Editing King George's War (section)

==Causes==
{{hatnote|For more information on the underlying European causes of the war, see [[War of Jenkins' Ear]] and [[War of the Austrian Succession]].}}
The [[War of Jenkins' Ear]] (named for a 1731 incident in which a [[Spain|Spanish]] commander sliced off the ear of British merchant captain [[Robert Jenkins (master mariner)|Robert Jenkins]] and told him to take it to his king, [[George II of Great Britain|George II]]) broke out in 1739 between Spain and [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]], but was restrained to the [[Caribbean Sea]] and conflict between [[Spanish Florida]] and the neighboring British [[Province of Georgia]].  The [[War of the Austrian Succession]], nominally a struggle over the legitimacy of the accession of [[Maria Theresa of Austria|Maria Theresa]] to the [[Habsburg monarchy|Austrian throne]], began in 1740, but at first did not involve either Britain or Spain militarily. Britain was drawn diplomatically into that conflict in 1742 as an ally of Austria and an opponent of France and Prussia, but open hostilities between them did not take place until 1743 at [[Battle of Dettingen|Dettingen]].

War was not formally declared between Britain and France until March 1744. Massachusetts did not declare war against Canada and France until June 2.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/asummaryhistori01dgoog|title=A SUMMARY, HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL, OF THE FIRST PLANTING, PROGRESSIVE IMPROVEMENTS, AND ... |first=M. D. |last=WILLIAM DOUGLASS |date=9 May 2018 |access-date=9 May 2018 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>