War of Jenkins' Ear

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War of Jenkins' Ear
Date 1739–1748 Location the Caribbean, Florida and Georgia. Result Decisive Spanish victory
Belligerents
Great Britain	Spanish Empire
Commanders
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 1748. Its unusual name relates to Robert Jenkins, captain of a British ship, who exhibited his severed ear in Parliament, sparking outrage that Spanish coast guards had cut it off. After 1742 the war merged into the larger War of the Austrian Succession. One of the first actions was the British capture, on November 22, 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 large treasure fleets, they began using small numbers of ships trading at a wide variety of ports. They also began to travel around Cape Horn to trade on the west coast.^{[citation needed]} 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 Spain's American empire was widely considered a foregone conclusion.

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 specially in the Philippines which were largely unsuccessful.

[edit] Battle of Cartagena

Main article: Battle of Cartagena de Indias

The major 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 major gold-trading ports in the Caribbean (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.

San Felipe de Barajas Fortress (Cartagena). The defeat of a massive British fleet from this fortress was crucial in maintaining Spain's access via the Atlantic sea lanes.

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 the Battle of Bloody Marsh was also repulsed by the British.

The war was also characterised by relatively indecisive naval operations and privateering by both sides. Anson's fortuitous capture of an immensely valuable Manila galleon was more than offset for the Spaniards by their privateers' devastation of the British transatlantic trade, operating as they did with virtual impunity in the West Indies and also actively in European waters. Meanwhile the Spanish convoys of high value cargoes proved unstoppable. During the later Austrian phase of the war the British would visit their high seas frustrations upon 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.

[edit] Aftermath

Although the half-hearted Spanish effort to turn the successful defence into offence 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.

[edit] References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

War of Jenkins' Ear

• 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