James Baquet

Back in 1713, at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, the Treaty of Utrecht gained Britain a contract to supply slaves (as well as a yearly cargo of 500 tons of goods) to the Spanish colonies. This contract was called an “asiento.” This was significant, as the closed markets of the Spanish colonies typically allowed trading only between the motherland and each other.

But the asiento opened the door a crack for the British traders to enter the market. Nevertheless, continuing warfare (in 1718-20, 1726, and 1727-29) made this risky business.

After the last of these conflicts, in the Treaty of Seville, Britain gave Spain the right to board and check her ships for smuggled goods, which would be a violation of the asiento. In 1731, Spanish coast guards off the coast of Florida boarded the British brig “Rebecca,” captained by one Robert Jenkins. Spanish commander Juan de Leon Fandino cut off Jenkins’ left ear and told him, “Go, and tell your King that I will do the same, if he dares to do the same” (meaning “continues to smuggle goods into Spanish colonies”).

Tensions continued to grow. Britain, it seemed, was spoiling for war, and in 1738 Jenkins was called before Parliament to testify regarding the eight-year-old incident. (Some reports claim he even displayed his severed ear to Parliament.) A year later, the British ambassador to Spain was recalled and Parliament declared war.

The Spanish called it the “War of the Asiento”; oddly, the name “The War of Jenkins’ Ear” was not coined until 1858, more than a century later, by historian Thomas Carlyle.

So Britain had used the incident as a casus belli to stir up outrage against Spain, hoping that this war would result in greater trading opportunities in the Spanish colonies. Instead, Britain lost over twice the number of men and ships as did Spain, and there was no more British smuggling into the Spanish colonies. What’s more, the war was inconclusive: By 1742, it had become absorbed into the larger War of the Austrian Succession, which involved most of Europe.

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. formal agreement regarding international relations

2. representative from one nation to another

3. freight in a ship, airplane, etc.

4. carry goods secretly and illegally

5. resentment, anger

6. dangerous

7. passing of power from one leader to another

8. took in, incorporated

9. cut off, detached

10. occurrence that causes a war