A newspaper article in the New York Journal, following the sinking of the warship, U.S.S. Maine in Cuba (then a Spanish territory). Claiming that the United States Nave believed that the Spanish were responsible for the Maine’s destruction, the article intended to sway public opinion in favor of the United States going to war with Spain. While it was later discovered that the Maine exploded due to a mechanical issue, the pre-existing level of tension between the United States and the Kingdom of Spain, and the fact that the explosion took place in Cuba, made it easy to believe that the Spanish were to blame.