During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the US pursued an aggressive policy of imperialism and expansionism around the globe. President Theodore Roosevelt sent the "Great White Fleet" of 16 battleships around the world from 1907 to 1909 to demonstrate American naval power. The explosion and sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor in 1898, which killed 260 American sailors, helped spark the Spanish-American War and demonstrated the US's growing international influence at the time.