Biography of Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) and his Expedition –

In today’s post, we want to investigate a little about one of the people with the greatest adventurous spirit at that time: Ferdinand Magellan. We will delve into the biography of Ferdinand Magellan (1489-1521) and his expedition and we will solve various questions, such as who Ferdinand Magellan was and what he did, who completed Magellan’s voyage or how many years have passed since the first trip around the world. If your spirit is just as adventurous as that of our protagonist, don’t miss our post today on About History. Let’s start!

Who was Ferdinand Magellan and what did he do?

Before discovering one of his exploits, it is necessary to meet our protagonist today. So, who was Ferdinand Magellan and what did he do? The first thing we should know is that his origin is purely Portuguese (born in Sabrosa in 1480). Also known as Hernando de Magallanes or Fernão de Magalhães in Portuguese, our protagonist today has a military role, explorer and navigator who comes from the noble court and he was appointed Captain General of the Navy for the discovery of spices.

On August 10, 1519, the expedition began under the orders of Carlos I in Seville to find a way that allows us to navigate from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, an area that had never been explored before. Then Fernando de Magallanes and Juan Sebastián Elcano set out on their ships to discover new horizons and just found this way. In this way, the Strait of Magellan arises. This expedition left Seville and crossed the entire Guadalquivir until reaching the Cadiz area of ​​Sanlúcar de Barrameda, whose outlet is oriented towards the Atlantic Ocean. However, until September 20 of that same year, the fleet did not continue its journey for reasons of provisioning.

With this small gesture, a whole feat began in the history of the time. So much so that since its discovery, this expedition has become one of the first navigations through this area through European action. Unfortunately, our protagonist died on the expedition.

The discovery of the Strait of Magellan was directed by the ship of the Concepción and San Antonio for the sake of exploring the channel. Álvaro de Mezquita, on board and in command of the San Antonio ship, set out on his way before the other ship. On his side, Juan Serrano, in command of the Concepción ship, manages to cross the channel despite the difficulties posed by its geographical location. However, both managed to cross this area and continue their journey towards the South Sea.

Once sailing along the Pacific coast, it is worth noting the calmness of its tides (hence its name), although on the contrary it was not a truly easy situation to find supplies, due to the scarcity of nearby land (the closest ones were 3 months away). So, episodes of hunger began to agonize the crewso much so that many marines paid significant amounts of money for a rat to put in their mouths.

in 1521, an island was found in the pacific ocean Therefore, the decision to drop anchor in this area was quite evident simply with the objective of resting and obtaining food, among other necessary materials. Soon, the indigenous people of the area would come to drive the Spanish settlers out of their own archipelago: the Marianas archipelago.

The death of Ferdinand Magellan saddened everyone closest to him. His arrival on the Philippine island of Mactán marked the beginning of the Battle of Mactán, where he died on April 27, 1521 against the Cebuana tribe, whose tribal leader is known as Lapulapu..

Who completed Magellan’s voyage?

After the death of Ferdinand Magellan, Juan Sebastian Elcano, aboard and in command of the Victoria, crossed the Indian Ocean, skirting the African continent (and avoiding it as much as possible) and achieved the first circumnavigation of the world. Thanks to the control work of the Portuguese, they did not have major clashes on the African continent on their return. On September 6, 1522, the Spanish fleet returned to the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda with its main objective fulfilled.

How many years have passed since the first circumnavigation of the world was made?

Surely at this point you want to get an idea of ​​the time that has passed since then. Do you want to know how many years have passed since the first circumnavigation of the world was made? Well, if our protagonist, Ferdinand Magellan, sailed from Seville in 1519, we must establish that ehe beginning of this journey will reach 500 years of age in the next year. It should also be noted that the feat until its completion will not take long to reach those years, so we can see the importance of this expedition at that time, which has marked us so much in the history of the world.

If you want to know more about another of the great feats in world history, we recommend that you consult the following entries. You will find technical, historical and adventure data so that you do not miss a single detail of our history. You can not lose this.