Magellan’s Background Ferdinand Magellan had quite an adventurous life. Magellan was born in the spring of 1480 in Sabrosa, Portugal. His family was of nobility, his dad Rui de Magalhães and his mother Alda de Mezquita. They died when he was 10 years old. Magellan was tutored at the Court of Portugal and became a page to Queen Leonor at the age of twelve. He studied maps which Christopher Columbus made and became interested in navigation. When he was older, he married Beatriz Barbosa and had two kids, Rodrigo de Magalhães and Carlos de Magalhães, who both died at a young age. On April 27, 1521, Magellan was shot by a poisonous arrow. He was surrounded by natives and was finished off by them. Magellan’s Exploration Magellan’s exploration was full of excitement, failures, and hardships. In 1513, Magellan presented King Charles V with a plan that would give full acess to the Spice Islands to the ships of the Crown Castle. After being rejected from the Portuguese King, Manuel I, King Charles agreed and gave five ships to Magellan: Trinidad, San Antonio, Conception, Victoria, and Santiago. On August 10, 1519, they left Seville and travelled to the mouth of the Guadalquivir River where they stayed for a little more than five weeks. Magellan arrived at Cape Verde where he set course to Brazil. They crossed the equator on November 27 and sighted South America on December 6. Since Brazil was owned by Portugal, he avoided it and anchored near present-day Rio de Janeiro on December 13. They resupplied and continued to sail on to find the strait that Magellan believed would lead to the Spice Islands. On April 2, a mutiny broke out and Captain Gaspar Quesada was executed. Three more people were marooned on the deserted coast. On October 21, the crew found what is now called the Strait of Magellan. He also named Tierra del Fuego, or land of fire, because of the fires lit by natives on the coast. Only three ships remained after going through the strait. For 90 days, no land was sighted and the crew was forced to eat sawdust, leather and rats. Some had scurvy. But they finally reached Guam and landed on several islands until they could get directions to Cebu. It was here that Magellan was killed. It was the Battle of Mactan, where Magellan was struck by a poisonous arrow and finished off by natives. The crew retreated in defeat to the Victoria. They escaped to the Mulucca Islands, where they loaded up with spices and returned to Seville. The completed journey took 36 months. Even though Magellan did not live to complete his journey, he was credited with the first circumnavigation of the world. Significance of the Journey Magellan’s journey was very important, and some things could be different if he didn’t do what he did. Magellan had completed the first circumnavigation of the world. This proved that the world was round, you could sail around it without falling off the Earth, and that there was a trade route to Asia by going west. The voyage also gave mapmakers a true indication of the size of the world, and their maps became more and more accurate. If Magellan hadn’t made the journey, then people might still think that the world was flat. It also provided a quicker but more dangerous route to the United States through the Strait of Magellan, which proved helpful during the gold rush.
I stole that from my little brother.
