From 1739 to 1748, Britain and Spain fought a war. In what year did it become known as the “War of Jenkins’ Ear”?

Both empire builders, Britain and Spain, were rivals and on-and-off war enemies for decades in the centuries of colonial expansion. When the War of Spanish Succession ended in 1713, Spain granted Great Britain a 30-year "asiento" or contractual right to provide 500 tons of goods and an unlimited number of slaves to Spanish colonies. Previously, the markets of Spain’s American colonies had been closed to all but Spain’s merchants.

At the 1729 Treaty of Seville, Britain agreed to allow Spain to halt and board British ships to ensure the British were living up to the terms of the agreement. In 1731, off the Florida coast, "La Isabela" halted and her crew boarded the "Rebecca", where the patrol boat’s commander accused Captain Robert Jenkins of smuggling and sliced off his left ear.

The incident was largely ignored in Britain until the South Sea Company used it to foment anti-Spain anger, hoping that another Britain-Spain war would start, Britain would win, and South Sea would gain better trading opportunities in the Caribbean.

Eventually, the two nations again took to hostilities in the Guerra del Asiento—the Contract War—which started in 1739 and ended in 1748. It was not until 1858 that Scottish Author Thomas Carlyle called it the “War of Jenkins’ Ear,” referring to the 127-year-old incident.