The Magellan Expedition

• Also known as “Magellan-delCano Circumnavigation”

• The first voyage around the world in human history. It was a Spanish expedition that sailed from
Seville in 1519 under the command of Ferdinand Magellan.
• A major breakthrough in perception of the Europeans towards world geography
• Objective was to discover this alternate path to Moluccas because of 1494’s Treaty of
Tordesillas, a decree from Pope Alexander VI that had essentially divided the world in half
between the Spanish and the Portuguese.
• Lasted for 3 years (1519-1522)
• Chronicled by Antonio Pigafetta

Ferdinand Magellan

• Portuguese explorer who sailed, under Spain, to reach Moluccas without crossing Portuguese
territory.
• Proposed route to Moluccas by sailing west and through an Atlantic passage to the Pacific could
be found.
• Discovered Philippines (named it Archipelago of St. Lazarus)
• Introduced Christianity in the Philippines.

Magellan-delCano Circumnavigation Route

Preparation
The Fleet September 20, 1519 - a royal commission was sent, allowing Magellan to head the
expedition. The Spanish Armada de Molucca consisted of five ships with 237 men:
• Santiago under Juan Rodriguez Serrano.
• San Antonio under Juan de Cartageña;
• Concepcion under Gaspar de Quesada;
• Trinidad (flagship) under Ferdinand Magellan Captain General
• Victoria under Louis de Mendoza;

Preparation: Crew

• The crew of about 237 included men from several nations: including Portuguese, Spanish,
Italians, Germans, Flemish, Greeks, English and French.
• Spanish authorities were wary of Magellan, so that they almost prevented him from sailing,
switching his mostly Portuguese crew to mostly men of Spain. Nevertheless, it included about 40
Portuguese, among them Magellan's brother-in-law Duarte Barbosa, João Serrão, a relative of
Francisco Serrão, Estêvão Gomes and also Magellan's indentured servant Enrique of Malacca.
• Juan Sebastián del Cano, a Spanish merchant ship captain settled at Seville, embarked
seeking the king's pardon for previous misdeeds
• Antonio Pigafetta, a Venetian scholar and traveller, had asked to be on the voyage accepting
the title of "supernumerary" and a modest salary, becoming a strict assistant of Magellan and
keeping an accurate journal.
• The only other sailor to report the voyage would be Francisco Albo, who kept a formal logbook.
• Juan de Cartageña was named Inspector General of the expedition, responsible for its financial
and trading operations.
Strait of Magellan and Pacific Ocean
• After Santiago was shipwrecked, four ships began an arduous trip through the 373-mile (600 km)
long passage that Magellan called the Estrecho (Canal) de Todos los Santos, ("All Saints'
Channel"), because the fleet travelled through it on 1 November or All Saints' Day. The strait is
now named the Strait of Magellan. Magellan first assigned Concepcion and San Antonio to explore
the strait, but the latter, commanded by Gómez, deserted and returned to Spain on 20 November.

• On 20th of November the three remaining ships entered the South Pacific. Magellan named the
waters the Mar Pacifico (Pacific Ocean) because of its apparent stillness.[19] Magellan and his
crew were the first Europeans to reach Tierra del Fuego just east of the Pacific side of the strait.

Arrival in the Philippines

• Arrival to Marianas and Guam
• March 17, 1521, sighted Samar, part of a group of islands they called Archipelago of St. Lazarus
• reached the island of Homonhon in the Philippines, (their first meeting with the Filipinos)
• March 31, 1521 - First catholic mass in Limasawa (Easter Sunday)
• April 1, 1521 – Arrival in Cebu, cordial relations with Raja Humabon (conversion of 800 natives
with Humabon, his wife and daughter to Christianity), establishment of Magellan’s Cross
• April 27 – in a war with Lapu-lapu, chief of Mactan and Humabon’s enemy, was fatally wounded
with a poisoned arrow thus causing his men to retreat.

Timeline 1519
• August 10: Departure from Seville.
• September 20: Departure from Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
• December 13: Entering the bay of Rio de Janeiro.
• December 27: Departure from Rio de Janeiro.

1520
• January 10: Entering the Río de la Plata.
• February 27: Entering Bahia de los Patos.
• March 31: Begin of the overwintering stay at Puerto San Julián.
• April 1 and 2: Mutiny on Victoria, Concepcion and San Antonio; death of Louis de Mendoza.
Later execution of de Quesada, marooning of de Cartagena. Alvaro de Mesquita becomes captain
of San Antonio, Duarte Barbosa of Victoria.
• End of April: Santiago is sent on a mission to find the passage. The ship is caught in a storm
and wrecked. Survivors return to Puerto San Julián. Serrano becomes captain of the Concepcion.
• July: Encounters with the “Patagonian giants” (likely Tehuelche people).
• August 24: Departure from Puerto San Julián.
• October 11: Arriving at the Cape of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, entry to what would be known
as Strait of Magellan.
• End of October: San Antonio, charged to explore Magdalen Sound, fails to return to the fleet,
instead sails back to Spain under Estêvão Gomes who imprisoned the captain de Mesquita. The
ship arrives in Spain on May 21, 1521.
• November 28: The fleet leaves the strait and enters the Pacific Ocean.
Return and legacy
• The circumnavigation was completed by one ship, the Victoria, under the command of Juan
Sebastián del Cano and a crew of 18 men.
• Antonio Pigafetta's journal is the main source for much of what we know about Magellan and del
Cano's voyage. The other direct report of the voyage was that of Francisco Albo, last Victoria's
pilot, who kept a formal logbook.

Significance of the Magellan Expedition

• The main significance of his voyage was that he showed it was possible to sail around the
world, and left a record of how to do it.
• Magellan’s voyage vastly increased the geographical knowledge of mankind and proved once
and for all that the earth is round.
• Considering the inadequacy of marine instruments at the time, Magellan´s voyage can be
considered as the greatest single trip ever undertaken. In terms of the hardships the men endured
and the courage they displayed, Magellan’s maritime exploit has perhaps never been surpassed.
The route he took to reach the Philippines was entirely new, and the Venetian monopoly of the
trade route to the east was thus broken. Spain became the supreme power in the building of a
colonial empire.
• His discovery of the Philippines brought the archipelago into the awareness of Europe.
• Finally, the voyage paved the way to Spanish colonization and Christianization of the Philippines.
The later voyages of Fernando de Villalobos and Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, to a certain extent,
owed their success to Magellan’s epochal voyage to the Far East.
• From the point of view of the Filipinos, Magellan’s expedition was significant because it paved
the way for contacts between the Philippines and western civilization