The Lusitania The Lusitania was a British steamship. On May 7, 1915 during World War I it was torpedoed and sunk without warning by a German U-boat. The ship sunk 20 minutes after it was attacked. In all, 1,198 people died. 128 of them were Americans. The reason the Germans gave for sinking the ship was because they thought it was carrying supplies for the Allies. This was later proved to be true. In American newspapers a warning had been issued by the Germans warning Americans not to travel aboard the Lusitania. "A state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies," the warning stated. "Travelers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain...do so at their own risk." After this event strong anti-German feelings flared up in the United States. Some people wanted to declare war on Germany, but the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson chose the diplomatic approach. He sent the German foreign ministry 3 notes, demanding that Germany put an end to the sinking and make reparations. Germany didn't accept responsibility for the sinking of the Lusitania but did make reparations and agreed not to sink any more passenger liners without warning. In 1917, Americans received some shocking news. On February 1, 1917 Germany declared that its U-boats were going to start back up their surprise attacks on all Allied and neutral ships. The President didn't have a solution prepared for this problem. On February 3, 1917 President Wilson ended all American diplomatic relations with Germany. He still didn't want to declare war though. In late February 1917 the British turned over a secret German message to the President. In this noted the German foreign minister, Arthur Zimmerman proposed an alliance between Germany and Mexico. He promised that if the Mexican government declared war on the U.S. that Germany would give Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona to the Mexican government. This letter was published in America...