Ferdinand Magellan

By Tiffany

Biographical Facts
         Ferdinand Magellan was born in 1480, and at the age of 10, his parents died. Afterward, when he turned 12, he became a page for Queen Leonor. When he was a page, he was in a good school, and had a very good education. Ferdinand learned about the journeys of Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus. Later, he went on a Military Expedition that made him limp for the rest of his life. He first sailed in 1505, serving for Portugal. Magellan went to India with the crew of Franciscode Almeida. After a few years, he decided that he wanted to go on the biggest trip of his life. Going to find the Spice Islands starting from the east, copying Christopher Columbus. When he went to ask the Portuguese king, he refused. Magellan sailed to Spain to serve for them, and the king there accepted. His friend and former captain, Franciscode Almeida, wrote letters to him, telling him about different routes to the Spice Islands. Before he left on his largest voyage, he married Beartiz Barbosa, a child of an important official. Later, Magellan became a Spanish citizen, and even later, had a son named Rodrigo. In 1519, he set off for his major voyage.

Major Achievements

Magellan was set for the journey with 265 men, 5 ships and food for 2 years. His flagship was The Trinidad. He had lots of trouble searching for crewmembers because he was Portuguese. The Spanish men didn't want to have to serve for a Portuguese man. It ended up that some of them were just realised from jail, or not trained. During the trip, there were lots of false alarms and troubles. Juan de Cartangena, a captain from another ship, led a mutiny against him. Magellan succeeded to making Juan a prisoner. Every time he wanted to travel really quickly, the weather was the worst ever, or one of the crew was too sick to travel too quickly. In December, Magellan and his crew arrived at the bay of what is now Rio de Janeiro. Here, he met some of the Natives that were living there. He was actually extremely nice to them. Magellan traded Spanish goods for the goose, fish, potatoes and other foods. On January 10^th, 1520, they found a new bay and thought they were really close to the Spice Islands. Magellan waited for 2 weeks for the good news that he was expecting, but when they came back and told him that it was not any good. The straight was just a river for miles and miles off.  When he did find another bay, he discovered different kinds of spices such as pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. When the crew arrived back to Spain, they got credit for these spices. In the end, when he crossed what is now the Pacific Ocean, he named it that because Pacific means peaceful.

Magellan's Route

Country

         Ferdinand Magellan was born in Portugal, and when he first sailed, he served for Portugal. For years he kept on serving for them, when suddenly, the king changed. He went to go ask to go to the Spice Islands starting in the east like Christopher Columbus, but as I said in the biography, the Portuguese king refused. Magellan sailed to Spain to go ask the king there. The Spanish king instantly said yes. It was very challenging to serve for Spain with him being Portuguese, and a race to get to the New World. The crew was hard to find and so were, ships, docks, and many other things just because he was Portuguese, but he succeeded to getting all these things, and sailed around the world and found the Spice Islands starting from the east, successfully.

Impact on the New World

         When Magellan started to look around and search the area near the Spice Islands, he bumped into lots of different tribes of the Natives living there. He was really friendly to them and got lots of food, (enough for one whole year) because he was short. When he got to Mactan, an island that he wanted to claim because it was causing all different kinds of trouble, he thought that he could fight and get the island for Spain. Little did he know that they were armed as well as the Spaniards, he got killed in the war with them and the Philippine people. He got shot in the foot with a poison arrow and when he died, they threw him in the ocean, dead. Magellan's personal slave, Enrique, said to have a formal funeral, but none of the other crewmembers agreed, so they left him at the island alone.

Battle that Magellan was killed

Personal Reaction

          I think that my explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, was a very successful person, even though he did not make it back to Spain. He was good in a way and bad in a way. The good part of him was that he was very friendly to the Natives, but he was also very selfish/self-centered to others. I think that he had a positive influence on the Spanish, but maybe not for the Portuguese king. After that, Spain had a huge victory party for Magellan and worshiped him very much. I'm glad that I got a chance to study him. 

Ferdinand Magellan

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