War of Jenkins’ Ear

The War of Jenkins’ Ear grew from disputes over British trading and smuggling in Spanish America, where Spanish coast guards searched ships and enforced Spain’s colonial monopoly. British political opposition used the reported mutilation of the mariner Robert Jenkins to demand war, which began in 1739.

Fighting centred on the Caribbean and the American southeast. Admiral Edward Vernon captured Portobelo, but Britain’s much larger expedition against Cartagena de Indias in 1741 failed with severe losses. Other campaigns involved Georgia, Spanish Florida, Cuba and trans-Pacific operations under George Anson.

The conflict merged into the wider War of the Austrian Succession and ended without delivering Britain’s expected commercial or territorial gains.