Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe in the early sixteenth century. Even though he was killed in the Philippines, he helped open up the world to European conquest and trade. (Library of Congress)
The leader of the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe.
Born in Portugal of minor nobility, Ferdinand Magellan spent his early life as a page at the royal court in Lisbon. During his youth, Portugal led the world in seeking new routes to the Far East by way of Africa. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of the continent. Portugal’s determination to circumnavigate Africa had led the nation to reject Christopher Columbus’s proposal to sail west across the Atlantic. Magellan may have been in Lisbon in 1493, when Columbus arrived on his way back to Spain with news of his discovery. Four years later, King Manuel I sent Vasco da Gama on an expedition that finally circumnavigated Africa. Soon, adventurers were on their way to the Far East to conquer all routes connected with the valuable spice trade on behalf of Portugal.
In 1505, Magellan joined an expedition led by Francisco d’Almeida, the first Portuguese viceroy in India. The expedition was ordered to build forts along the African coast, take cities in India, and establish trade agreements with local rulers. After helping to take the city of Goa and winning the rank of captain, Magellan returned to Portugal in 1512. He was promoted to a higher noble rank and granted a monthly stipend. When he petitioned the Crown for a slight increase in the stipend in 1513, King Manuel I turned him down and let him know that there would be no further need for his services in Portugal. Magellan spent the next three years studying maps, astronomy, and navigation with an astrologer named Ruy Faleiro. Both men became convinced that a strait existed between the Atlantic and the ocean recently discovered by Vasco Núñez de Balboa west of Panama.
Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe in the early sixteenth century. Even though he was killed in the Philippines, he helped open up the world to European conquest and trade. (Library of Congress)
In 1517, Magellan and Faleiro headed to Spain to propose an expedition to circumnavigate the globe. Winning the support of the Board of Trade and young King Charles I (the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella) Magellan was sent to find the strait between the two oceans. On September 20, 1519, he left Spain with five ships and 234 men. The fleet headed first to the Canary Islands, and then across the Atlantic to the bay at Rio de Janeiro. The journey down the coast of South America was plagued by violent storms, the mutiny of the crew, and the loss of one ship. Despite the hardships, Magellan discovered the strait later named after him on November 28, 1520.
The men headed north and west into the new ocean that Magellan called the Pacific. They dis covered Guam and a chain of islands off the coast of Asia, which was later known as the Philippines. While attempting to establish treaties with local leaders, Magellan was killed by natives on Mactan Island on April 27, 1521. Only one ship and a handful of men finally made it back to Spain in September 1522. While profits from the voyage were small, the journey gave Spain the Philippines and the world the passage to the Pacific forever known as the Strait of Magellan.
Mary Stockwell
See also: Exploration and Trade; Portugal.
Daniel, Hawthorne. Ferdinand Magellan. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964.