In the 15th century, spices were at the epicenter of the world economy, much like oil is today. Highly valued for flavoring and preserving food as well as masking the taste of meat gone bad, spices like cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and especially black pepper were extremely valuable.
Since spices could not be cultivated in cold and arid Europe, no effort was spared to discover the quickest sea route to the Spice Islands. Portugal and Spain led the competition for early control over this critical commodity. Europeans had reached the Spice Islands by sailing east, but none had yet to sail west from Europe to reach the other side of the globe.
Magellan was determined to be the first to do so. By now an experienced seaman, Magellan approached King Manuel of Portugal to seek his support for a westward voyage to the Spice Islands.
The king refused his petition repeatedly. In , a frustrated Magellan renounced his Portuguese nationality and relocated to Spain to seek royal support for his venture. When Magellan arrived in Seville in October , he had no connections and spoke little Spanish. Just 18 years old at the time, King Charles I granted his support to Magellan, who in turn promised the young king that his westward sea voyage would bring immeasurable riches to Spain.
On August 10, Magellan bade farewell to his wife and young son, neither of whom he would ever see again, and the Armada De Moluccas set sail. Magellan commanded the lead ship Trinidad and was accompanied by four other ships: the San Antonio , the Conception , the Victoria and the Santiago.
The fleet reached South America a little more than one month later. There the ships sailed southward, hugging the coast in search of the fabled strait that would allow passage through South America.
Magellan quickly quelled the uprising, executing one of the captains and leaving another mutinous captain behind.
Meanwhile Magellan had sent the Santiago to explore the route ahead, where it was shipwrecked during a terrible storm. With those disastrous events behind them, the fleet left Port San Julian five months later when fierce seasonal storms abated. On October 21, Magellan finally entered the strait that he had been seeking and that came to bear his name. The voyage through the Strait of Magellan was treacherous and cold, and many sailors continued to mistrust their leader and grumble about the dangers of the journey ahead.
A month later, the expedition reached the Philippines. It turned out he was likely raised there before his enslavement—making him, not Magellan, the first person to circumnavigate the globe. Instead, he demanded that local Mactan people convert to Christianity and became embroiled in a rivalry between Humabon and Lapu-Lapu, two local chieftains. They returned to Spain in September Along the way, they had encountered a new ocean, mapped new routes for European trade, and set the stage for modern globalism.
Sixty thousand miles later, and after the death of 80 percent of those involved, the expedition had proven that the globe could be circumnavigated and opened the door to European colonization of the New World in the name of commerce. Lapu-Lapu, the Mactan ruler whose forces killed Magellan, is often credited with slaying the explorer.
As a result, notes Ocampo, he has become a national hero in the Philippines. Though Lapu-Lapu likely did not do the deed, he is widely commemorated as a symbol of Filipino resistance and pride. A monument that shows the battle itself—and the group effort that brought down an epic explorer—will take its place.
All rights reserved. Culture News. Magellan was first to sail around the world, right? Think again. In September , Magellan set sail from Spain with five ships. Three years later only one ship, the Victoria depicted on a map , made it back to Spain after circumnavigating the world. Share Tweet Email.
People were amazed when they saw those on board the one remaining ship, Victoria , for they looked starved and filthy. The western sea route to the Spice Islands was not used for many years. Spain was too busy taking land in South America, and it was easier for the Portuguese to get to the East by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa.
Visit Us. Search Want to search our collection? Search here. We use cookies to ensure you have the best browsing experience and to help us improve our website. As a boy, Ferdinand Magellan studied mapmaking and navigation. By his mids, he was sailing in large fleets and was engaged in combat. Magellan was born in Portugal, either in the city of Porto or in Sabrosa, circa His parents were members of the Portuguese nobility and after their deaths, Magellan became a page for the queen, at age He studied at Queen Leonora's School of Pages in Lisbon and spent his days poring over texts on cartography, astronomy, and celestial navigation — subjects that would serve him well in his later pursuits.
In , when Magellan was in his mids, he joined a Portuguese fleet that was sailing to East Africa. Two years later, he explored Malacca, located in present-day Malaysia, and participated in the conquest of Malacca's port.
It was there that he acquired a native servant he named Enrique. It is possible that Magellan sailed as far as the Moluccas, islands in Indonesia, then called the Spice Islands. The Moluccas were the original source of some of the world's most valuable spices, including cloves and nutmeg.
The conquest of spice-rich countries was, as a result, a source of much European competition. While serving in Morocco, in , Magellan was wounded and walked the remainder of his life with a limp.
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