Sussex
Pledge
The Americans
did not want to join World War I; however a series of events triggered America to
join the war. Shortly after the war
began, Britain declared a blockade on German ports forcing them not to ship
items sailing to Europe. They forced the ships to land at British ports for
inspections. Britain and France depended on oversea shipping from America for
food and supplies. To stop this, Germans deployed submarines to stop the ships
from shipping their items. The Germans then announced that they would sink any
ship they saw around British waters, America was furious.
On May 7,
1915, The British passenger ship, Lusitania, entered the war zone. A German
submarine then sunk the ship killing 1,200 people including 128 Americans.
Wilson tried to defuse the crisis, by sending several protests to Germany saying
that they need to stop endangering their men. Then a German submarine torpedoed
a boat called the Sussex, injuring several Americans. Wilson then made one last
offer and the Germans accepted it, it was called the Sussex Pledge, saying that
Germany would no longer sink merchant ships.
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