Build-Up
By the end of 1897, the U.S began to hear about the events in Cuba. Citizens urged the government in Washington D.C to do something about it and help the Cubans. President William McKinley didn't want to send in his soldiers to a foreign war, so instead he sent the U.S.S Maine to Havana Harbor in 1898. He hoped that just the presence of the ship should calm things down.