Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer who sailed under the flags of both Portugal and Spain. He became the first European to sail the Pacific Ocean, and the first to sail around the world. Magellan’s voyage proved that the Earth was round. Magellan was born around 1480 in northern Portugal, and became a page to Queen Leonor, the wife of King John II. He learned navigation and cosmography from the chief cosmographer Pedro Nunes, and also fought in the service of Emperor Charles V against the French in Spain. In 1518, he married Beatriz Barbosa, a wealthy widow, and had a son named Rodrigo. Magellan had a plan to reach the Spice Islands (modern Indonesia) by sailing westward around the American continent, but King Manuel I of Portugal refused to support him. Magellan then offered his services to King Charles I of Spain, who accepted his proposal and gave him five ships and 270 men. Magellan left Spain in September 1519, and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the eastern coast of South America. He faced storms, mutinies, and hostile natives, but he managed to find a passage through the southern tip of the continent, which he named the Strait of Magellan. He entered the Pacific Ocean in November 1520, and sailed across it for more than three months, suffering from hunger, thirst, and scurvy. He reached the Philippines in March 1521, where he befriended the local king, Humabon, and converted many of his subjects to Christianity. He also got involved in a conflict between Humabon and another chief, Lapulapu, who resisted the Spanish influence. Magellan decided to attack Lapulapu’s island of Mactan, but he was killed in the battle on April 27, 1521. After Magellan’s death, only two of his ships continued the voyage, one of which was later burned. The remaining ship, the Victoria, commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano, reached the Spice Islands in November 1521, and loaded with spices. It then sailed across the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and returned to Spain in September 1522, completing the first circumnavigation of the Earth. Only 18 men out of the original 270 survived the journey. Magellan’s voyage was a remarkable achievement of navigation and exploration, and it opened the way for the Spanish colonization of the Pacific islands and the Philippines. Magellan also discovered many new lands and peoples, and named several geographic features, such as the Pacific Ocean, the Magellanic Clouds, and the Patagonian giants. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest explorers of all time.