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Under the 1729 Treaty of Seville, the British had agreed not to trade with the Spanish colonies. To verify the treaty, the Spanish were permitted to board British vessels in Spanish waters. After one such incident in 1731, Robert Jenkins, captain of the ship Rebecca, claimed that the Spanish coast guard had severed his ear, and in 1738 exhibited it to the House of Commons - hence the name of the conflict. The British Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, reluctantly declared war on October 23, 1739.

One of the key actions was the British capture, on November 21, 1739, of the silver exporting town of Porto Bello (then in New Granada, now PanamaPanama ( Spanish: Panam is the southernmost country of Central America. It constitutes the last part of a natural land bridge between the North American and South American continents. History Main article: History of Panama Panama was part of Spain's colo), in an attempt to damage Spain's finances. The poorly defended port was attacked by six ships of the line under AdmiralThe word admiral comes from the Arabic term amir-al-bahr meaning "commander of the seas. Crusaders learned the term during their encounters with the Arabs, perhaps as early as the 11th century. The Sicilians and later Genoese took the first two parts of t Edward VernonEdward Vernon Old Grog ( 1684 1757) was a English naval officer. In the War of the Spanish Succession he served at the Battle of Malaga in 1704 and at the Battle of Barcelona in 1705. In the War of Jenkin's Ear in 1739 he commanded a fleet that captured t. The battle demonstrated the vulnerability of Spanish trading practices, and led them to fundamentally change them. Rather than trading at centralised ports with large treasure fleets, they began using small numbers of ships trading at a wide variety of ports. They also began to travel around Cape HornCape Horn is often said to be the southernmost point of South America. It is located in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. The southernmost point on the mainland is Cape Froward. The cape was first rounded on January 26, 1616 by a Dutch expedition of Wille to trade on the West coast. Porto Bello's economy was severely damaged, and did not recover until the building of the Panama CanalThe Panama Canal is a large canal, 51 miles (82 kilometers) long, that cuts through the isthmus of Panama, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Because of the S shape of Panama, the Atlantic lies to the west of the canal and the Pacific to the east. In Britain the victory was greeted with much celebration, and in 1740Events May 31 Friedrich II comes to power in Prussia upon the death of his father, Friedrich Wilhelm I. October 20 Maria Theresia of Austria inherits the Habsburg hereditary dominions ( Austria, Bohemia, Hungary and present-day Belgium). However, her succ, at a dinner in honour of Vernon in LondonLondon is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England, and with over seven million inhabitants in the Greater London area, is the second-most populous conurbation in Europe (after Moscow). From being Londinium the capital of the Roman province of Bri, the song God Save the Queen, now the British national anthem, was performed in public for the first time. The London street Portobello Road was named after the victory.

On the other hand, on March, 1741, Sir Edward Vernon led a fleet of 186 ships and 23,600 men to the city of Cartagena de Indias defended by 3,000 men and 6 ships. After a month of intense artillery fire and combat against the Spanish defenders under the command of the Viceroy Sebastián de Eslava; Don Blas de Lezo; Don Melchor de Navarrete and Don Carlos Des Naux, the British fleet was ordered to withdraw after suffering heavy casualties from combat and disease.

The war was also marked by British invasions of Florida and of the Spanish Main (the mainland of Spanish South America). The war eventually died down due to lack of troops - many had succumbed to disease - without any gain of territory on either side.

The War of Jenkins' Ear would later merge into the War of Austrian Succession.