Lusitania the other provinces to form the "Diocesis Hispaniarum" ("Diocese of the Hispanias"). As with the Roman names of many European countries, "Lusitania" was and is often used as an alternative name for Portugal, especially in formal or literary and poetic contexts. The 16th-century colony that would eventually become Brazil was initially founded as "New Lusitania". In common use are such terms as Lusophone, meaning Portuguese-speaking, and Lusitanic, referring to the Community of Portuguese Language Countries—once Portugal's colonies and presently independent countries still sharing some common heritage. Prior to his invasion in 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte proposed the establishment of a French-backed
RMS Lusitania Kingdom a war zone, and the German embassy in the United States had placed newspaper advertisements warning people of the dangers of sailing on "Lusitania". On the afternoon of 7 May, a German U-boat torpedoed "Lusitania", off the southern coast of Ireland and inside the declared war zone. A second, unexplained, internal explosion, likely munitions she was carrying, sent her to the seabed in 18 minutes, with the deaths of 1,198 passengers and crew. Because the Germans sank, without warning, what was a completely defenceless, officially non-military ship, killing almost a thousand civilians, many of whom were children, they were