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Imagine a fight breaks out across the street, and you decide to stay inside your house with the doors locked so you don't get hurt.
When World War I started in Europe in 1914, the United States chose to do just that by practicing neutrality, which means officially refusing to pick a side.
For nearly three years, most Americans wanted to stay far away from Europe's trenches. But what happens when traveling across the ocean suddenly becomes deadly?

The Lusitania Tragedy

Germany relied on stealth underwater boats called U-boats (short for submarines) to sink supply ships heading toward Great Britain.
In May 1915, a German U-boat fired a torpedo at the Lusitania, a British passenger ship carrying regular travelers across the Atlantic.
Americans were outraged, and President Woodrow Wilson warned Germany that sinking unarmed passenger ships violated international rules.
Following intense diplomatic pressure and outrage from President Wilson after attacks on unarmed vessels, Germany agreed to The Sussex Pledge in 1916.
Under the Sussex Pledge, Germany promised not to sink merchant or passenger ships without giving warning and saving the lives of passengers and crew.
This temporary compromise successfully kept the U.S. out of the war through 1915 and 1916, but the fragile agreement soon collapsed.

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare