Latest / History Unplugged Podcast
The Severing Of a Sea Captain’s Ear Led to a Global War Between Spain and Britain in the 1740s
In the early 1700s, decades of rising tensions between Spain and Britain culminated in a war that was fought all over the world. And it all started with a scene that sounds like it belongs in Reservoir Dogs: In 1731, a Spanish guarda costa abused its right to stop and search British merchant ships in the West Indies for contraband, and a Spanish privateer named Juan de León Fandiño cut off British captain Robert Jenkins’s ear during a search of his trading brig Rebecca.
Jenkins returned to England with his severed and then presented it to King George II. The incident helped spark arguably the…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.