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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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War of Jenkins' Ear
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(1739) Name given to hostilities between Britain and Spain in the Caribbean in 1739. It derives from an English sea captain, Robert Jenkins, who in 1738 produced for a House of Commons committee what he claimed to be his ear, cut off by Spaniards who had boarded his ship in the West Indies in 1731; it was on record that he had reported the incident at the time. His story inflamed already existing public hostility to the Spanish (clashes between the colonial powers in the Caribbean were constant), and it contributed to the government's decision to declare war on Spain in 1739. The conflict was almost immediately merged in the larger War of the *Austrian Succession, in which the two countries were again on opposing sides.
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