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War of Jenkins' Ear
Date 1739–1748 Location New Granada and the Caribbean; Florida-Georgia border; small raids in the Pacific and Atlantic Result Spanish Victory
Belligerents
Great Britain	Spanish Empire
Commanders and leaders
Edward Vernon James E. Oglethorpe George Anson Charles Knowles	Blas de Lezo Manuel de Montiano Andrés Reggio

The War of Jenkins' Ear was a conflict between Great Britain and Spain that lasted from 1739 to 1742. Its unusual name relates to Robert Jenkins, captain of a British merchant ship, who exhibited his severed ear in Parliament following the boarding of his vessel by Spanish coast guards in November 1739. This affair and a number of similar incidents sparked a war against the Spanish Empire, ostensibly to encourage the Spanish not to renege on the lucrative asiento contract (permission to sell slaves in Spanish America).. After 1742 the war merged into the larger War of the Austrian Succession.

Causes

At the conclusion of the War of the Spanish Succession, the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 gave Britain a thirty-year asiento, or contract-right, to supply an unlimited number of slaves to the Spanish colonies, and 500 tons of goods per year. This provided British traders and smugglers potential inroads into the (traditionally) closed markets in Spanish America. However, Britain and Spain were often at war during this period, fighting one-another in the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718-20), the Blockade of Porto Bello (1726) and the Anglo-Spanish War (1727-29).

In the Treaty of Seville (1729), following the Anglo-Spanish War, Britain had accorded Spanish warships the right to stop British traders and verify if the Asiento right was respected. Over time the Spanish became suspicious that British traders were abusing the contract and began to board ships and confiscate their cargoes.. After very strained relations between 1727 and 1732, the situation improved between 1732 and 1737, when Sir Robert Walpole supported Spain during the War of Polish Succession. But the causes of the problems remained and when the opposition against Walpole grew, so did the anti-Spanish feelings amongst the British public opinion..

The actual incident which sparked the war had occurred in 1731 when the British brig Rebecca was boarded by the Spanish coast guard Ia Isabela commanded by Julio León Fandiño, who cut off one of the ears of her captain, Robert Jenkins. In March 1738 Jenkins was ordered to attend Parliament, presumably to repeat his story before a committee of the House of Commons and it is alleged that he produced the severed ear when he attended, although no detailed record of the hearing exists. The incident was considered alongside various other cases and conceived as an insult to the honour of the nation and a clear casus belli.. Walpole gave in to the pressure and approved the sending of troops to the West Indies and a squadron to Gibraltar under Admiral Haddock, causing an immediate Spanish reaction. Spain asked for financial compensation, which led to the British demand to annul the "Visitation Right" agreed in the Treaty of Seville (1729). In reaction, King Philip V of Spain annulled the "Asiento Right" and had all British ships in Spanish harbours confiscated. On August 14 Britain recalled its ambassador to Spain and officially declared war on 19 October 1739. Despite the Pacte de Famille, France remained neutral.

The War

Capture of Porto Bello

One of the first actions was the British capture, on 22 November 1739, of a minor silver-exporting town on the coast of Panama (then New Granada), called Puerto Bello, in an attempt to damage Spain's finances. The poorly defended port was attacked by six ships of the line under Admiral Edward Vernon.
The battle led the Spanish to change their trading practices. Rather than trading at centralised ports with a few large treasure fleets, they began using a larger number of smaller convoys trading at a wide variety of ports. They also began to travel around Cape Horn to trade on the west coast. Puerto Bello's economy was severely damaged, and did not recover until the building of the Panama Canal.
In Britain the victory was greeted with much celebration, and in 1740, at a dinner in honour of Vernon in London, the song "God Save the King", now the British national anthem, was performed in public for the first time. Portobello Road in London is named after this victory and the battle was the most medalled event of the eighteenth century. The conquest of a port in Spain's American empire was widely considered a foregone conclusion, despite the British withdrawal in a mere three weeks.

The success of the Porto Bello operation led the British in 1740 to send a squadron under Commodore George Anson to attack Spain's possessions in the Pacific especially in the Philippines which were largely unsuccessful.

Battle of Cartagena

The central action in the War of Jenkins' Ear was a major amphibious attack launched by the British under Admiral Edward Vernon in March, 1741 against Cartagena de Indias, one of Spain's principal gold-trading ports in their colony of New Granada (today Colombia). Vernon's expedition was hampered by inefficient organization, his rivalry with the commander of his land forces, and the logistical problems of mounting and maintaining a major trans-Atlantic expedition. The strong fortifications in Cartagena and the able strategy of Spanish Commander Blas de Lezo were decisive in repelling the attack, with heavy losses on the British side. In addition to the unfamiliar tropical climate, Vernon's men succumbed in large numbers to virulent tropical disease, primarily yellow fever.

Other Operations

Several other British attacks took place in the Caribbean with little consequence on the geopolitical situation in the Atlantic. The weakened British forces launched similar attacks against St. Augustine in Florida; Havana, Cuba and Panama; all were repelled. A 1742 Spanish counter-attack upon the British colony of Georgia at Bloody Marsh and Gully Hole Creek was also repulsed by the British.

Privateering

The war was also characterised by relatively indecisive naval operations and privateering on an astonishing scale. Anson's fortuitous capture of an immensely valuable Manila galleon was more than offset for the Spaniards by their privateers' ruining of the British transatlantic triangular trade, with the seizure of hundreds of British ships; operating as they did with virtual impunity in the West Indies and were also active in European waters. Meanwhile the Spanish convoys proved almost unstoppable. During the Austrian phase of the war the British would vent their high seas frustrations with great energy upon the poorly protected French merchantmen.

The war eventually died down due to lack of troops as resources were diverted by war in Europe — many had succumbed to disease — without any gain of territory on either side.

Aftermath

Although the half-hearted Spanish effort to turn their successful defence into an offensive ended in failure, Spain's victory in Cartagena de Indias was crucial in maintaining its access to the Atlantic sealanes and therefore its empire. Had the British plan succeeded the entire Spanish empire in the Americas would have been imperiled. The diplomatic resolution formed part of the wider settlement of the War of the Austrian Succession by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.

Notes

1. Olson, pp. 1121–22
2. James, p. 59
3. James, p. 61
4. Retrieved on 13 January 2009
5. Retrieved on 13 January 2009
6. James, p. 59

References

• James, Lawrence (2001). The Rise and Fall of the British Empire. Abacus. ISBN 031216985X.
• Olson, James (1996). Historical Dictionary of the British Empire. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 031329366X.

Further reading

• Tobías Smollet (Tobias Smollett), Authentic papers related to the expedition against Carthagena, by Jorge Orlando Melo in Reportaje de la historia de Colombia, Bogotá: Planeta, 1989.
• The American People - sixth edition by Gary B. Nash and Julie Roy Jeffrey
• Victoria, Pablo (2005) El día que España derrotó a Inglaterra : de cómo Blas de Lezo, tuerto, manco y cojo, venció en Cartagena de Indias a la otra "Armada Invencible" Áltera, Barcelona, Spain, ISBN 84-89779-68-6
• Quintero Saravia, Gonzalo M. (2002) Don Blas de Lezo: defensor de Cartagena de Indias Editorial Planeta Colombiana, Bogotá, Colombia, ISBN 958-42-0326-6, in Spanish

See also

• List of conflicts in the United States

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• The War of Jenkin's Ear is commemorated every forth or fifth Saturday in May at Wormslow Plantation in Savannah, Georgia.

• 18th century in the United Kingdom
• 18th century in Spain
• Conflicts in 1739
• Famous body parts
• Wars involving Great Britain
• Wars involving Spain