Facts About Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan, a famous and influential Portuguese explorer, is perhaps most well-known as the first European to travel around the world. This was no doubt a very important accomplishment and provided solid evidence that the earth was not simply a flat plane. Magellan's life was full of adventure and danger, and without his courage and enthusiasm for knowledge, many important discoveries may not have been made until much later in history.
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Magellan's Early Life
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According to Notablebiographies.com, Ferdinand Magellan's life began in a noble Portuguese family. He was born in 1480 in Oporto, Portugal, and in the year 1492, he began to serve the Queen of Portugal as a page. Notably, this was also the year that Christopher Columbus began his most famous voyage to the West Indies. Magellan was well-educated, having been enrolled in the queen's royal school for pages, where he studied many of the subjects that would aid him in his voyages. According to Elizabethan-era.org.uk's page, Magellan studied the maps of Christopher Columbus. The book "Western Civilization: The Continuing Experiment" says Magellan was inspired by the voyages of Columbus. When he was 25 years old, in the year 1505, Magellan began to sail with the Portuguese marine service.
Magellan's Early Voyages
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Between the years 1505 and 1519, Magellan went on many voyages with the Portuguese service. The timeline at the Elizabethan-era website provides dates for all of his expeditions. His first expedition in 1505 was under the leadership of Francisco d'Almeida, on a tour of India. In 1512, Magellan went to Morocco and was wounded in battle. Also in the year 1512, Magellan began to become dissatisfied with the Portuguese king and court. He left the service, and after many refusals of support from the king of Portugal, Magellan left the country in 1518 and offered his services to the King of Spain, King Charles I.
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Magellan's Service to Spain
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The voyages Magellan undertook while in the Spanish service allowed him to make his most famous accomplishments. In the year 1519, according to Studyworld.com's Biography of Ferdinand Magellan, the Spanish king gave Magellan permission to explore the Spice Islands in Southeast Asia and attempt to find a passage from the west. Thus began what would become Magellan's journey around the globe.
Voyage Around the World
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Magellan began on Sept. 20, 1519. There were five ships in his fleet: the Trinidad, San Antonio, Conception, Victoria and Santiago (see Elizabethan-era.org.uk for a listing of captains), with a total of 251 men. The voyagers began by sailing down the coast of South America, where they rested for several months. Magellan then led his crew south, through what is now called the Magellan Strait. As noted on Notablebiographies.com, by this time, Magellan had lost two ships. One, the Santiago, was lost in a shipwreck, and the other (the San Antonio) deserted and returned to Spain. On Nov. 28, 1521, Magellan and his three remaining ships sailed into the Pacific Ocean, and in March, they docked in Guam.
Magellan's Death and Influence
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According to Notablebiographies.com, Magellan was killed in a battle after continuing his voyage and landing in the Philippines. Therefore, Magellan himself did not make it all the way around the world. The only ship in his fleet to accomplish this feat was the Victoria, which was taken over by a member of Magellan's crew. The Victoria reached Seville, Spain, on Sept. 8, 1522. Although it can hardly be said that Magellan found a safer or easier route to the Spice Islands, his voyage did reveal something even more interesting and important on a scientific level: the shape and nature of the globe.
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- Photo Credit Image Credit: www.britannica.com
