Ferdinand
Magellan
Biographical Facts
My explorers name is Ferdinand Magellan, he was born in 1480 and died in April 27,1521. In his early life he learned about many different explorers like Christopher Columbus and Vasco de Gama. Also during his early life he learned about fundamentals of navigation and also in his early life he was worked for Queen Leonor in the nobility, which is were his parents died when Magellan was 10 years old. In the middle of his adulthood and childhood he became a clerk at the marine department and 10 years late is when his adulthood stated by Magellan being first at sea at the age of 25. Whic h was when he sailed to India with the fleet of Francisco de Almeida. Which was Portugal’s first victory!!!
Major Achievements
A
few small expeditions that Magellan went on are, in 1506 Magellan went on an
expedition, which was sent by Almeida to the east coast of Africa.
During the next year Magellan returned to India and there he did many
trades in the navel bases, which were having wars with the Turkish fleets.
Another one is that in 1509 Magellan sailed with a Portuguese sailor to Malay.
Which now a day is a commercial center now knows as Malaysia and during that
same expedition the Malays attacked the Portuguese who then went ashore. There
Magellan rescued his comrades!!! The last small expedition that Magellan was on
before he led the voyage around the world is, in the year 1511 Magellan took
part on an expedition that conquered Melaka. An after their victory another
Portuguese fleet sailed father east and at one point reached Spice Islands. An
on that voyage one of Magellan’s good friends was on it and since that he
wrote letters to Magellan telling him about the voyage to the Spice Islands.
Which got Magellan thinking about the world.
Magellan
wanted to visit the Spice Islands and travel around the world. But when he went
to ask the king the king the king wouldn’t let him. So from that Magellan
studied astronomy and navigation for about 2 years in Porto, which is in
northern Portugal. There in Porto Magellan met Ruy Faleiro who is an astronomer
and geographer who gave Magellan courage. An after study together they found out
that the Spice Islands lay in territory of Spain. So there fore, Magellan
decided to seek support for his plans from the king of Spain.
In
1517 Magellan went to Spain and there he presented his reason for visiting the
Spice Islands as part as sailing west around the world. After a year Magellan
convinced Charles 1 of Spain to support his voyage around the world. When it was
approved the king of Spain promised Magellan a 5th of the profits
from the voyage along with a salary. Preparations for the expedition took more
than a year. During this time the Spaniards became picking so many Portuguese
sailors and since that this was happening the king forced Magellan to replace
many of the Portuguese with Spanish crewmen. They did this because he was
Portugal but he was running for Spain at the time.
In
September 20, 1519 Magellan set sail form Sanu car de Barrameda in southern
Spain with a total of 241 men and a fleet of five ships. Their names were
Concepcion, San Antonio, Santiago, Trinidad and the Victoria. An soon after a
month passed the captain of the San Antonio challenged Magellan's thoughts and
Magellan had him arrested. After the arrestment the fleet continued to sail
across the Atlantic Ocean to the coast of Brazil. Then after that the fleet
followed the coast of South American cost. There they remained for about 2 weeks
and then sailed south to find a passage way to the Pacific Ocean in the Southern
Hemisphere. But they couldn’t find one. Since in was almost winter Magellan
and his fleet anchored in the winter: in Puerto San Julian. Which is now
Southern Argentina. Then in the winter a storm destroyed the Santiago, another
thing that happened in the winter is that a mutiny broke out but Magellan and
his loyal crewmen put down the mutiny and also killed the leader of it. An along
with the execution Magellan deserted 2 other members of the mutiny. An after the
winter and the mutiny they continued their voyage.
When
they sailed on they found a passage leading to the Pacific Ocean in the Southern
Hemisphere. But during their voyage through the passage the crew of the San
Antonio mutinied and returned to Spain. Then the 3 remaining ships continued
sailing through the passage and soon reached the Pacific Ocean in November 28.
Later Magellan named the Ocean the Pacific Ocean because it was peaceful.
Sailing
across the Pacific Ocean was not easy for Magellan, because it took great effort
by everyone. But in the end it was good because they were the first ones to
cross the Pacific!!!!! The voyage across the Pacific took 98 days and in those
98 days they saw no sight of any land but a couple of uninhabited islands and of
this their food supply became very low and much of their water supply became
contaminated. Which also caused them to eat many things they wouldn’t want to
eat like rats, ox hides and sawdust to avoid starvation and death. But that
didn’t help because about 19 crewmembers died of a disease called survey,
which is a lack of vitamin C. Before they reached Guam on March 6, 1521 and
island nearby wouldn’t let Magellan and his crewmen resupply, but what they
managed to get was enough to continue their voyage to the Philippines and when
Magellan did make it to the Philippines he made close relations with them. Since
the relations were close Magellan tried to spread his religion to the Filipinos,
which was Christianity. But on April 27,1521 Magellan was killed when he
participated in a battle against the Filipinos on the island of Mactan.
After the battle only about 110 crewmembers were alive which was to little to command 3 ships so they abandoned 1 of them,which was the Concepcion, and the 2 other ships sailed southward to the Spice Islands. Which there they loaded up with supply and spices for the journey back to Spain. But instead of following each other the captains decided to separate when they return.
The Victoria was commanded by Juan Sebastian del Cano, who continued west ward along like the Trinidad did at one point. But on the Victoria’s voyage many of the crewmen died from starvation and malnutrition. But in the end the Victoria returned to Sanlucar de Barrameda in southern Spain after the long voyage around the world, in September 6, 1522. Which was about 3 years after the voyage started and when the Victoria returned it returned with only Del Cano and 17 other crewmembers. In the end of the voyage Magellan discovered the Marion Islands and in the end Magellan is known for sailing around the world even though he really didn’t. But he still got the credit.
Country
The only time Magellan had to get a financer is when Magellan had his great voyage around the world, because all the other voyages he was a crewmen and not the captain of the whole voyage. The reason that the King of Spain financed Magellan’s expedition is because that the king believed in his thoughts. The main conquests are when Magellan was fighting a battle against the Filipinos, which is when Magellan died and the other big conquest was the idea to travel around the world. Something that came up a lot with Magellan was trading, because he had to travel around the world. Magellan did most of his trading with the Filipinos because he had no food at the time but he did have some riches that he probably traded for food and spices. Another thing that is very important is that Magellan spread his religion to the Filipinos.
Impact on the New World
Magellan didn’t have impact on any Native Americans but he did have impact on the Filipinos, because he fought a battle against, taught the Filipinos his religion and traded with them. Another impact on the world is that Magellan and his crewmen passed on courage to many other people. Because after traveling around the world it gave more people confidence to travel to different places and taught other people about the unexplored.
Personal Reaction
My personal reaction about Magellan is that I think he did a good job on what to do when things happened like when mutiny broke and tough situations. I also have to say I would never be able to sail a ship, let alone be the captain of a voyage around the world. I think if Magellan didn’t command a fleet of ships around the world that many explores wouldn’t have explored different places.
By: Ted Renaud
Source
List
World
Book Volume 13 letter M