[1] Inspired by the British Orlando-class armored cruisers, they were built to a design drawn up by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company of Jarrow, England.

[1] Assigned to the Training Squadron, Infanta Maria Teresa served as the flagship of a representative squadron — which also included the battleship Pelayo and the protected cruiser Marqués de la Ensenada— under the overall command of Contraalmirante (Counter Admiral) Fernando Martínez de Espinosa y Echeverri sent to represent Spain at the opening of the German Empire′s Kiel Canal, which linked the North Sea with the Baltic Sea.

[1] In January 1896, when Contraalmirante (Counter Admiral) José Reguera y González Polo took command of the Training Squadron, it consisted of Pelayo, Almirante Oquendo, Infanta Maria Teresa, and Vizcaya.

[1] To represent Spain at ceremonies in the United States recognizing what would have been the 75th birthday of the late President Ulysses S. Grant and celebrating the opening of Grant's Tomb in New York City, Infanta Maria Teresa got underway from Mahón on Menorca in the Balearic Islands on 3 April 1897 in company with the unprotected cruiser Infanta Isabel and proceeded to New York, which the two ships reached on the day of the tomb's dedication, 27 April 1897.

[1] During the first half of August 1897, Infanta Maria Teresa, Almirante Oquendo, Vizcaya, and the torpedo gunboat Destructor visited the Arsenal de Ferrol to have their bottoms cleaned and painted.

[3] After loading coal, they departed Ferrol in mid-August for duty with the Training Squadron, by then under the overall command of Contraalmirante (Counter Admiral) Segismundo Bermejo y Merelo, and proceeded to Cádiz, Spain, where the new armored cruiser Cristóbal Colón joined them.

[1] On 27 November 1897, the squadron — composed of Vizcaya (serving as Cervera's flagship), Almirante Oquendo, Infanta María Teresa, and Cristóbal Colón — got underway from Cádiz and began maneuvers focused on crew training and gunnery practice during a voyage to Levante.

[1][3] Destructor and the destroyers Furor and Terror remained behind in Cádiz until their bottoms were cleaned, but later joined the squadron at Santa Pola, as did the torpedo boats Ariete, Azor, and Rayo from Cartagena.

[1] On 26 January 1898 the Ministry of the Navy ordered Cervera to transfer his flag from Vizcaya to Infanta María Teresa and directed Vizcaya to make a goodwill visit to New York City in return for a goodwill visit the United States Navy armored cruiser USS Maine, often referred to as a "battleship," had begun at Havana in the Captaincy General of Cuba the previous day.

[3] Almirante Oquendo also soon departed to visit Havana, and Cristóbal Colón,[8] still lacking her main guns, left for Genoa, Italy, to have them installed, leaving Cervera with only Infanta Maria Teresa and the protected cruiser Lepanto under his direct command.

Ordered by neutral Portugal in accordance with international law to leave São Vicente within 24 hours of the declaration of war, Infanta María Teresa and the rest of Cervera's squadron departed on 29 April 1898, bound for San Juan, Puerto Rico.

[14] By the beginning of July 1898, the U.S. thrust threatened to capture Santiago de Cuba, and Cervera decided that his squadron's only hope was to escape into the open sea by running the blockade.

With Vice Admiral Cervera aboard, Infanta María Teresa was to lead the escape, sacrificing herself by attacking the fastest American ship, the armored cruiser USS Brooklyn, in the hope that this would allow the rest of the squadron to avoid action and run westward for the open sea.

[17] One of the first shells Iowa fired hit the after main-battery turret of Infanta María Teresa, killing or wounding its crew and knocking out its gun.

With her upper works swept by small arms fire and her decks ravaged by fire, she turned to starboard and ran aground at 10:25 in a small cove about 6 miles (9.7 km) west of Santiago de Cuba[1][18] and just west of Punta Cabrera, coming to rest upright with hr stern over deep water and her bottom pierced by rocks, one of which created a 26-inch (66 cm) hole.

On 6 July 1898, the commander of the U.S. Navy's North Atlantic Squadron, Rear Admiral William T. Sampson, appointed a board chaired by Commodore John C. Watson to survey the damage to the Spanish ships lost in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba.

[18] Good weather allowed the ships to make 6 knots (6.9 mph; 11 km/h) as they headed eastward into the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti, with Infanta Maria Teresa assisting the tow by operating one of her steam engines.

[18] The tow's speed dropped to 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph), and Infanta Maria Teresa began to roll heavily and was down by the bow, with the pumps unable to keep up with the ingress of water.

[18] Merritt parted company with the other two ships at 19:00, presumably to transport Infanta Maria Teresa′s crew to either Nassau in the Bahamas or Key West, Florida.

[18] The U.S. Navy retained few records of Infanta Maria Teresa, which it had never commissioned into service, and over time her wreck was largely forgotten, even locally in the Bahamas.

Another 140-millimeter (5.5 in) gun, with battle damage, is on display at Veterans Memorial Park in Ottumwa, Iowa, and bears a commemorative plaque which reads, "This Cannon was taken from the battleship [sic] The Maria Theresa, flag ship of admiral Cervera's fleet in the war with Spain in 1898.