The Lusitania

1 At the beginning of the twentieth century, Europe was composed of a complex system of alliances of different ideas, attitudes and fears. The flimsy stability of the European status quo shifted one way or the other with the slightest breath of wind. The cement holding this fragile structure together was the threat of the military power that armed each nation. The assination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, on June 28, 1914 was the …

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