Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan | |
---|---|
Born | Fernão de Magalhães c. 1480 |
Died | 27 April 1521 | (aged 40–41)
Burial place | Lost at war |
Nationality | Portuguese |
Known for |
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Signature | |
Ferdinand Magellan (/məˈɡɛlən/ mə-GHEL-ən[1] or /məˈdʒɛlən/ mə-JEL-ən;[2] Portuguese: Fernão de Magalhães, IPA: [fɨɾˈnɐ̃w̃ dɨ mɐɡɐˈʎɐ̃j̃ʃ]; Spanish: Fernando de Magallanes, IPA: [feɾˈnando ðe maɣaˈjanes]; c. 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese[3] explorer best known for having planned and led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the East Indies across the Pacific Ocean to open a maritime trade route, during which he discovered the interoceanic passage thereafter bearing his name and achieved the first European navigation to Asia via the Pacific. After his death, this expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe in 1519–22 in the service of Spain.
During this voyage, Magellan was killed in the
Born c. 1480 into a family of minor
Granted special powers and privileges by the King, he led the Armada from
While in the Kingdom of Portugal's service, Magellan had already reached the Malay Archipelago in Southeast Asia on previous voyages traveling east (from 1505 to 1511–1512). By visiting this area again but now traveling west, Magellan achieved a nearly complete personal circumnavigation of the globe for the first time in history.[9][10]
Early life and travels
Magellan was born in northern Portugal c. 1480.[12][note 1] His father, Pedro de Magalhães, was a minor member of Portuguese nobility[15] and mayor of the town. His mother was Alda de Mezquita.[16] Magellan's siblings included Diego de Sosa and Isabel Magellan.[17] He was brought up as a page of Queen Eleanor, consort of King John II. In 1495 he entered the service of Manuel I, John's successor.[18]
In March 1505, at the age of 25, Magellan enlisted in
He later sailed under Diogo Lopes de Sequeira in the first Portuguese embassy to Malacca, with Francisco Serrão, his friend and possibly cousin.[20] In September, after arriving at Malacca, the expedition fell victim to a conspiracy and ended in retreat. Magellan had a crucial role, warning Sequeira and risking his life to rescue Francisco Serrão and others who had landed.[21][22]
In 1511, under the new governor
After taking a leave without permission, Magellan fell out of favour. Serving in Morocco, he was wounded, resulting in a permanent limp. He was accused of trading illegally with the Moors. The accusations were proven false, but he received no further offers of employment after 15 May 1514. Later in 1515, he was offered employment as a crew member on a Portuguese ship, but rejected this. In 1517, after a quarrel with Manuel I of Portugal, who denied his persistent requests to lead an expedition to reach the Spice Islands from the east (i.e., while sailing westwards, thus avoiding the need to sail around the tip of Africa[26]), he left for Spain. In Seville he befriended his countryman Diogo Barbosa and soon married the daughter of Diogo's second wife, Maria Caldera Beatriz Barbosa.[27] They had two children: Rodrigo de Magallanes[28] and Carlos de Magallanes, both of whom died at a young age. His wife died in Seville around 1521.
Meanwhile, Magellan devoted himself to studying the most recent
Background and preparations
After having his proposed expeditions to the
King Manuel saw all of this as an insult and did everything in his power to disrupt Magellan's arrangements for the voyage. The Portuguese king allegedly ordered that Magellan's properties be vandalized as it was the coat of arms of the Magellan displayed at the family house's façade in Sabrosa, his home town, and may have even requested the assassination of the navigator. When Magellan eventually sailed to the open seas in August 1519, a Portuguese fleet was sent after him, though it failed to capture him.[30]
Magellan's fleet consisted of five ships carrying supplies for two years of travel. The crew consisted of about 270 men of different origins,[31] though the numbers may vary downwards among scholars based on contradicting data from the many documents available. About 60 percent of the crew were Spaniards from virtually all regions of Castile. Portuguese and Italian followed with 28 and 27 seamen respectively, while mariners from France (15), Greece (8), Flanders (5), Germany (3), Ireland (2), England and Malaysia (one each) and other people of unidentified origin completed the crew.[32][33]
Voyage
The fleet left Spain on 20 September 1519, sailing west across the Atlantic toward South America. In December, they made landfall at Rio de Janeiro, where Magellan ordered the death penalty against two of his crew members who he deemed had a homosexual relationship.[34] From there, they sailed south along the coast, searching for a way through or around the continent. After three months of searching (including a false start in the estuary of Río de la Plata), weather conditions forced the fleet to stop their search to wait out the winter. They found a sheltered natural harbor at the port of Saint Julian, and remained there for five months. Shortly after landing at St. Julian, there was a mutiny attempt led by the Spanish captains Juan de Cartagena, Gaspar de Quesada and Luis de Mendoza. Magellan barely managed to quell the mutiny, despite at one point losing control of three of his five ships to the mutineers. Mendoza was killed during the conflict, and Magellan sentenced Quesada and Cartagena to being beheaded and marooned, respectively. Lower-level conspirators were made to do hard labor in chains over the winter, but were later freed.[35]
During the winter, one of the fleet's ships, the Santiago, was lost in a storm while surveying nearby waters, though no men were killed. Following the winter, the fleet resumed their search for a passage to the Pacific in October 1520. Three days later, they found a bay which eventually led them to a strait, now known as the Strait of Magellan, which allowed them passage through to the Pacific. While exploring the strait, one of the remaining four ships, the San Antonio, deserted the fleet, returning east to Spain. The fleet reached the Pacific by the end of November 1520. Based on the incomplete understanding of world geography at the time, Magellan expected a short journey to Asia, perhaps taking as little as three or four days.[36] In fact, the Pacific crossing took three months and twenty days. The long journey exhausted their supply of food and water, and around 30 men died, mostly of scurvy.[37] Magellan himself remained healthy, perhaps because of his personal supply of preserved quince.
On 6 March 1521, the exhausted fleet made landfall at the island of Guam and were met by native Chamorro people who came aboard the ships and took items such as rigging, knives, and a ship's boat. The Chamorro people may have thought they were participating in a trade exchange (as they had already given the fleet some supplies), but the crew interpreted their actions as theft.[38] Magellan sent a raiding party ashore to retaliate, killing several Chamorro men, burning their houses, and recovering the stolen goods.[39]
On 16 March, the fleet sighted the island of
After resting and resupplying, Magellan sailed on deeper into the
Magellan met with the King of Cebu,
The Spaniards went to the island of Mactan just as Rajah Humabon told them to. However, they did not initially come by force and wanted to Christianize them. Unlike the people of Cebu who accepted the new religion readily, the King of Mactan, Datu Lapulapu, and the rest of the island of Mactan resisted. On 27 April, Magellan and members of his crew attempted to subdue the Mactan natives by force, but in the ensuing battle, the Europeans were overpowered and Magellan was killed by Lapulapu and his men.
Following his death, Magellan was initially succeeded by co-commanders Juan Serrano and Duarte Barbosa (with a series of other officers later leading). The fleet left the Philippines (following a bloody betrayal by former ally Rajah Humabon, who had poisoned many Spanish soldiers on a banquet ruse on the night after the battle for being easily defeated by Lapulapu and the people of Mactan and failing to kill Lapulapu) and eventually made their way to the Moluccas in November 1521. Laden with spices, they attempted to set sail for Spain in December, but found that only one of their remaining two ships, the Victoria, was seaworthy. The Victoria, captained by Juan Sebastián Elcano, finally returned to Spain by 6 September 1522, completing the circumnavigation. Of the 270 men who left with the expedition, only 18 or 19 survivors returned.[41]
Death
After several weeks in the Philippines, Magellan had converted as many as 2,200 locals to Christianity, including Rajah Humabon of Cebu and most leaders of the islands around Cebu.
Antonio Pigafetta and Ginés de Mafra provided written documents of the events culminating in Magellan's death:
When morning came forty-nine of us leaped into the water up to our thighs, and walked through water for more than two crossbow flights before we could reach the shore. The boats could not approach nearer because of certain rocks in the water. The other eleven men remained behind to guard the boats. When we reached land, those men had formed in three divisions to the number of more than one thousand five hundred persons. When they saw us, they charged down upon us with exceeding loud cries.... The musketeers and crossbowmen shot from a distance for about a half-hour, but uselessly; for the shots only passed through the shields.... Recognizing the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice.... An Indian hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his lance, which he left in the Indian's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that, they all hurled themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass, which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide.
— Antonio Pigafetta[48]: 173–177
Nothing of Magellan's body survived; that afternoon the grieving rajah-king, hoping to recover his remains, offered Mactan's victorious chief a handsome ransom of copper and iron for them, but Datu Lapulapu refused. He intended to keep the body as a war trophy. Since his wife and child died in Seville before any member of the expedition could return to Spain, it seemed that every evidence of Ferdinand Magellan's existence had vanished from the earth.
— Ginés de Mafra[50]
In the immediate aftermath of the circumnavigation, few celebrated Magellan for his accomplishments, and he was widely discredited and reviled in Spain and his native Portugal.[51][52] In Portugal, some regarded Magellan as a traitor for having sailed for Spain.[53][54] In Spain, Magellan's reputation suffered due to the largely unflattering accounts of his actions given by the survivors of the expedition.
The first news of the expedition came from the crew of the San Antonio, led by Estêvão Gomes, which deserted the fleet in the Strait of Magellan and returned to Seville 6 May 1521. The deserters were put on trial, but eventually exonerated after producing a distorted version of the mutiny at Saint Julian, and depicting Magellan as disloyal to the king. The expedition was assumed to have perished.[55] The Casa de Contratación withheld Magellan's salary from his wife, Beatriz, "considering the outcome of the voyage", and she was placed under house arrest with their young son on the orders of Archbishop Fonseca.[56]
The 18 survivors who eventually returned aboard the Victoria in September 1522 were also largely unfavourable to Magellan. Many, including the captain, Juan Sebastián Elcano, had participated in the mutiny at Saint Julian. On the ship's return, Charles summoned Elcano to Valladolid, inviting him to bring two guests. He brought sailors Francisco Albo and Hernándo de Bustamante, pointedly not including Antonio Pigafetta, the expedition's chronicler. Under questioning by Valladolid's mayor, the men claimed that Magellan refused to follow the king's orders (and gave this as the cause for the mutiny at Saint Julian), and that he unfairly favoured his relatives among the crew, and disfavoured the Spanish captains.[57]
One of the few survivors loyal to Magellan was Antonio Pigafetta. Though not invited to testify with Elcano, Pigafetta made his own way to Valladolid and presented Charles with a hand-written copy of his notes from the journey. He would later travel through Europe giving copies to other royals including
Magellan's main virtues were courage and perseverance, in even the most difficult situations; for example he bore hunger and fatigue better than all the rest of us. He was a magnificent practical seaman, who understood navigation better than all his pilots. The best proof of his genius is that he circumnavigated the world, none having preceded him.[59]
Legacy
Magellan has come to be renowned for his navigational skill and tenacity. The first circumnavigation has been called "the greatest sea voyage in the Age of Discovery",[60] and even "the most important maritime voyage ever undertaken".[61] Appreciation of Magellan's accomplishments may have been enhanced over time by the failure of subsequent expeditions which attempted to retrace his route, beginning with the Loaísa expedition in 1525 (which featured Juan Sebastián Elcano as second-in-command).[62] The next expedition to complete a circumnavigation, led by Francis Drake, was not until 58 years after the return of the Victoria, in 1580.[63]
Magellan named the Pacific Ocean (which was sometimes referred to as the Sea of Magellan, in his honor, until the 18th century)
Quincentenary
Even though Magellan did not survive the trip, he has received more recognition for the expedition than Elcano has. Since Magellan was the one who began it, Portugal wanted to recognize a Portuguese explorer, although Spain wanted to recognize the role of Elcano and the funding of the Spanish King in the expedition.[65] In 2019, the 500th anniversary of the voyage, Spain and Magellan's native Portugal submitted a new joint application to UNESCO to honour the circumnavigation route.[66] Commemorations of the circumnavigation include:
- An exhibition titled "The Longest Journey: the first circumnavigation" was opened at the King and Queen of Spain. It was scheduled to be transferred to the San Telmo Museum in San Sebastian in 2020.[67]
- An exhibition entitled Pigafetta: cronista de la primera vuelta al mundo Magallanes Elcano opened at the library of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation in Madrid. It gave prominence to Pigafetta, the chronicler of the expedition.[68]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b The exact birth location is disputed. Possible locations include Porto, Sabrosa, Vila Nova de Gaia and Ponte da Barca.[13][14]
References
- ^ "Magellan". Collins English Dictionary. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
- ^ "Magellan". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
- ^ "Ferdinand Magellan | Biography, Voyage, Map, Accomplishments, Route, Discoveries, Death, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 28 December 2023. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
- ^ Pigafetta, Antonio. Magellan's Voyage: A Narrative Account of the First Circumnavigation, trans. and ed. Skelton, R.A. (2 vols., New Haven, CT, 1969).
- ^ Mitchell, Mairin. Elcano: The First Circumnavigator (London, 1958)
- ^ Kinsella, Pat (27 April 2021). "Dire Straits: the story of Ferdinand Magellan's fatal voyage of discovery". BBC History Magazine. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
- ISBN 978-2915540574
- NewAdvent.org.
- ISBN 978-0-295-99115-3.
- University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Archived from the originalon 23 October 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
- ^ Fugas 2022.
- ^ Bentley, Wiesner-Hanks & Subrahmanyam 2015.
- ^ Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo 2019.
- ^ Simões 2019.
- ^ Bergreen 2003, p. 17.
- ^ Hartig, Otto (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
- ^ Ocampo 2019.
- Beazley, Charles Raymond (1911). "Magellan, Ferdinand". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 302–304.
- ISBN 0-7614-7650-4
- ISBN 0-8021-4416-0
- ISBN 1-4067-6006-4
- ^ Joyner 1992, pp. 42–43.
- ^ Joyner 1992, p. 50.
- ISBN 1-4067-6006-4
- ISBN 0-87169-248-1
- ISBN 978-0-7368-2487-3
- ^ "Beatriz Barbosa, 1495". Geneall.net.
- ^ Noronha 1921.
- ^ Bergreen (2003), pp. 30–33.
- ^ Galván, Javier (7 September 2020). "That small superpower where Magellan was born". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-395-98773-5
- ^ Serrano, Tomás Mazón (2020). "T. Elcano, Journey to History". Archived from the original on 12 June 2021. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
- ^ Bergreen 2003, p. 61.
- ^ Fernández-Armesto, Felipe (2022). Straits: Beyond the Myth of Magellan. Bloomsbury Publishing.
- ^ "Ferdinand Magellan – Allegiance to Spain". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
- ^ Cameron 1974, p. 145.
- ^ Bergreen 2003, p. 215.
- OCLC 932684337.
- ^ Bergreen 2003, pp. 224–231.
- ^ OCLC 347382.
- ^ Cameron 1974, p. 209.
- ^ Bergreen 2003, p. 271.
- ABS-CBN News. ABS-CBN Corporation. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
- Doubleday & Company, Inc.
- ^ "Battle of Mactan Marks Start of Organized Filipino Resistance Vs. Foreign Aggression". Retrieved 9 April 2009.
- ^ Ocampo, Ambeth (13 November 2019). "Lapu-Lapu, Magellan and blind patriotism". Inquirer.net. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
- ^ Mojarro, Jorge (10 November 2019). "[Opinion] The anger toward the 'Elcano & Magellan' film is unjustified". Rappler. Rappler Inc. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
- ^ a b Pigafetta, Antonio (1906). Magellan's Voyage Around the World (1906 ed.). tr. James Alexander Robertson
- ^ Monteclar, Arthur Paul (25 May 2021). "Cebuano Weapons Used During the Battle of Mactan". Sugbo.ph. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-316-54556-3.[page needed]
- ^ Bergreen 2003, p. 406.
- ^ Cameron 1974, p. 210.
- ^ A negative evaluation of Magellan by a contemporary Portuguese historian is that given by Damião de Goes, Crónica do felicissimo rei Dom Emanuel, edited by Texeira de Carvalho e Lopes (4 vols., Coimbra, 1926; originally published 1556), IV, 83–84, who considered Magellan "a disgruntled man who planned the voyage for Castile principally to spite the Portuguese sovereign Manuel".
- .
- ^ Bergreen 2003, p. 299.
- ^ Bergreen 2003, p. 305.
- ^ Bergreen 2003, pp. 399–402.
- ^ Bergreen 2003, pp. 403–405.
- ^ Cameron 1974, p. 215.
- ^ Bergreen 2003, p. 414.
- ^ Bergreen 2003, p. 2.
- ^ Bergreen 2003, p. 412.
- ^ Bergreen 2003, p. 413.
- ^ Camino, Mercedes Maroto. Producing the Pacific: Maps and Narratives of Spanish Exploration (1567–1606), p. 76. 2005.
- ^ "500th Anniversary Of The First Circumnavigation". North Sails. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
- ^ Minder, Raphael (20 September 2019). "Who First Circled the Globe? Not Magellan, Spain Wants You to Know". The New York Times.
- ^ "King and Queen of Spain open commemorative exhibition on first circumnavigation by Magellan and Elcano". 2019. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
- ^ "Pigafetta: cronista de la primera vuelta al mundo Magallanes Elcano". Archived from the original on 22 October 2019. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
Sources
- Bentley, Jerry H.; Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E.; Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, eds. (2015), "Introduction (Debates and differences)", The Cambridge World History: The Construction of a Global World, 1400–1800 CE, Part 1: Foundations, vol. 6, ISBN 9781316297919
- ISBN 978-0-06-093638-9
- Cameron, Ian (1974). Magellan and the first circumnavigation of the world. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. OCLC 842695.
- Joyner, Tim (1992), Magellan, Camden, Me.: International Marine Publishing, ISBN 978-0-07-033128-0
- Noronha, Dom José Manoel de (1921). Imprensa da Universidade (ed.). Algumas Observações sobre a Naturalidade e a Família de Fernão de Magalhães (in Portuguese). Coimbra: Biblioteca Genealogica de Lisboa. Archived from the original on 7 March 2010.
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Online sources
- "Sabrosa inaugura percurso pedestre dedicado a Fernão de Magalhães", Público, 19 December 2022, archived from the original on 21 December 2022, retrieved 30 June 2023
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ignored (help) - Ocampo, Ambeth (5 July 2019), "Magellan's last will and testament", INQUIRER.net, INQUIRER.net, retrieved 5 July 2019
- Simões, Pedro Olavo (20 September 2019), "Fernão de Magalhães: Acasos e desgraças da primeira volta ao mundo", Jornal de Notícias (in European Portuguese), archived from the original on 30 June 2023, retrieved 30 June 2023
- "A viagem de circum-navegação de Fernão de Magalhães", Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo (in European Portuguese), 4 September 2019, archived from the original on 31 March 2023, retrieved 30 June 2023
Further reading
Primary sources
- Pigafetta, Antonio (1906), Magellan's Voyage around the World, Arthur A. Clark (orig. Primer viaje en torno del globo Retrieved on 2009-04-08)
- Magellan (Francis Guillemard, Antonio Pigafetta, Francisco Albo, Gaspar Correa) [2008] Viartis ISBN 978-1-906421-00-7
- Maximilianus Transylvanus, De Moluccis insulis, 1523, 1542
- Nowell, Charles E., ed. (1962), Magellan's Voyage around the World: Three Contemporary Accounts, Evanston: NU Press
- The First Voyage Round the World, by Magellan, full text, English translation by Lord Stanley of Alderley, London: Hakluyt, [1874] – six contemporary accounts of his voyage
Secondary sources
- Beazley, Charles Raymond (1911). Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 302–304. . In
- Guillemard, Francis Henry Hill (1890), The life of Ferdinand Magellan, and the first circumnavigation of the globe, 1480–1521, G. Philip, retrieved 8 April 2009
- Hildebrand, Arthur Sturges (1924), Magellan, New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co, ISBN 978-1-4179-1413-5
- Nunn, George E. (1932), The Columbus and Magellan Concepts of South American Geography
- Parr, Charles M. (1953), So Noble a Captain: The Life and Times of Ferdinand Magellan, New York: Crowell, ISBN 978-0-8371-8521-7
- Parry, J.H. (1979), The Discovery of South America, New York: Taplinger
- Parry, J.H. (1981), The Discovery of the Sea, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-04236-0
- Parry, J.H. (1970), The Spanish Seaborne Empire, New York: Knopf, ISBN 978-0-520-07140-7
- Pérez-Mallaína, Pablo E. (1998), Spain's Men of the Sea: Daily Life on the Indies Fleets in the Sixteenth Century, translated by Carla Rahn Phillips, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 978-0-8018-5746-1
- Roditi, Edouard (1972), Magellan of the Pacific, London: Faber & Faber, ISBN 978-0-571-08945-1
- Schurz, William L. (May 1922), "The Spanish Lake", Hispanic American Historical Review, 5 (2): 181–194, JSTOR 2506024.
- Salonia, Matteo (2022), "Encompassing the Earth: Magellan's Voyage from Its Political Context to Its Expansion of Knowledge", International Journal of Maritime History, 34 (4): 543–560, S2CID 252451072
- Thatcher, Oliver J., ed. (1907), "Magellan's Voyage Round the World", The Library of Original Sources, vol. V, University Research Extension, pp. 41–57,
- ISBN 978-0-375-70850-3, archived from the originalon 9 December 2012
- ISBN 978-1-4067-6006-4