Ferdinand Magellan Biography

The first mission to round the globe was led by Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer. Magellan, like many of his contemporaries, was out to find a western sea passage to Indonesia's Spice Islands. Instead, Magellan demonstrated that the world was definitely spherical and larger than anyone had previously thought. Ferdinand Magellan was born in Portugal around 1480 to an aristocratic family. He worked as a page for the queen of Portugal as a child, and he was a voracious student of mapping and navigation.

In this Ferdinand Magellan biography, we will know who was Ferdinand Magellan about his discoveries, accomplishments and achievements.

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Ferdinand Magellan Early Life

In 1480, Ferdinand Magellan was born in Oporto, Portugal. Magellan's parents were members of the Portuguese nobility, and he began his career as a servant to royalty at a young age. He began serving the queen of Portugal as a page, a post reserved for young people in royal courts when he was just twelve years old. 

Magellan joined the Portuguese fleet when he was in his mid-twenties, a job that took him to East Africa, where he fought Egyptian ships in the Battle of Diu; Malacca (Malaysia). Here, he took part in the conquest of their port; and Morocco, where a wound left him with a limp that he would have for the rest of his life. Magellan was suspected of unlawfully trading with the Moors while in Morocco. Magellan lost his job and any future job opportunities from Portugal despite his continuous denials of the claims.

Magellan travelled to Seville, Spain, in 1517, where he met Diogo Barbosa, a well-connected Portuguese transplant, married his daughter, Beatriz, and had a son. The Barbosas arranged for Magellan to meet with the Spanish court in order to discuss his plan for a voyage. Magellan created a strategy to discover a westward-sailing, all-water route to the Spice Islands, inspired by the journeys of Christopher Columbus, Vasco Nez de Balboa, and other explorers (also called the Moluccas). The voyage was quickly accepted and funded by the young King Charles I.

Journey in the Atlantic

Magellan set sail on the Trinidad (commanded by Magellan), the San Antonio, the Victoria, the Conception, and the Santiago on August 10, 1519, with 270 men and five ships. The navy went from Spain to Brazil and then south, hugging the coast. They were looking for a fabled waterway that would allow them to circumnavigate South America without having to go around Cape Horn.

It was difficult to keep going. Magellan spent a long time searching the Rio de la Plata, a Brazilian estuary, in vain. Many crew members were either chilly or famished due to the terrible weather. On Easter midnight, the sailors at Port San Julian, off the coast of Patagonia (which Magellan called), revolted against Magellan. He put down the rebellion by assassinating one captain and left another behind. He also dispatched the Santiago to explore ahead, but it was lost at sea. The majority of the crew members were rescued, and the fleet was stranded in Port San Julian for a winter of severe storms.

Exploring for Spain

At the time, both Spain and Portugal were major powers. They were vying for the right to claim and settle the newly "found" areas of the Americas and the East. The Treaty of Tordesillas partitioned the "discoveries" world between the two powers in 1494, thereby breaking the globe in half from pole to pole. The Portuguese hemisphere (half-globe) of discovery and conquest extended westward from Brazil to an area near the Cape Verde Islands, whereas the Spanish hemisphere (half-globe) of discovery and conquest ran eastward from Brazil to an area near the Cape Verde Islands. The Spaniards had not yet visited the areas of this area that were farthest east of Spain, and they felt that some of the Spice Islands might be found inside their half of the world. They were incorrect, but Magellan's plan was to put that assumption to the test. He determined that the easiest way to get to these islands was to sail westward from Europe, circumnavigating the globe.

Magellan's path had been laid by other explorers' mistakes and discoveries. Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), sailing westward from the European coast and "discovering" North America and the Caribbean islands, had grossly misjudged the distance between Europe and the East Indies (West Indies). The Pacific Ocean had been discovered by Vasco Nez de Balboa's (1475–1517) march over the Panamanian isthmus, which he claimed for Spain. Following that, adventurers raced across the Americas in search of northern and southern all-water passageways to the spice-rich East. Magellan was likewise looking for a way through.

Magellan's Great Voyage

Magellan's plan was granted by King Charles V (1500–1558) of Spain, and on September 20, 1519, Magellan led a fleet of five ships out into the Atlantic. Sadly, the ships—the San Antonio, Trinidad, Concepción, Victoria, and Santiago—were barely sufficient for sailing, and the crew was not completely devoted to their captain. Magellan was accompanied by his brother-in-law, Duarte Barbosa, and Joo Serro, the faithful and capable commander of the Santiago. The armada arrived in Brazil and sailed down the South American coast to the San Julián harbour in Patagonia. From March to August 1520, they resided there. During this time, there was an attempted revolt, but only the top leaders were punished. The Santiago, on the other hand, was wrecked and its crew had to be evacuated onto the other ships.

After departing San Julián, the fleet continued southwest. On October 21, 1520, it arrived at what is now known as the Strait of Magellan. (the waterway that connects South America's southernmost tip to the island of Tierra del Fuego). The fleet moved slowly through the strait, taking nearly a month to complete. Only three of the original five ships entered the Pacific on November 28 after the master of the San Antonio deserted and sailed back to Spain. The fleet then embarked on a long journey northward through the Pacific, arriving at Guam only on March 6, 1521.

Magellan subsequently travelled east to Cebu in the Philippines, where he became entangled in a local war and was slain in battle on April 27, 1521, in an attempt to acquire the favour of a local ruler. Barbosa and Serro were assassinated shortly after. The remaining crew was obliged to destroy the Concepción, and Juan Sebastián del Cano, a brave former mutineer, completed the great voyage. He brought a small load of spices to the Moluccas, traversed the Indian Ocean, and, commanding the Victoria, sailed around the Cape of Good Hope (near Africa's southern tip) from the east. On September 8, 1522, he arrived in Seville. Meanwhile, the Trinidad attempted to return across the Pacific to Panama but was forced to return to the Moluccas. The Portuguese imprisoned the crew, and only four men were eventually released and returned to Spain.

Magellan's Legacy

Magellan's endeavour provided little material benefit to Spain. In the East, the Portuguese were well-established. Their path east, via Africa, had proven to be the only practicable method to reach India and the Spice Islands by water. Despite nearly ruining itself in the process, the Magellan fleet was the first to expose the whole extent of the globe in a practical manner. It turned out to be the most scientifically significant of all the "conquests" accomplished by Europe's overseas explorers in the 15 and sixteenth centuries.

Magellan’s Interesting Escapades

• The Trinidad was the ship that Magellan commanded.

• Victoria covered a total distance of approximately 42,000 kilometres.

• Magellan's knee was injured in battle, and he had to walk with a limp for the rest of his life.

• As Magellan was Portuguese, many of the sailors were Spanish and did not trust him.

• King Manuel I of Portugal dispatched ships to intercept Magellan, but they were unsuccessful.

• To survive on the long voyage across the Pacific, the sailors ate rats and sawdust.

Magellan did not complete the circumnavigation of the globe, but he did lead the first mission to do so and thus, became a great explorer in the process. Despite the fact that the Strait of Magellan was too treacherous to be utilised as a regular route, its mapping contributed significantly to European understanding of the world, as did the European discovery of the Pacific Ocean and empirical proof that the earth was round.