Ten Things You Might Not Know About Obscure Wars-- Part 1

From the Feb. 3, 2013, Chicago Tribune "10 things you might not know about OBSCURE WARS" by Mark Jacob and Stephan Benzkofer.

Our intrepid knowledge-gatherers are back at it again, this time writing about wars you've probably never heard of.

This article is based on President Obama's declaring that "a decade of war is now ending" in his recent inaugural address.  Of course, just the week before, the US had signed an agreement with Niger in Africa to station troops there to support French troops in neighboring Mali which has all sorts of problems.

Could this be the next Afghanistan or Iraq?

1.  THE WAR OF JENKINS' EAR--  Britain was angry at Spain's publicized incident in which English sea captain Robert Jenkins' left ear was cut off near Havana.  The war began in 1739, and three years later became part of the "less interestingly named War of the Austrian Succession."


2.  THE QUASI-WAR, or HALF-WAR--  We were thankful of French help in the American revolution, but then the French had their own revolution and we got into a dispute over debts and trade.

This was primarily a war at sea (I find that many American Naval commanders in the War of 1812 were veterans of this war).  Fought 1798-1800.  "It ended so quietly it barely makes the history books."

War to the Left.  --Cooter