On September 6, 1522, the first circumnavigation of the world in the history of mankind, organized by the Spanish authorities on the initiative and under the leadership of the Portuguese nobleman Ferdinand Magellan, ended.

According to experts, this expedition has largely changed people's ideas about the globe. 

Prerequisites for the expedition

Ferdinand Magellan was born around 1480 to a Portuguese noble family.

In his youth, he participated in military expeditions in Asia and Africa.

As Andrey Bogdanov, a leading researcher at the IRI RAS, told RT, in these campaigns Magellan distinguished himself by his courage and received the rank of captain.

However, after a while, he stopped in career growth.

“Captain Magellan, so valuable in battles, turned out to be of no use to anyone when distributing prizes.

He tried to participate in the North African military campaigns of Portugal, but there were no such big cases that the upstart could squeeze between the aristocrats.

He was simply wiped out and almost killed, ”said Bogdanov.

Returning to Portugal, Magellan took up the study of astronomy and navigation.

He developed a project for a new large expedition, but the Portuguese king Manuel I the Happy rejected him.

“The voyage of Magellan was not conceived and prepared as round the world, his goal was to reach the countries of the East, sailing to the west.

This is the same goal that inspired Columbus, ”said Vladimir Vedyushkin, a leading researcher at the IVI RAS, in an interview with RT.

Finally disillusioned with the prospects for career growth in Portugal, Magellan moved to Spanish Seville.

“There he began to prepare a terrible revenge on the Portuguese kingdom,” Andrey Bogdanov noted.

  • Ferdinand Magellan

  • © Wikimedia Commons

In March 1518, Magellan and the Portuguese astronomer Rui Faleiro appeared at the Council of the Indies in Seville and declared that the Moluccas, which, thanks to the spice trade, had become an important source of wealth for Portugal, should belong to Spain according to the agreements on the division of colonies of the late 15th century, and that you can get to them by sailing in a westerly direction.

Magellan convinced the Spanish authorities that there should be a strait between the Atlantic Ocean and the "South Sea" (modern Pacific Ocean), and that by passing through it, one could quickly reach the Moluccas and other lands in Southeast Asia.

The Spanish crown, for obvious reasons, was interested in the ideas of Magellan.

The King of Spain, Charles I, undertook to equip five ships, provided the expedition with supplies for two years, and allocated Magellan a share in all expected income from the trip.

Faleiro refused to participate in the expedition.

First circumnavigation

On September 20, 1519, a flotilla of five ships (Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepcion, Victoria and Santiago) left the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

Magellan, as a captain-general (admiral) commanded the Trinidad.

According to historians, Juan Cartagena, the official representative of the Spanish crown and the captain of the San Antonio, was considered the second person on the expedition.

In addition to the Spaniards, Portuguese sailors, as well as representatives of other European nations, took part in the expedition.

The exact size of the expedition is unknown.

According to various sources, it ranged from 265 to 300 people.

The sailors were well armed.

There were about 70 cannons, 50 arquebuses, 60 crossbows, about 100 sets of armor and other weapons on the ships.

However, it was planned, first of all, not to fight with the inhabitants of open lands, but to trade.

The ships carried a cargo of goods for exchange: metal products, mirrors and jewelry.

Magellan initially sent his flotilla closer to the coast of Africa and only then deployed it in the direction of South America.

According to historians, he built the route in such a way as to avoid encounters with Portuguese ships.

However, the Spanish officers, to whom Magellan did not explain his maneuvers, were annoyed by the actions of the expedition leader.

They demanded that Magellan reveal his plans to them, but he answered them this way: “Your duty is to follow my flag by day and my lantern by night.”

And when the Spanish captains tried to break the chain of command, Magellan announced that he was sending their leader Cartagena under arrest.

At the same time, he allowed a representative of the crown to be on one of the ships commanded by Spanish officers.

At the end of 1519, the flotilla reached the shores of South America.

Magellan sent the Santiago in search of the strait in the La Plata region, but the scouts returned and informed the expedition leader that they had found not the strait, but the mouth of a large river.

The expedition moved south, and then stopped for the winter in San Julián Bay.

  • Monument to Magellan in Punta Arenas, Chile

  • © Wikimedia Commons

At this time, the Spanish officers took advantage of the dissatisfaction of some of the participants in the trip with a reduction in food rations and raised a rebellion.

They liberated Cartagena, and one of the rebels, Gaspar de Quesada, killed the helmsman Juan de Eloriaga, loyal to Magellan.

Only two ships remained under the control of Magellan.

Then he decided to defeat the rebels by cunning: he entered into negotiations initiated by them, and then captured the boat carrying the letters of the rebels and sent his people to the Victoria, the crew of which included many Portuguese.

There, sailors loyal to Magellan killed one of the leaders of the rebels, after which they convinced the ship's crew to surrender.

Then one of the ships left by the rebels was boarded, and the crew of the second capitulated.

Magellan executed the killer of the helmsman, and landed Cartagena and the priest supporting him on the shore.

Nothing is known about the further fate of the exiles.

In May, Magellan sent the Santiago for reconnaissance in a southerly direction, but the ship was wrecked and crashed.

Most of the sailors survived and were able to return to their winter quarters.

In autumn, the whole flotilla moved south.

At the end of October, the expedition members discovered a strait leading towards the Pacific Ocean, which was later named after Magellan.

But while traveling across the strait, the San Antonio crew mutinied and headed back to Spain.

  • Magellan passes through the strait he opened

  • Gettyimages.ru

  • © duncan1890

“From the moment the strait was discovered, a journey into complete obscurity began for the Magellan expedition,” said Vitaly Zakharov, a professor at Moscow State Pedagogical University, in a commentary on RT.

On November 28, 1520, the three ships that remained under the command of Magellan went out into the open ocean.

For some time they moved north along the coast of South America, then turned to the northwest.

As historians note, Magellan and his companions counted on the fact that Asia was close enough to the western shores of America, but their hopes did not come true.

“The expedition was incredibly lucky with the weather.

But the ocean turned out to be unexpectedly endless.

Only the firm hand of Magellan forced the sailors to walk 17 thousand km along it, ”Andrey Bogdanov noted.

  • The route of the first round-the-world expedition

  • © Wikimedia commons/Mitrius

On the way across the ocean, the members of the expedition suffered from hunger and scurvy.

In the ocean, they discovered several small islands, but for various reasons they could not land on them.

Only in March 1521 did they manage to reach the inhabited island of Guam and make contact with its population.

Travelers tried to establish trade with the islanders, but they stole their boat.

In retaliation, the expedition members burned the Aboriginal village, took their supplies and moved on.

Soon Magellan and his companions were the first Europeans to reach the Philippine Islands.

On the island of Cebu, they even persuaded the local rajah to recognize himself as a vassal of the Spanish crown and be baptized.

In addition, Magellan intervened in the struggle between the inhabitants of Cebu and the rebellious island of Mactan.

On April 27, 1521, he led a sortie against the islanders, but because of the reefs he could not take advantage of the ship's guns, and was killed in close combat.

His death undermined the reputation of the Europeans, and the Raja of Cebu during the next dinner ordered the death of some of the members of the expedition.

  • Death of Magellan

  • Gettyimages.ru

  • © Archive Photos

The surviving participants in the journey hastily left the Philippines and soon reached the Moluccas, where they were forced to burn the dilapidated Concepción.

Having loaded the holds of the remaining two ships with spices, the team split up: the Trinidad went east to the shores of Panama, and the Victoria went west to Europe, skirting Africa.

But due to bad weather conditions, the Trinidad was forced to return to the shores of the Moluccas, where it was captured by the Portuguese.

In turn, the crew of the Victoria, having endured terrible hardships, was able to go around the Cape of Good Hope and in July 1522 reached the Portuguese possessions on the Cape Verde Islands.

The Portuguese detained part of the crew, but 18 people were able to escape and on September 6, the Victoria returned to Spain with cargo.

Thus ended the first trip around the world in the history of mankind.

Several dozen sailors were subsequently released from Portuguese captivity and returned to their homeland.

According to historians, despite heavy losses, the trip turned out to be profitable thanks to a cargo of spices delivered to Europe.

  • The ship "Victoria" in Seville after a trip around the world

  • Gettyimages.ru

  • © PHAS/Universal Images Group

“The expedition was considered successful because it achieved its goal - it paved the western route to the countries of the East and gave Spain a reason to claim a fair share of the riches of the East,” Vladimir Vedyushkin emphasized.

According to Andrey Bogdanov, the geographical materials collected by the expedition members have significantly changed the world science's understanding of the globe.

In particular, it became clear that land occupies a smaller part of the planet's surface than water.

The real dimensions of the Pacific Ocean were also determined.

  • The ship "Victoria"

  • © Wikimedia Commons

As Vitaly Zakharov noted, after the completion of the expedition, Spain was able to claim larger territories than before, and for some time became the world's leading colonial power.

But still, the main results of the first round-the-world trip were scientific discoveries.

“The first trip around the globe radically expanded the horizons of our knowledge of what the world around us is,” Zakharov summed up.