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War of Jenkins' Ear
| War of Jenkins' Ear | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of War of the Austrian Succession | |||||||||
 1741 map of the West Indies and North America | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Great Britain |
 Spain | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| c. 20,000 dead or wounded | c. 10,000 dead or wounded [1] | ||||||||
The War of Jenkins' Ear[a] was fought by Britain and Spain between 1739 to 1748. The majority of the fighting took place in New Granada and the Caribbean Sea, with major operations largely ended by 1742. It is considered a related conflict of the 1740 to 1748 War of the Austrian Succession.
The name derives from Robert Jenkins, a British sea captain whose ear[b] was allegedly severed in April 1731 by Spanish coast guards searching his ship for contraband. In 1738, opposition politicians in the British Parliament used the incident to incite support for a war against Spain.[2]
The most significant operation of the war was a failed British attack on Cartagena in 1741, which resulted in heavy casualties and was not repeated.[3] Apart from minor actions in Spanish Florida, Georgia, and Havana, after 1742 Britain and Spain focused their efforts on the War of the Austrian Succession in Europe.
Fighting formally ended with the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the terms of which meant Britain largely failed to achieve its original territorial and economic ambitions in the Americas. The war is significant in British naval history for Admiral George Anson's voyage around the world from 1740 to 1744.
- ^ Clodfelter 2017, p. 78.
- ^ Graboyes & Hullar 2013, pp. 368–372.
- ^ Webb 2013, pp. 396–398.
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