Why is the Lusitania talked about more than the Zimmerman Telegram...

Why is the Lusitania talked about more than the Zimmerman Telegram? That had more impact into America joining the war than the Lusitania. Lusitania happened in 1915 and America didn't join till 1917.

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Sunken ships are fascinating. Explosion of Maine didn't cause Spanish-American War but people still talk about it.

British propaganda mostly

the zimmerman note was really important, but we were already considering involvement. the telegram was the nail in the coffin.

As for the Lusitania, The titanic had only been 3 years earlier, so people were still hung up on the "boat sinking" thing, like we are about plane hijackings. This made it an excellent propaganda bludgeon throughout the war. One of the first animated films was about the sinking, link related

youtube.com/watch?v=AYKdXABWaFg

Pretty sure the Maine's explosion, and yellow journalism was what caused Spanish American War.

The only thing it did was that some people volunteered for the US Army after it was eventually decalred and nothing more.

Read Walter LaFeber.

ships exploding and people dying grabs a lot more headlines than a secret telegram sent to the Mexican government.

Also keep in mind that the Lusitania came just a few years after the Titanic disaster, so it would almost providence that it would be sensationalized to begin with.

Also when it comes to galvanizing the common people to support war, having the enemy already kill your own people is much more effective than talking about some intercepted telegram.

Don't get me wrong, the telegram was more instrumental in the US getting involved, but it doesn't get people's blood boiling as much as a torpedo killing hundreds of American civilians.

That makes sense for then, but in the 100 years since it doesn't make sense. Anybody who knows anything about WWI knows something about the Lusitania, and I bet if you polled Americans an overwhelming majority would choose the Lusitania over the Zimmerman Telegram for the reason the US got involved in WWI. I remember thinking that when I was in high school cause it almost was portrayed that way when I was in history class. The Zimmerman Telegram should definitely be more talked about in history classes.

Well maybe caused wasn't the right word, but that and yellow journalism was what allowed the US going to war. I doubt if that hadn't happened it would have been mainly saber rattling.

Because Germany disavowed their unrestricted submarine warfare after Lusitania but reconstituted it at around the same time Zimmerman happened

Didn't the British doctor the Telegram?

Well the "furnish the picture I furnish the war" quote is completely fake.
Though Hearst eventually took active part in the war and even captured a few prisoners. He didn't know what to do with them though so he just had them bow down to American flag or something.

No it just gave them the excuse they wanted when it was found to be a naval mine, even though no naval mine in existence at the time could have caused that explosion, McKinley and a good deal of congress were hell bent on getting that war

I agree with you, but the sad part is that propaganda of the time still largely bleeds into the narrative of stories even as time goes on even to the present day, mainly because it's what the people of the time remembered the most, and it's what they will talk about after the fact.

Take for instance the WWII German propaganda piece of Poland using cavalry and sabers to charge Panzer tanks. The truth is that the cavalry units were very small in number, and they were armed with anti-tank rifles and not sabers, but the information that was spread the most ends up being the most memorable because it received the most exposure, and carries on into the future.

Really it's just human error in cataloging history. The people of the time will write down what they were exposed to as what was happening, and less so what was actually going on behind closed doors.

No. First reports said that it was just an accident (which it was) and McKinley agreed. He really struggled with the decision to go to war but it's so hard to get into his head. Someone called him an American enigma (one of many enigma presidents). The war broke out only because the three factions were in disagreement from the very beginning and there was a stalemate, ultimatum etc. usual diplomatic goodness that comes before the war. The more you read about it the more it becomes clear that Maine is the least significant event surrounding the war. And I had to write a whole fucking thesis about it.
On the other hand TR believed that the Spanish sunk it from the very beginning. Or he wanted to believe in it because his one desire was to go to war. Any war. He even killed a Spaniard with a pistol recovered from Maine.

So Americans don’t grow up thinking the British are spying on us or worried that Mexico wants to invade.

>Any more anti-American outbursts in Cuba and we'll be forced to intervene
>*Sends warship to Havana to encourage anti-American outburst*
McKinley was a cunt and somehow people still think he didn't want the war

At the end of the day, they DID sink the ship. Mexico however didn't attack the US

>Really it's just human error in cataloging history. The people of the time will write down what they were exposed to as what was happening, and less so what was actually going on behind closed doors.

HG Wells, who was also an amateur historian, once wrote about this. He said you can't write about major historical events as they're going on, because you're too swept up in the emotions of the time. You need to wait for a cooldown.

The 'muh senseless attack on civilians' angle legitimizes American entry more, especially post 9/11

The Mexicans had no interest in invading, that always turned out badly for them. We weren't their southern neighbors.

The first american fake war

What benefit did the Americans get by weakening Germany?

They portrayed the sinking as some sort of German war crime despite the ship carrying loads of military equipment and despite the Germans issuing a warning. They essentially used civilians as human shields.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lusitania#Aftermath

Well Roosevelt, Lodge and generals of the time desperately wanted to go into any war.
McKinley's position was more complicated. He was even found crying at one point debating the issue.

It's more what advantage did the British have in weakening Germany? A lot, since they were in a war.