47. Time for another war

Ah, those were the days. When Britain went to war over a sea captain who'd had an ear cut off. And taught the Spanish a thing or two.

Except, of course, that Britain didn't go to war for that reason. And they taught Spain nothing. In fact, the Spanish taught the British a lesson, though we shall discover later that it wasn't listening.

It took Britain eight years to decide to go to war with Spain, ostensibly over the outrage of Jenkins' Ear. That delay shows how little the war had to do with the atrocity. In reality, it was about bringing Walpole down, on the one hand, and looking for new business opportunities, on the other, with war as the means to break the stranglehold of competitor nations.

Besides, despite a promising start with a famous if trivial victory for which all the Portobellos in Britain are called, Admiral Vernon went on to massive defeat at Cartagena. Though, oddly enough, that has a monument too, in a place that is certainly iconic, but in American rather than British history. Proving once more that history is full of ironies.

Illustration: Robert Jenkins hands a dismissive Prime Minister Robert Walpole his severed ear, as his companions lift off his wig to show the scar; one of Walpole's associates displays total indifference, preferring to converse with a lady. Satirical Cartoon, 1738, British Museum, London. Public domain

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License