Sea burial of the dead of the American battleship 'Maine', 1912 (b/w photo)

United States of America The dead of the American battleship 'Maine' are ceremoniously buried on the 'U.S.S. North Carolina'. The 'U.S.S. North Carolina' went to Cuba in 1911, in order to transfer to the U.S. the remains of the fallen soldiers in 1898 for their final burial. The American battleship 'U.S.S. Maine' was destroyed by an explosion on 15 February 1898 in the harbor of Havana. 260 people lost their lives. The U.S. had made the Spanish responsible for the incident. Because of the suppression of the Cuban insurrection 1895-98, the American public was already set anti-Spanish. Many have already called for intervention in the Cuban-Spanish conflict. On 25 April 1898, the United States declared war to Spain. As a result of the Spanish-American War, Spain lost its role as a colonial power, the United States acquired for the first colonial possession, gained supremacy in the Caribbean and laid the foundation for her role as a world power.