Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan was a famous Portuguese explorer. He was born in 1480 in Portugal. Unfortunately at only ten years old he was orphaned. He was able to grow up in the royal court and later join the royal navy.

For roughly eight years he was busy with participating in battles. He did get injuries and one of them did give him a permanent limp. After some battles were over he did end up saving his friend Serrao during a conspiracy. Serrao was the one who got Ferdinand interested in exploring. Later, his friend decided to go explore the Spice Islands. He was successful and ended up staying there and sending letters to Ferdinand telling him how amazing that place was. That got Magellan interested.

When Magellan was in Portugal he decided to ask the king of the land permission to lead his crew to explore new areas. Unfortunately, he got denied by the king. This made him decided to leave for Spain to find new opportunities for exploring.

Ferdinand asked the king of Spain for permission to lead a crew through his journey. Because of the Treaty of Tordesilas the normal route to India for his exploration was now closed off to Spain so they would have to go all the way around Africa instead of taking the easier route.

King Charles then agreed to fund Ferdinand’s journey. Now that Magellan got that confirmed he got to work with finding the best route to go through with.

He left with his fleet in 1519. About 270 started the journey with Magellan. The goal that Ferdinand wanted was to find the best route to India traveling west.

When they left on their journey Ferdinand discovered a new passageway through the bottom tip of Africa. This is now known today as the Straits of Magellan.  After they got through that path it took them into another ocean, Magellan called in the Mar Pacifico. That ocean is now known today as the Pacific Ocean.

Ferdinand then landed in the Phillipines. He was warmly welcomed there. But, during a battle, where Magellan was defending the Phillipines , he was killed. So, what was left of his men (115 men), they returned to Spain without him.

With just two ships left, they completed their journey to the Spice Islands. They reached their destination on November 6^th 1521.

On their way back home they decided that one ship go directly back to Spain, and the other ship take the route all the way around back where they came from. The ship that went the way they came got captured by the Portuguese. Under their command, they got shipwrecked in a storm.

So, there was only one ship that made it all the way through the journey.  It took them about three years to complete the whole trip. They got to Spain on September 6^th 1522. They started out with 270 men but they got back to Spain with only 18 men left that survived.