Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm editor Candice Gibson. Joint Today by Josh Curious like
Speaker 1: a cat clark, that is true. How are you? I'm good?
Speaker 1: How are you? I'm fabulous? So I've got a question
Speaker 1: for you. Okay, you know much about yours a lot?
Speaker 1: Do you know much about colonial America a lot? Then
Speaker 1: you may be able to help me. I think I will. So,
Speaker 1: you know, just a few hundred years ago, there were
Speaker 1: several distinct nations who all had claims staked here in
Speaker 1: what's now the United States, and um, they didn't really
Speaker 1: get along all that well. There were all sorts of
Speaker 1: commercial shipping ventures where you know, England, Spain, France were
Speaker 1: exploiting the natural resources as raw materials to ship back
Speaker 1: to Europe, and they were shipping the goods produced from
Speaker 1: these materials back to America are to be sold. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of money to be made from all this, right,
Speaker 1: That's one reason why people were fighting one another over here.
Speaker 1: But another reason is that they just simply didn't get
Speaker 1: along over in Europe. There were plenty of wars fought
Speaker 1: over who owned what territory and who had access to
Speaker 1: what throne, and those kind of spilled over to the
Speaker 1: New World, which is what we now call America, right indeed. Okay,
Speaker 1: so my question is it has to do with an ear.
Speaker 1: As I said earlier, one of these wars, as I understand,
Speaker 1: was fought between England and Spain over an ear, which
Speaker 1: doesn't doesn't sound right to me. It sounds fabricated. Is
Speaker 1: that fact or fiction? If you will lend me your ears,
Speaker 1: I will deem this defy this story. And I'm pleased
Speaker 1: to know that's actually a fact. As fanciful as it
Speaker 1: may seem, an ear really did start a war. How So, well,
Speaker 1: back on April nine thirty one, Captain Robert Jenkins was
Speaker 1: sailing his vest through what may or may not have
Speaker 1: been Spanish waters and a Spanish captain, wander Leon Fandino,
Speaker 1: called him out. And he didn't just call him out verbally,
Speaker 1: he cut off his ear. And I'm not quite sure
Speaker 1: why he thought that was a proper mode of retaliation,
Speaker 1: but he did. And what's more, he told Robert Jenkins,
Speaker 1: if the King of England had been right in front
Speaker 1: of me, I would have done the same to him.
Speaker 1: So those our fighting words, and I think Robert needed
Speaker 1: some time to really mull them over and think about them,
Speaker 1: because it took him seven years before he worked up
Speaker 1: the courage to march his ear, which he had had
Speaker 1: the foresight to pickle to Parliament and he lodged to
Speaker 1: complaint with the House of Commons and they were pretty irritated,
Speaker 1: as it was with Spain. Essentially, this was a really
Speaker 1: too multivous time in Europe, and it all started back
Speaker 1: with the War of Spanish Secession, when King Charles the
Speaker 1: Second of Spain didn't have an heir to his throne
Speaker 1: and he was about to kick the bucket. France and
Speaker 1: Austria were both vying for Spain's territories and he was
Speaker 1: feeling sort of, you know, vile in his old age
Speaker 1: to meek state, so he decided to cause controversy by
Speaker 1: giving his throwne to France. That lunch France in Austria
Speaker 1: into a war, and then it was almost like a
Speaker 1: domino effect with these other nations sort of you know,
Speaker 1: taking sides with one of the superpowers and ganging up
Speaker 1: on each other. And that's exactly what happened with England
Speaker 1: and Spain. So they were mad about the worst Spanish secession.
Speaker 1: They were mad about border disputes in the New World
Speaker 1: between the British Colony of Georgia and the Spanish Colony
Speaker 1: of Florida, and it just multiplied. So how does the
Speaker 1: in it was called the War of Jenkins Ear, one
Speaker 1: of the many battles that resulted. Yes, indeed, Well, my
Speaker 1: only question that remains is whether Jenkins Gil pickled his
Speaker 1: ear or bread and butter. Oh that's an earful. If
Speaker 1: you want to learn more about this topic, you'll have
Speaker 1: to read why did England and Spain Fight over an Ear?
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