Lusitania puppet Kingdom of Northern Lusitania as one of the successor states to Portugal under the assumption that such a campaign would result in an easy French victory. The province was also the namesake of the North Atlantic Ocean Liner RMS Lusitania infamous for being torpedoed by a German Uboat in 1915. The ship’s owners the Cunard Line commonly named their vessels after Roman provinces with the Lusitania so being called after the Roman Iberian province to the north of the Strait of Gibraltar while her sistership RMS Mauretania was named after the Roman North African province on the south side
RMS Lusitania accused of breaching the internationally recognised Cruiser Rules. It had become more dangerous for submarines to give warning with the British introduction of Q-ships in 1915 with concealed deck guns. ("Lusitania" had been fitted with 6-inch gun mounts in 1913, although she was unarmed at the time of her sinking.) The Germans justified treating "Lusitania" as a naval vessel because she was carrying hundreds of tons of war munitions, therefore making her a legitimate military target, and argued that British merchant ships had violated the Cruiser Rules from the very beginning of the war. The Cruiser Rules were obsolete by