A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

390 Ch. 1 1 • Dynastic Rivalries and Politics

Global rivalries led to conflicts between the great powers. French and
British armies and navies battled in North America, the West Indies, and
India, believing that the loss of Canadian furs, Caribbean spices, or Indian
jewels might be a damaging blow to prosperity and prestige. Spanish colo­
nial rivalry with Britain led to the only war ever fought over an ear. Both
Spain and Britain insisted that their colonies ship goods only on vessels
flying their flag. Since 1713 the Spanish had granted the right to Britain to
supply its colonies with 4,800 slaves each year; in exchange for this sale, a
single English ship each year could trade at one Spanish colonial port. Ille­
gal trade, however, continued as before. The Spanish navy sank several
British ships, and in 1731 one of its vessels accosted an English frigate sus­
pected of smuggling. A Spanish sword cut off one of the ears of the captain,
Jenkins. The incident led to the “War of Jenkins’s Ear” in 1739 after a
member of Parliament whipped up anti-Spanish sentiment by waving the
severed ear in the air during a speech. The war, highlighted by the success­
ful Spanish defense of the port of Cartagena in what now is Columbia,
went on with neither side claiming victory, a settlement coming only with
the conclusion of the War of the Austrian Succession (see pp. 394-396).

The Hanoverians and the Stuarts in Great Britain

In 1702, Queen Anne (1665-1714), the Protestant daughter of James II,

succeeded her brother-in-law, William III, to the throne of England.

Despite eighteen pregnancies and five live births, Anne had no surviving

children. The House of Commons had passed the Act of Succession in 1701

to prevent any future restoration of the Catholic Stuart line to the throne.

By this act, which broke strict rules of dynastic succession, the Protestant

ruling dynasty of Hanover, related by blood to the English royal family,

would become the English royal line upon Anne’s death.

In 1707, the Act of Union created the Kingdom of Great Britain, which

took the Union Jack as its flag, and linked Scotland to England and Wales.

Scotland received seats in the House of Commons, but fewer than its pop­

ulation should have warranted. Parliament’s goal in formalizing the dynas­

tic union was fear that Scotland might seek to summon Queen Anne’s

exiled Catholic half-brother (James III; the Stuart son of James II) to be

king of Scotland, instead of going along with England and Wales’s award­

ing of the throne to the house of Hanover. Ireland, in which English

Protestants owned seven-eighths of the land, continued to pay dearly for

having supported the Catholic monarch James II after the Glorious Revo­

lution of 1688 had evicted him from the throne. Legal restrictions pre­

vented Irish Catholics from being merchants, lawyers, or members of the

Irish Parliament, the powers of which were strictly limited. In England

itself, Parliament had not extended the Toleration Act of 1689 to Catholics.

British Catholics could not vote, be elected to Parliament, or hold state

offices; they also were subject to special taxes, could not possess weapons,