War of Jenkins' Ear.

In 1713, The Treaty of Utrecht concluded Britain's war with Spain and gave British merchants trading rights with Spain's colonies in Spanish America. Later agreements gave Spanish naval and customs vessels authority to stop, board and inspect British merchant ships to ensure they were complying with the trading agreements. This included the trading of slaves which the British were engaged in at that time.

Suspecting that some merchants were smuggling, the Spanish began confiscating cargo. Robert Jenkins, Captain of a British merchant vessel, was boarded by the Spanish and during accusations and questioning about smuggling had his ear 'removed'. He kept it and when brought before Parliament, allegedly produced his severed ear amid uproar and indignation.

Britain declared war against Spain on 19 October 1739, but the naming of the war that followed was not described as the 'War of Jenkins' Ear' until so named in the 1800s by the philosopher and historian Thomas Carlyle. By 1742 the War of Jenkins' Ear had rolled into the War of the Austrian Succession (1740 - 1748).