There have been a great many wars throughout the history of the world, and almost as many reasons for going to war in the first place. There are those wars which are deemed “just” (such as the war to defeat Hitler) and there are those which are by some deemed to be “unjust” (such as some of the wars of the Crusades).
One of the more unusual instigators for a major war, however, was the strange case in the 1730’s of an Englishman’s severed ear.
The Situation
Such was the plight of one Robert Jenkins, an English Privateer during the first half of the eighteenth century – a man devoted to the crown, but attempting to mind his own business while sailing the seas in search of fortune, surely having no intention whatsoever of starting a war.
It was while sailing from Jamaica back home to England that his ship, Rebecca, was captured by a Spanish Sloop – the Coast Guard from the Spanish port of Havana (for the Spanish did not care much for English Privateers anywhere near their waters). This much was actually legal, for the Treaty of Seville prevented the English from trading with the Spanish colonies, and thus enabled the Spanish to board and search any English ship in Spanish waters.
Though the Spaniards could find no real evidence to use against Jenkins or Rebecca’s crew, that did not stop them from torturing the captain a great deal, and eventually even cutting off his ear as a message to King George (that is, King George II, not to be confused with his Grandson, George III, against whom the Declaration of Independence was directed).
Now, as was mentioned earlier, it really doesn’t seem that Robert Jenkins had a mind to start any sort of war due to this incident. He may have been angry at the Spanish, sure (who wouldn't?), but it was much more likely that he was simply angry at the individual who cut off his ear, rather than the entire nation in general. As evidence to this, one may point to the fact that this event occurred in 1731, and it was not until 1738 (seven years later) that anything was done about it.
The Context
Tensions during this time were quite hot between Britain and Spanish, and yet Jenkins did not personally do much (if anything) to add to these problems. At least, not until he received pressure of an unknown sort from some section of the British Government. It is not certain exactly what his reasoning may have been, but it was in 1738 that Jenkins was persuaded to pay a visit to the British House of Commons, where (reluctantly or not) he displayed his pickled ear, cut off by the Spanish, for all to see.
It was this ear which sent the house, and eventually much of Britain, into an uproar against the Spanish, and which led Prime Minister Robert Walpole to declare war on Spain on October 23, 1739.
And thus began The War of Jenkins' Ear.
The War Itself in Brief
This conflict, which was in no way minor, lasted somewhere around nine years. It is difficult to say for sure when the war with Spain ended, for the battles of this war eventually began to blend in with the battles of another war that was getting under way around this time – an even more serious war known as The War for Austrian Succession (and, consequently, into a long series of war leading up to and through the War for American Independence). With the larger war going on in Europe, neither side had enough resources to devote to the nearly decade-long squabble. And so, The War of Jenkins' Ear ended without much resolution.
While one may be fairly certain that Britain would have found an excuse to begin this war without the intervention of Robert Jenkins and his severed part (something else would surely have arisen), it certainly served as a catalyst, and a rallying cry for all of his countrymen fighting against Spain, both at home and abroad (including partly in the American Colonies, where thousands of colonists fought alongside their British brethren).
It was the excuse that Britain needed to start this war.
It makes one wonder what would have happened if they had chopped both his ears off.
References:
“War of Jenkin’s Ear.” New Georgia Encyclopedia.
Brainard, Rick. “The War of Jenkins’s Ear.” 18th Century History.
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