U.S. President William McKinley’s Message to Congress about Cuban Intervention, delivered in April 1898, asked Congress to give the president the authority to end the Cuban War of Independence. During the spring of 1898, the tensions between the United States and Spain over the island of Cuba brought the two nations to the brink of war. The outbreak of the Cuban Revolution in 1895 and Spanish attempts to suppress the uprising had led to demands in the United States for intervention to stop the fighting. For several years, the quarrel between Washington and Madrid intensified. On February 15, 1898, the battleship Maine exploded in Havana Harbor, killing more than 260 crew members. The tragedy, caused by an onboard explosion but attributed to Spanish mine, intensified calls for American action against Spain. By late March 1898 negotiations were at an impasse. Convinced that he had to intervene, McKinley sent his Message to Congress about Cuban Intervention. He hoped to avoid a conflict involving the United States, but the Spanish declared that an American intrusion into the fighting would produce a wider war. McKinley’s message was a decisive step in the process that led to the Spanish–American War.