MAINE, USS, SINKING OF: Credo Reference
In January 1898, Spanish military forces had begun to turn the tide against Cuban insurrectionists, but they faced pressure from the U.S. president William McKinley to make concessions. When in response to reforms from Madrid, Spanish officers and Cuban loyalists rioted in Havana, the U.S. consul Fitzhugh Lee requested a warship to protect American lives and property. There also was concern about rumored Spanish intentions to turn Cuba over to Germany. These circumstances induced McKinley to dispatch USS Maine to Havana. The Maine was a second-class battleship whose keel was laid in 1888, though it was not commissioned until 1895.