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The importance of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is that it served as the immediate catalyst that triggered the chain of events leading to World War I -
American neutrality in WWI, which began in 1914, was a policy of non-intervention in the European conflict, initially favored by President Woodrow Wilson and many Americans -
The First Battle of the Marne's importance lies in it halting the German advance on Paris in 1914, which ended the German army's initial hopes for a quick victory and forced a strategic rethink of their Schlieffen Plan -
The sinking of the Lusitania was important because the deaths of 128 Americans enraged the U.S. public and significantly contributed to the shift in public opinion and pressure that would eventually lead to the United States entering World War I in 1917 -
The Battle of Verdun was important for its symbolic significance to the French, its role in a German strategy of attrition, and its devastating human cost. -
The Sussex incident was a critical diplomatic crisis that significantly raised U.S. tensions with Germany during World War -
The Battle of the Somme is important for its staggering casualties, which made it a symbol of the horrors of World War I -
The Zimmermann Telegram was important because it directly influenced the United States' decision to enter World War I -
Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare in World War I was a naval strategy using U-boats to sink enemy and neutral merchant and passenger ships without warning, primarily to cut off supplies and cripple enemy economies.