The war that started over an ear

In 1731, Spanish coastguard captain Juan de León Fandiño boarded a British ship near Cuba, accused its captain, Robert Jenkins, of smuggling and — according to Jenkins himself — sliced off his ear with a cutlass.

Seven years later, with tensions between London and Madrid at boiling point, Jenkins appeared before a committee of the British Parliament. Chroniclers say he produced the ear, preserved all that time, and that the sight set public opinion ablaze. In 1739, Britain declared war on Spain.

The conflict, known in Spain as the War of the Asiento, was very real: at Cartagena de Indias, Blas de Lezo — one-legged, one-eyed and one-armed — humiliated an enormous British fleet. But in English books the anecdote gave it its name: the War of Jenkins' Ear.

An ear took seven years to reach Parliament. The war it sparked lasted nine.