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Battleship was relatively new name for ship types. What might be called a battleship is what was called a 'ship of the line' in the 18th and early-19th century. The term 'line-of-battle ship' was also used. This was because the naves of he era used to form lines and hen batter each other over the line. The most important such battle was of course Trafalgar (1805). This form of fighting declined, in part no other country could form a line of battle to fight a naval engagement. We are not sure just ho coined the term battleship for the big-gun ships to appear in the late-19th century we believe in Royal Navy parlance. It was soon picked up by other navies, including the U.S. Navy which at the time was a minor naval player. The United States built a huge navy during the Civil War (1861-65), but largely decommissioned it after the War. The United States became the world's leading industrial power (1880s). All countries with major economies, especially industrial economies, built substantial industrial sectors, built large militaries--except the United States. There was no interest in a large army, but interest in a substantial navy was growing. Secretary of the Navy William H. Hunt argued that America need to match Europe's expanding navies that ignited an intense debate. There was resistance until it was learned Brazilian Empire commissioned the iron-clad battleship Riachuelo making Brazil the post powerful naval power in the Americas (1883). Historian Alfred Thayer Mahan published his book The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1890). He had a huge impact not only in the Navy, but he public at large. Three years later as part of the New Navy program, President Harrison's Navy Secretary Benjamin F. Tracy, proposed the Navy Act (1890) authorizing the construction of 'three sea-going, coast-line battle ships' which would become became the Indiana class of battleships. The United States Navy began the construction of battleships with USS Texas (1892), although it did not begin numbering them for some reason until the second ship--Indiana (BB-1). There were famous ship in American history, including 'Bon Hom Richard', 'Constitution' (Old Iron Sides), 'Monitor', and 'Merrimack'. Maine was the first famous American battleship, actually an armored cruiser--famous because it blew up and started a war. The proponents of sea power because for the need of 'coastal defense', interesting because the Maine arguably caused the Spanish American War (1898). As a result, of these new ships, the United States Navy at the turn of the 20h century emerged from a naval non-entity to be the world's fifth strongest naval power and growing.
Mahan, Alfred Thayer. The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1890).
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