www.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/comment/sarajevo.html" target="_blank"><b>review</b></a> military troops. Their <a href="http://www.worldwar1.com/photos/hfffin.jpg" target="_blank"><b>deaths</b></a> began a <a href="http://www.worldwar1.com/tlplot.htm" target="_blank"><b>chain reaction</b></a> culminating in <a href="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/034538623X.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif" target="_blank"><b><i>The Guns of August</b></i></a>.</p> <p>By 1918, when Princip <a href="http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1914/ferddead.html" target="_blank"><b>died</b></a> of tuberculosis four years into his life sentence, a whole generation was dead. The <a href="http://www.richthofen.com/france_at_war/premiereligne.jpg" target="_blank"><b>front-line trenches</b></a>, towns and seas of Europe were filled with millions of bodies. People everywhere were cut down before they had really lived.</p> <p>One Thousand One Hundred Ninety-Eight (1,198) of those who died were victims of a German U-boat <a href="http://ww1-propaganda-cards.com/images/lus5.JPG" target="_blank"><b>attack</b></a> on the <i>Lusitania</i>. Although <a href="http://ww1-propaganda-cards.com/images/lus_s1.JPG" target="_blank"><b>she</b></a> was not far from the safety of an Irish harbor, the record-holding ship fell victim to a torpedo launched by <i>SM U-20</i>.</p> <p>While the <i>Lusitania’s</i> owner, crew and passengers apparently did not take the German <a href="http://www.comptons.com/encyclopedia/CAPTIONS/20000272_P.html" target="_blank"><b>threat</b></a> seriously, <a href="http://uboat.net/history/images/wwi_pic6.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Walther Schwieger</b></a> did. It took only one well-placed G-type torpedo from his U-boat to <a href="http://ww1-propaganda-cards.com/images/lus_s6.JPG" target="_blank"><b>sink</b></a> one of the fastest passenger liners of her day.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="the_lusitania_ch1.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="the_lusitania_ch3.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>